Puppet Theatre: Toy Theatre and Shadow Puppetry

In this class, students will conduct research on two disparate forms of puppet theatre: one Western; one Eastern. Toy Theatre, originally a juvenile entertainment from Europe, was adapted for adult performance in the late 20th century by such artistic titans as designer Edward Gordon Graig, sculptor Alexander Calder, and playwright Erik Ehn. The Shadow theatre traditions of Asia range from the secular (China) to the spiritual (Indonesia) and infuse modern theatre with a new, almost limitless, vocabulary. After in-depth research into the history of these forms, students will embark on hands-on learning, building fabrication and manipulation skills as they create their own short pieces in these two syles. This class meets once a week for two hours.