Summative

Assessment Task 3: Commentary

Throughout the unit, we have had multiple opportunities to approach puppetry in many different
ways. The first being multiple small investigation tasks on the different forms of puppetry to a more in-depth
research project on a specific type of puppetry, allowing the possibility for us to incorporate different
elements of different types of puppetry styles that are used in different contexts when creating our own piece.
For our performance, we were given a lot of freedom and tasked to develop an educational puppet theatre
that can contextually focus on any aspect of the world with any purpose of our own choosing. We were not
only incorporating skills and elements that we have acquired over small practical tasks and research tasks
during the unit, but also incorporate our knowledge of the theatrical world in general, developing creative
ideas for a piece starting from scratch. During this unit, I have also developed a new understanding of the use
of puppets in different contexts. From our early research tasks and practical work in class, such as working on
a short Ramayana shadow puppetry performance based off of a traditional Ramayana story, to developing an
educational and creative puppetry piece, I realized how puppetry has no limitations. No matter the purpose of
the performance, whether if it’s to educate, to story tell, to promote or even as simple as just being
entertaining and being comedic, and no matter the cultural background and understanding of the audience to
certain topics, puppetry is an international language. Some puppetry forms are only targeted towards a
specific religion or culture, but there are many forms of puppetry that can simply serve as entertainment for
all kinds of people although there are often hidden cultural references or messages. Whether it’s just a
comedic crazy act, educational act, satirical act or an act regarding politics or even uncharted territory, they
can all be conveyed through storytelling where the use of different techniques such as slapstick comedy and
music, can make performances suitable to any audience. Regarding educational puppetry, it has been
extremely interesting having the experience to work on this form of puppetry and learning how far we could
go with it. Apart from being an extremely practical tool to use in the classroom, I have learned that puppetry
can achieve things that other art forms cannot. For instance, puppetry allows children to escape into an
imaginary world. Instead of having awkward and serious talks with adults like parents, the children can use
puppets to work out their emotional problems, kind of acting as a mask for children to hide behind. For the
children, watching a puppet show allows them to reflect on what they see and hear and engage parts of the
brain to process experience and reason, and thinking things through. Furthermore, puppets are extremely
versatile in the means of artistic expression, communication, and instruction. Of course, it could be used as
entertainment, and then education. It can teach and persuade, although entertainment definitely comes first,
drawing the audience in and getting themselves lost in the world the puppets create, and accept whatever
message without even realizing that we are learning. Because the puppets are characters, not people, they
are the ideal medium for discussing sensitive issues. The children, or any audiences in general, are drawn into
the drama but are not threatened by it. Not long ago, I never thought puppetry could be so effective to this
extent. I perceived puppetry as simply something to tell cultural stories or legends specific to specific religions,
or simply for children’s entertainment on mainstream television.

The research conducted throughout the first half of the unit on different forms of puppetry benefitted us in
several ways, more specifically the comparisons of the similarities and differences between the many forms of
puppetry we have touched base with. We did not draw much inspiration or connections with ancient forms of
puppet theatre as they are getting less popular now and they seem to only attract people accustomed to their
cultures and beliefs. As we are targeting primary students at VSA, it was clear that modern forms of puppetry
like sock puppetry is more common and can easily get to students as a result of famous TV shows like “Sesame
Street” or “The Muppet Show” that are all well-known amongst adults and children alike. One of the elements
that seem to make the shows stand out is the physicality of the puppets. As they are all shaped uniquely in a
funny way due to their different looks compared to us humans, it is definitely a simpler method of making the
performance funny, which again, is a common element in many modern forms of puppet theatre. Apart from
this, we tried to incorporate elements from traditional puppet theatre depending on whether if it was
effective in achieving our artistic intention. Take Punch and Judy for example. It is a very popular form of
puppetry in the UK and with the use of slapstick comedy, it is definitely an effective way of grabbing the
audience’s attention with boisterous actions and can easily be incorporated in our sock puppet performance.
Punch and Judy also incorporates the technique of breaking the fourth wall, something that many forms of
puppetry have which we also incorporated in our performance as we wrote the script with moments where
the puppets are speaking to the audience directly and are aware of their presence when their bodies and faces
are facing the audience and are also communicating or interacting with the audience. The process in which we
decided upon some of these elements to incorporate in our performance was long as we had to first and
foremost, develop an idea of what we would like our performance to be on, in what aspect would it be
educational, who the target audience is, and then begin designing and making the puppets and write the script
and format the elements of the performance other than dialogue, while also constantly edit the script to
ensure that it is suitable for the audience and applying our research and knowledge about puppetry. The
knowledge I gained from Assessment Task One helped with the designing and making of the puppets, props,
and the staging even though Bunraku Theatre is very different compared to sock puppetry. For example,
Bunraku plays use a lot of hand props to enhance the reality of scenes. We included several disposable items
like paper animals to further enhance the realism of the performance, while also considering the fact that just
having puppets on the stage is quite boring and having other things on stage may keep the viewers’ attention
alive. Also, a lot of detail is given in designing the faces of the puppets. As we want our puppets to look both
funny and attractive, they each have their own unique characteristic such as big eyes, a mouth that sticks out
or a plain white ghostly figure, all of which to serve the purpose of making each puppet a unique look or kind
of a disfigured, “break the fourth wall look” rather than looking like something that resembles a normal human
being.

Before looking into a critical evaluation of our final performance, there are several skills I have picked up
throughout this unit. From devising and creating an educational puppet performance piece and making the
puppets ourselves to learning to how to control the puppets and synchronizing them with impressive vocal
performance. Unlike drama performance pieces or things like musical theatre, you cannot utilize facial
expressions and your entire body to convey emotions and context to the audience in puppetry; you must
resort to speaking using your voice with many expressions that can be distorted in many ways, and controlling
the way the puppets move; calmly, violently with boisterous actions or whether if the puppets onstage are
simply talking to each other or actually interacting with the audience. Personally, at the beginning of the unit, I
actually thought that this unit would be quite dull and perhaps quite childish, due to the perceived limitations I
have on puppetry, but through watching video documentaries and existing puppet performances to draw
inspiration for my final performance piece, as well as realizing how powerful puppetry can be through
experiencing the creation and performance process of the puppets themselves and the performance as a
whole, I realized how puppetry is just like many other art forms: they have no limitations at all while the
simple skill you need is creativity. Unfortunately, there are definitely many difficulties. On the practical aspect
of performing, it is very difficult to navigate the puppets without proper practice together with fellow
characters along with the script as the puppets themselves are not visible from the front while performing.
Unlike in most theatrical performances where I am able to be aware of my surroundings fully and be in control
of my entire body, the puppets are only controlled by the hands and maybe the fingers. Without proper
practice with all elements of the performance, it is difficult to synchronize everything but through more
practice and receiving feedback from audiences or looking back at video footage of rehearsals, we can look at
moments where the puppet movement may be inappropriate for that context, or just little details like the
puppet’s body facing the wrong direction or just keeping them upright, and modify the staging and
movements accordingly. The most difficult aspect of puppetry performance though is the transition between
scenes, which appears to be one of the problems most groups faced during their rehearsals. Making quick and
smooth transitions does not only involve individual reaction time, heightened awareness, and organization
during a performance, but also good communication and collaboration with fellow performers. When the
stage is empty and nothing happens for a long period of time, the audiences’ focus will shift indefinitely and
the tone or mood of the performance will be completely changed. Apart from all this, one of the individual
skills I have developed throughout the unit is choosing an appropriate voice and tone of speaking to suit the
context of the script, the character, or a specific line. Vocals have a lot of capabilities, and there are a lot of
factors that go into making impressive and appropriate vocal acting, especially because it may be the most
important tool in communicating emotion and thoughts in a sock puppet performance as the face of the
puppets cannot be distorted too much.

Regarding our artistic intention of promoting the message to not waste food to a set target audience of junior
primary school students through discussing this severe real-life issue that is common amongst adults and
children alike and ultimately to inform the audience not to waste food by portraying a story of which appeals
to their emotions in a creative manner, mainly aiming to exploit or appeal to the emotions of sorrow, sadness
and fear of the students into the performance through several creative techniques, we know that we have
successfully done this. Looking at the technical aspect of the performance, we have not only voiced all the
puppets clear and loudly involving the use of plenty of appropriate vocal expressions, but also used this skill
we have to our advantage and ultimately make our performance more entertaining and funny despite the very
vague message we may have. As all the puppets had funny and unique looking faces paired with unique vocals,
as well as some quirky moments like when several animal sounds were voiced (“MOO MOO”, “BOK BOK”,
“MEHH MEHH” depicting cows, chickens, and sheep respectively), we were able to keep the audience
entertained throughout. Other interesting techniques like breaking the fourth wall or doing something
completely new during our performance was also effective in keeping the audience focused, such as when we
dropped a prop in front of the stage on the ground purposefully. Audience members mentioned this in their
feedback and felt that it was quite powerful. As this occurred earlier than late in the performance, it was a
good way to set the context of our performance, which is about wasting food. Moving on, our main intention
of promoting the Do Not Waste Food message was achieved through the use of fear as when the audience
members were questioned after the performance, all of them will stop wasting food, while most of them felt
quite scared of the ghost while amongst some of the students there were several who “will stop wasting food
because I am scared that the ghost will come and haunt me”. This shows the effect of the speech and the
incorporation of the famous lines spoken by Liam Neeson in his iconic movie series “Taken” at the very end
was extremely effective. Apart from these things that we have done well, there are some aspects of the
performance that could use some improvements, such as the incorporation of other theatrical elements so
there is a better theatrical feel to the performance. Lighting, sound effects and or music can help with
enhancing the overall quality of the performance by perhaps making the ghost more realistic and creating a
more appropriate atmosphere to suit our story, although we must be mindful not to overuse these technical
elements if they are not too relevant. Another aspect of improvement could be to add a few more scenes,
such as a few more puppets who are wasting food and add on to the short and simple storyline we currently
have. Overall, we achieved our intention as best we could. The audience clearly understood our message,
while the technical aspect of the performance did not involve many errors. The few transitions were slick and
quick and we got the timings right during the performance, such as when one puppet cuts off the other or
when two puppets interact with each other. From feedback, all students and teachers present said they will
stop wasting food or be more mindful of their actions, meaning we have successfully achieved our artistic
intention. Also, the fact that multiple students mentioned their fear of the ghost leading them to become
more aware of their actions tells us that the use of fear in our performance was effective.

In reference to the statement of inquiry “Puppets have been used to entertain and educate throughout
time”, I believe this statement is entirely true. We have studied a vast range of puppetry this unit, involving
ancient forms of puppetry specific to certain cultures of religions, rather modern forms of puppetry and how
they are incorporated into mainstream media – things like Sesame Street and The Muppet, as well as a
combination between modern and ancient media to form a different type of puppetry, such as Star Wars
Wayang Kulit. All the research and investigations have taught me how puppetry can take many forms and can
appeal to any audience. Through time, many types of puppetry have formed and become part of many
different cultures, and relating to one of the inquiry questions “What are some traditional functions of
puppets in performance in different times and places”, puppetry can be used to tell all sorts of traditional
stories or legends, and is an art form can that be applied to any culture as every culture adapts puppetry in
their own unique way. Yes, puppetry can take many forms, yet they all share the process of animating
inanimate performing objects to ultimately tell a story. Puppetry actually occurs in almost all human societies
where puppets are used for the purpose of entertaining through performance, as sacred objects in rituals, as
symbolic effigies in celebrations or carnivals, but serve a huge role in acting as a catalyst for social and
psychological change in transformative arts, meaning the use of artistic activities to precipitate constructive
individual as well as social change. This relates back to the other two statements of inquiry where puppetry
not only have been around for as long ago as 3000BC and been part of many cultures but is also the most
effective tool in addressing issues in educating. Through our educational puppetry performance, we have
realized that young children really are fascinated by puppets and quickly accepts the “apparent magic” that is
responsible for giving the puppets life. Puppets kind of share fairy tales as they belong in a realm of fantasy,
encouraging children to think both imaginatively and creatively, fostering children’s abilities to solve problems
and dig deep into their own problems or issues that may have been addressed through the puppet
performance. This has been a fascinating unit, with puppetry being one of the most fascinating topics we have
studied throughout secondary school drama as we have been exposed to its capabilities and just the joy of
working with puppets and creating. This is my last drama unit ever and I really cherish all that I have learned
during this unit, our devised theatre in term one as well as our masks and Brecht and Stanislavski unit and
treasure all the memories from working with fellow students in developing creative ideas and performing and
sharing them to the class, and this year, to primary students.