Do you speak puppetry

The Puppet Speaks From the Puppeteer�s Inner Knowledge

Through his puppet play, the puppeteer becomes aware of the inner knowledge that he wants to impart to his audience. It is important for the teacher to listen in an unbiased manner to this knowledge. Ari was an eight-year-old boy who I worked with in Israel in a school for behaviorally disabled children. He didn�t have any connections with the other boys in his class and usually tended to be off to the side, by himself. I had taught the members of his class to make simple paper puppets. I had given the students specific character building questions that they were to answer in order to begin to build a character for their puppet. Ari told the class that his puppet was Dina the ladybug. She was ten months old and lived alone by a tree. She ate leaves. She had no friends and would like to have some, but, at the present time, it was good for her to be alone by the tree. Dina was very much a part of Ari�s inner being. It was easier and safer for Ari to talk about Dina than about himself. He invented her to be used in place of speaking about �me�. She was his personal metaphor. She also had an important message to deliver to her audience. She needed them to know that it was all right for her to be alone right now; she needed that.

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