Puppets: the innocent theater [Archives:2006/920/Last Page]
Mohammed Al-Jabri
A puppet is a doll with a hollow head of a person or animal and a cloth body, intended to fit over the hand and be manipulated with the fingers.
The idea of puppets dates back thousands of years – nearly 2,000 years ago – as mentioned in Greek philosophy. Puppets are an artistic medium used to communicate, instruct, delight and convey messages for both entertainment and education.
Puppets are characters, not real people, and most are small and child-sized. A puppet figure has a face with eyes, nose and a mouth. The puppeteer must use his hand to move them and use his voice to make them speak. So, in a puppet show, we see a character that moves and speaks, representing a hero, a villain or a tragic figure.
Puppets and children
Generally speaking, children like dolls and different kinds of toys with which to play. A child talks with the doll, takes care of it, laughs at it, treats it kindly or badly, walks it, puts it in bed and sleeps with it. This experience makes children love puppets the most and is why they are very much interested in puppet television series. For them, puppets can demonstrate simply what is typical of their simple natures. In puppets, they can discover what they feel, think and love. A puppet show can inculcate children with values, principles and teach them good life lessons. There are different kinds of puppets, such as marionettes, hand puppets, backlight puppets, shadow puppets and light curtain puppets.
Puppet Theater in Yemen
In Yemen, most families do not take notice of any type of art, including puppets, because they must look after their livelihood. Likewise, the government does not much care about children's arts and theaters either. Even in schools, the absence of puppet shows and other arts is markedly obvious. Additionally, there are no special theaters designed for puppet shows. In effect, this deprives children of demonstrating their abilities to express their feelings and improve their skills, as well as encouraging them to mix with society.
But recently, some non-governmental organizations have begun to provide for children and help them develop their talents in various arts. Ebhar Foundation for Childhood and Creativeness is very involved with Puppet Theater and other art forms, conducting a number of workshops to train children in Puppet Theater, puppet making and drama basics.
Such a workshop was held last month, funded by UNICEF in coordination with the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood. It was part of the foundation's Puppet Theater project initiated in 2005.
Maha Naji Salah, Chairman of Ebhar Foundation, said the puppet project, in all its various phases, aims to defy violence against children on the street, at school and at home. It encourages children who are subjected to violence to express their feelings through Puppet Theater.
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