PUPPETS FOR PEACE

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Puppet reflection

Our puppet show turned out to be a great event; even though the typewriter did not work. There were, as Elena mentioned, a lot of things going on. We all were active in some area at every moment at the show. Brian and I interviewed a good amount of CCAD students that were very eager to participate. The engagement of our audience was very different from what it was in the streets, where we found some resistance as far as our NNN project goes. I was extremely surprised when in two occasions people came to me and asked me if the could be interviewed. 

My friend Adrian, among others, came asking for an explanation and then immediately started putting his thoughts on paper with great enthusiasm. When it came to people writing poems, there were a wide variety of subject matters and even languages. Alejandro handed me a piece of paper that had Spanish, Polish, and Italian in it; then proceeded to tell me to read them. I had never read anything in Polish, so I kind of made a full out of myself. This shows that we can all learn from our audience as well, the spect-actor theory does work!!!

I wish i could have payed more attention to the actual speeches, but i was getting carried away doing the interviews. Our achievements that day were very rewarding, and i say that speaking for everyone else as well. I will be waiting to see what comes out of our next event. 

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!i!i!i   PUPPET REVOLUTION    !i!i!i!

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Space Race

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Reflection on Puppet Show-(04/13/2012)

Last Friday was a beautiful day that lots of people were out and had enjoyed their afternoon with a very nice weather at CCAD campus.  Our team therefore got an excellent spot, which was at the Quad, to set up the puppet show stage, puppet creating table and script writing table for our event.  We purposely had the stage facing the lawn to make it a perfect outdoor theater for all audiences to sit comfortably and being very relaxed while enjoy the full-of-fun puppet show.

This interesting event went very smooth and was successfully delivered to the public.  My role in this event had to wear a funny toy glasses and holding a paper bag made puppet created from our first puppet event to attract people's attention and promoted our event to them.  In the beginning, most people were shy and hesitative to participate when I first invited them to making their own puppets and writing a script for it.  They didn't know how the audiences would react to their puppets' action and they had no interest on reading the script themselves to reveal their own voice for some reason.  Yet, after I tried to explain several times to them on how that would actually work, they started to move toward our tables and picking up puppet dolls to create their own.  It was really amazing that as soon as they started to making puppets, I saw beautiful smiles on their faces and heard warm and friendly conversations going on and on through out the whole time.  There was something chemically acting like ice-breaking between people.  I noticed that it was the "smile", the magic chemical!!!!

During the puppet show, all performers were super awesome on acting the puppets with incredible sense of humor and being an outstanding narrator simultaneously.  All the scripts were sending unbelievable quality of stories and messages to the audiences.  It was "F-U-N"!!!!!!!  We were amazed on how everyone was so creative in the puppet show and how the "connection" between all of us just re-bonding up so firmly.  Audiences would react to the puppet if responses were requested;  they would also throw questions back to the stage to invite even more explosive force from what the puppet would respond to them.  Again, it was just amazing, amazing, amazing!!!

According to the exciting result we have achieved, I couldn't wait to exercise with our team and potential participants together again for the next puppet event.

:D  Bravo!!!

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setting up the puppet show on the quad at CCAD

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We chose a windy day 2 weeks ago to test drive the puppet theater, with the goal of creating spect -actors out of the people we found there. We spent a while making motivational signs and finishing off the final touches on the theater before heading to the CCAD quad for the first attempt. 

Next class, we went for walk around campus and downtown in order to think about this project in the spaces in which we intend to carry it out.

These are the notes from that walk.

* making puppets and chatting = fun , but performing in front of strangers = scary

*the puppet making workshop was the most successful thing. We wondered if there was a way to make this more central to the project. We decided that the workshop should generate content for the puppet show, to be performed by us.

*the most interesting thing that happened during the performance which was puppet candidate Rick Santorum making a leap from the screens of NewNewsNow and into our puppet theater to debate with the Peace Puppet. Working off that, we decided to turn the puppet theater into a venue for political speeches and debates. However, the speeches will be written by members of the public about issues large or small that affect them, and performed by our class. This is a twist on Augusto Boal's idea that action even within the confines of a play or in this case puppet show and workshop, is vital, as a rehearsal for real action outside of those confines. By asking people to ask themselves what they care about, we are facilitating a personal connection with with that issue, a rehearsal for action within their own lives, on an issue that they care about.

at least, thats the idea. :)

* We decided on two events, one on campus and one downtown, perhaps near the bus stops where there are often people waiting. These are two different audiences, so in order to get a sense of the kind of issues that affect and concern them, we will conduct short polling interviews through the news arm of our operation, New News Now, creating a feedback loop connecting each project further. We will then hold workshops in each of those areas, followed by a puppet show that will will perform this engagement.  We also talked about the human loudspeaker mechanism used by OWS as a way to communicate in a democratic and non hierarchical fashion.

* We talked about language and the way we use it to maintain distance from one another, accents and cultural idiosyncracies

* We talked about Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London, where anyone can get up on their soapbox in public space and give a speech about absolutely anything

* We decided to go on another walk. 

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Response to the puppet show

So the puppet show was a pretty successful disaster. We did not have enough time to get enough people involved, and we did not have a set of instructions for our participants. The wind was blowing our theater out of the quad, but it was still very enjoyable. We discovered that people like making personalized puppets, and that they that aspect of our show rather than actually participating in the dialogue itself. the idea of having an actual debate was really interesting, and even though i was making a fool out of me and my Santorum puppet I felt like the event was successful. If we do it inside it will be easier to control our environment, and i feel like more people will be willing to participate in a more comfortable space.

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Reflections about puppets

         It was too windy. If we attempt this outside again, I will nail ply-wood to the backdrop. As it gets warmer, more people will be out and about, and we can attract a larger audience. We can also solve this issue by staging the theater indoors. Also, it is difficult to actually make the puppets look like they are talking. They sort of catch the wind. The random words were too cumbersome to pick out of the bags. I was thinking about possibly having a pre-written script, a really silly awkward one, like a script about a passionate love story. Also, I will try to set up a system where they pick a phrase, a subject, and an action to combine into a cohesive, ridiculous statement.

            A while back, Elena brought up the idea of having a puppet show for children. I don’t think we should because it somehow defeats the purpose. Little kids already like silly things like this: the contrast between the puppet theater and the audience is very necessary, even if it makes things go awkwardly and strangely. We must confront a bored, boring audience with absurdity, and like frightened deer in the wild, they will slowly ease their way toward us, possibly in search of food--which is why we should invest in some kind of treat, like cookies or ice cream, for those who take part in a puppet performance. It’s what they call an “incentive.”

            Did our first attempt go ridiculously? Yes. We didn’t have a lot of time. I didn’t even realize we were doing it that day. Solution: I will inform an enthusiastic group of individuals about a rumor about a potential puppet-show happening this Friday. They will attend the puppet show, and their enthusiasm will make it successful.

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Reflection on Puppet-"Connection" (Part III)

Finally, our group project, "Finding Connection", came to the very interesting part, "Puppetry". In the first part under 'verbal discussion in class', I didn't really get the true concept on how 'making your own puppet and do a puppet-play' would connect people in a whatever way. Excitingly, it really worked, and it was truly a success! How? First of all, during the process of making all necessary aids for our puppet theme, I have noticed that all five of us(students) and our professor, Elena, we worked so happily together as a group in a way of individuality was firmly promoted; everyone seemed to enjoy a lot in creating their own 'word tag' for the puppet stage. Meanwhile, we had cooperated into efficiency in the production of most puppet-play accessories for the project. We discussed ideas, we were hands-on busy, we shared commons, etc. I saw it how working on this puppet project actually brought and pulled each of us together as a whole. We constructed an amazing crew connection between individual and the group. Secondly, when we were inviting people from the campus to participate the puppet making and playing activity, even they were shy in the beginning, but most of them were very creative and being productive enough to make cute puppets. It was demonstrating another form of the presence of 'connection'. People from the street, not necessarily knowing each other, yet, happily working on their puppet creation while sitting next to another 'someone'. At that moment, no body was interested in ensuring their privacy would be well preserved, instead, the participants discussed and exchanged ideas with each other on how their puppet were created. The interaction between people was really beautiful! It was the type of true connection once again picking by the society which we want to see!!! Yes, the weather was windy and cold, yet, the atmosphere been created around all of us was welcoming warm. I loved it!! I saw innocent smile on people's peaceful face. No body was trying to compete, no one had being critical, we were all just enjoying and having fun with the whole group so much. Regardless how our first run on the puppet project was not moving as what we had planed due to the unpredictable weather condition, however, this activity fed the purpose of 'finding connection' really well in its' own way. I wouldn't complain, really!!