To foster a deeper understanding of Diversity and Inclusion among the academic community through our Musical Puppet Play in English titled “The Learning Factory”
Background
Over the last few years, with the enforcement of the Right to Education (RTE) law, there has been an emphasis on including ALL students in the mainstream education system. This push towards inclusive education, however, is seldom accompanied by teaching the academic community about what inclusion or inclusiveness means.
“The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences.”
Our Effort
Young minds are highly curious and very impressionable. Given the many benefits of diversity, it is imperative that we nurture it by recognizing individuals’ strengths and limitations and, actively supporting individuals to explore their full potential.
Keeping the vision and mission of Trinayani in mind, we thus wanted our educators to truly question the way they approached teaching and so decided to use the playful yet powerful medium of Puppetry to reach out to the academic community urging them to question their policies on Inclusive Education and Respect for Diversity.
Our English musical puppet show ‘The Learning Factory‘ is based on the popular fable ‘The Animal School‘ by George Reavis. Catch a glimpse of our ENGLISH PUPPET PLAY over here. We premiered the show at Godrej Dance Theatre NCPA in 2019 and since then have been performing for schools and the public in Mumbai.
The show puts a strong front about the fact that not everyone has the same amount or kind of ability. Some people can be different from others and that, in any way, does not imply that they cannot be acknowledged.
Live musical narration and synchronised puppetry helped rekindle the imagination of the younger generation and allowed us to continue the legacy of our age-old techniques, protecting them from extinction.
Why Puppets?
Puppets are a unique creative tool to educate as well as entertain. Lessons learned in this way are more likely to be remembered and become part of our solid stock of knowledge. In the multiple experience learning platform and the different learning styles children have, puppetry would lend to an experience in kinesthetic learning. Also, in today’s world where all kinds of data is available at the click of a button, puppets are much more relevant. Today’s generation, which spends 50% of their waking time in front of mobile and computer screens needs to work more with their hands and use their imagination to build new concepts to grow.
Structure of the Play and what we offer
- There are 13 Marionettes (puppets on strings) beautifully handcrafted by professional puppeteers.
- The story has been adapted and written by Deepak Morris and is pre-recorded and dubbed by professional voice artists.
- There are 7 original songs in the play, sung in the tune of popular songs which also facilitates audience participation. 3 of them are pre-recorded and 4 are sung live by Singer-Activist Ritika Sahni
- The Puppet Theatre Stage is a separate Stage constructed and carried and assembled by us at the performance venue. This includes a specific framework of pipes 12 feet by 3 feet with wooden planks, with our own curtains (pictures have been attached)
- Puppets are operated against 2 bright hand-painted 12 by 3 feet backdrops.
- The puppets are manoeuvred by 5, especially meticulously trained marionettists of varying ages.
In a nutshell:
a) We are a travelling puppet theatre.
b) We come to you with our own stagecraft and live singing
c) 17 vocal artists, 4 singers, 16 technicians and 5 puppeteers’ have created this show
d) We offer our musical puppet play to educational institutions, parent organizations, teacher trainee centres, management, for a fee.
We are confident that the universal appeal of puppetry as an art form will appeal to all young at heart and can be used for a deeper understanding of differences existing in all of us. We hope to empower stakeholders with and without disabilities to together build an inclusive society.
Our musical puppet play in English ‘THE LEARNING FACTORY” has been staged at the below locations among others:
- Amarjyoti Charitable Trust, New Delhi
- Bangalore International Airport Limited
- Samvaad Institute of Speech and Hearing
- Special Education Department of SNDT University
- Yes Foundation
- Addi, Delhi
- Hashu Advani College of Special Education
- Various Rotary Clubs of Mumbai
- Satya Special School, Pondicherry
- Adapt, Mumbai
- Delhi Public School, Pune
- Delhi Public School, Coimbatore
- Delhi Public School, Patna
- Delhi Public School, Ludhiana
- Air India Sats
- K L Institute for the Deaf, Bhavnagar
- IndiGo Airlines
Show at the National Conference on Inclusive Education, SNDT on 29th Feb 2020
