Puppets on Parade!

Fifth Grade classes at Lindbergh Elementary in Little Falls spent several weeks creating giant street puppets for a community parade commemorating Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight. (Little Falls is the birthplace and childhood home of the aviation pioneer) As time went on, everyone discovered that sinuous dragon steps and revolving Eiffel Towers may need a very special way of moving -- plus a few struts!

Our interactive coach Chris Griffith provided coaching on location and in interactive sessions using The TPL Model. (He is particularly adept at using sculpting on the screen, one of the TPL mainstays in effective exchange.)

Lopsided water towers, fly-away heads, entrepreneurial 3rd-graders & dragons
that wriggle and snort!

As the puppets neared completion, several construction questions arose. TPL/PCAE interactive sessions provided immediate technical guidance at a crucial stage of construction.

Chris Griffith, our unflappable interactive coach, is a member of the Galumph Theater, who specializes in non-traditional ways of engaging audiences. He worked with the students and teachers to develop new ways of moving under yards of cloth and papier-mâché. He helped the kids keep their eye on the Parade and how to keep the audience entertained during those inevitable street-corner lulls along the Parade route.

The Perpich Center for Arts Education in collaboration with THE PERFORMANCE LAB produced the interactive puppetry exchanges as part of the ACE program for teachers. In the session you can see below, the interactive nature of the exchange reinforced Best Practices development for teachers in a real-life classroom setting.

Lindy's Puppets [3.7 MB]