In May this year, Pupperoos visited the Year 8 high school students at MET school in Oatlands, Sydney for a day of puppet making and performance. The experience was part of the students’ technology studies, where they were required to design and construct puppets and devise a show based on a fairy tale. The day started with puppeteer Kay Yasugi performing her glove show “Bina the Butterfly” and demonstrating a variety of different puppets – rod, glove, marionette (string) and shadow. The students then took turns operating the puppet and performing for their peers. During the making session, students created a wide range of puppets and characters using foam, socks, fabric, styrofoam, wool, glue, beads and buttons. The characters that emerged included Red Riding Hood, Little Miss Muffet (and Spider) and Humpty Dumpty. Other puppets took the form of dogs, queens, butterflies, skateboarders, ballerina twins, snowmen and an elephant. At the end of the day, the students had come up with a very colourful cast of characters which are now destined for the puppet stage!
