Playing with Puppets

April 24th, 2010

(So this post is a little late, but better late than never. )

We got together at Diane Ranger's studio La Cellule Creative to spend the day making puppets. We had a great time creating our puppets together and digging into the wonderful supplies offered by Diane. I love seeing all the odds and ends that get collected by an art therapist...anything goes and there is so much potential for an inspiring work of art.

Our puppets emerged from the materials, our current stories at the time and the creative energy of the group. We discussed the use of puppets in therapy, technical considerations, and creating stories. Diane created a quick puppet theatre out of a shower curtain rod held between posts with velvant curtains. (Great idea for easy set up and dismantling). At the end of the day we enacted our puppets, introducing them in a circle and then creating a collective story...the adventures of a spider, a turtle, a grandmother, a little girl and a ranting tyrant! We lauged until we cried and we watched our story played back to us on video. Great tool for feedback and discussion with clients, letting a client observe themselves as well as choose how to alter their own stories.

Thanks to Diane for offering the workshop space and creating a playful environment. We enjoyed it immensely.

Our next meeting: We discussed something out doors to bring our art into nature and benefit from the good weather. Any ideas?

Until our next meeting,

Lucy

PS photos to follow

Our First Meeting

We had our first meeting of local Ottawa mental health practitioners using the arts in their practice. Marianna Shturman graciously provided the space for our meeting in her private practice location at the Catherine Street House. We had a chance to meet each other, share a bit about our experience and practice, draw out what we needed as support from this group, as well as discussing what we would like to accomplish in gathering together.

What people discussed at the meeting was:

Having regular monthly meetings for self-care and support, networking and sharing
Having a group to gain energy and give energy
Sharing our practice and running workshops (puppet making, medicine wheel teachings,playback music, drama, art)
Peer Supervision
Planning a public presentation/workshop for March for Creative Arts Therapies week to establish greater public awareness (Ottawa,Pembrooke)
Training opportunities (such as EMDR)
Local directory/brochure
Networking together to become more established in the mainstream healthcare system
Research on the creative arts therapies

For our next meeting, a proposal to have a puppet making workshop was suggested by Christine Novy and Diane Ranger offered her space "La Cellule Creative" http://www.lacellulecreative.com/, so more information will follow regarding that workshop.

Thanks for a great meeting! Until we meet again and share our creative energy!