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An in-depth look at a puppet play in five days

“I’ll be a magnificent puppeteer”, a course aimed at children from 8 upwards, at Topic from the 26th to the 30th of December

Children are familiar to puppet theatre but they rarely get the chance to know the secrets of the process of ‘building a play’. Children will have the chance to participate in the course: “I’ll be a magnificent puppeteer”, as part of Topic’s Christmas Program from the 26th to the 30th of December. It’s the first time an activity like this has been offered at TOPIC.

The course goes through every step of the process of making a puppet theatre play. Children will learn and practice making their own puppets, bringing them to life, making a script out of a story and taking the story to the stage, among other activities. On the last day they will perform the play they have written and they will learn the difference between pre-production work and the final on stage performance.
Two teachers will be guiding four groups of a maximum of four children in each. The students will be separated into groups by age; the students will attend some of the subjects together and others separately.

Karmele Cruz, who is responsible for the Education Department at Topic, explains the objective of offering a new activity like this: “We want children to go through all the different steps required in the process of making a puppet theatre play. This way, they experience the whole process. Another objective is for children to get to know all the different possibilities involved, so that they realize the importance of the production work behind the show, which is hardly ever noticed. Secrets like: a puppet with no energy is not a puppet; or that if a scene is in the wrong place it can make the story unintelligible; or that a badly written or poorly adapted script won’t work, no matter how cute the puppet is”.

This activity, which will be held in Basque, runs from the 26th to the 30th of December, from 10.00 to 13.00h. It is aimed at children eight years old or more and admittance is limited to only 18 people. The price of the course is 25 €. Registration is open at the Topic offices in Plaza Euskal Herria or by phone on 943650414.