Our Shadow Puppet Creative Packs

We had hoped to meet in person for the spring term but moved back online and to remote activities in line with government restrictions and to help keep our members safe. As always we wanted to help keep our members connected and creative during this time, so decided to send out our third activity pack.

Our wonderful volunteer, Hayley (who initiated the original creative packs in lockdown one), suggested we explore Shadow Puppets this term. We thought this was a great idea and really different to our previous projects (devising theatre, Commedia dell’arte, pantomime and improvisation), and it’s been something members have enjoyed exploring.

“I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to send out a third creative pack.  Taking inspiration from shadow theatre, I thought it would be really cool if we had a go at making our own shadow puppets. As we are back in lockdown, it’s unlikely we will return to our group sessions for a while, although we are meeting every week on zoom! We will be doing our end of term sharing online again. As such, I thought we could create a short video using shadow puppets. In these packs are materials and instructions to create a scene and some characters. We are hoping that once people have had a go at our instructions, they will be inspired to be more creative. There’s a lot of talent in Underground Lights so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s unique interpretations. Watch this space!”

Hayley’s reflection on the process

Linking the creative packs to the theme for the term has continued to enable our members to lead the process on what they want to create as they have the resources they need. Members who are currently unable to access Zoom, inn addition to these creative packs, have also been posted a disposable camera and challenged to take creative photos which we hope to use as part of an exhibition in the future.

During our drama workshops members have shared ideas and discussed themes they think would work well, and at the suggestion of our Project and Activities Assistant Jessie, we have taken inspiration from Aesop’s Fables. Members chose stories and fine-tuned the message they want to convey for modern audience. They decided to keep the animal characters and we are currently in the creating stage of the puppets. Together over zoom we are making trees and other shadow puppets which we will then use to tell these stories. The shadow puppet stories will then be recoded over zoom and on member’s phone and edited together, along with the audio and music to make a short video by each group.

It’s been really exciting to see the collaborative way in which members have led this process; from coming up with the initial idea, to what was needed in the activity packs, to which shadow puppets each group has decide they’ll make. We’ve still got much to and I’m excited to see how we navigate the filming process of these shadow puppet videos, but as always I know our members will amaze me with their creativity, enthusiasm and supportiveness.