Recently,
I’ve been working with sensitive children and young people. In fact, all of us
are sensitive in some ways, but when children are sick, or going through
trauma, their sensitivity is much more visible.
Puppetry is
a lovely medium to use where laughter, silliness and care are wanted. The
energy being focused on the puppet takes away the emphasis that this is about
the participant’s needs and issues. Instead, it is the puppet that has
our attention. It is similar to giving yourself permission to do something
enjoyable such as eat cake or watch a good film. A puppet can give the same
light relief with the added bonus that it is something we can enjoy together.
If there is an issue to be discussed, we can make the puppet into a coat hanger,
of sorts, by putting the issue onto the character and trying to help him/her.
We use our brains differently when we focus outside ourselves, and this opens
up options and solutions that are harder to come by when the process just remains
in our heads!
The emotions
that can be provoked through puppetry are perfect for sensitive people. It is
possible to play around with feeling safe or threatened by creating an
environment where both can be expressed openly. Finding solutions for difficult
scenarios in real life can be acted out through make believe with truly
effective results.
Take this example
for younger children. A dragon flies into a story session and roars at the
group while threatening to hurt them all, but he quickly is spluttering and
coughing because he has run out of fire. He asks the group where he can go and
get fire in order to breathe it all over them. It is up to the children to
decide if they will tell him, help or trick him. For the puppeteer, it is a
fine line between scaring the children and appearing too harmless. The aim is
to take their power away initially, through being a bit scary, and then to judge
when the fear becomes too much for any member of the group. At this point, the
dragon’s body posture changes and his voice becomes whiny and softer as he
asks them for help. The group gain their power back as they decide what to do.
The puppeteer can use the dragon’s body and voice to diminish the fear and to
provoke either empathy or humour (depending on the aim of the story). If the
puppeteer can interject with the initial scary voice and body language to again
threaten coming back and breathing fire, this can help keep the energy fresh
and exciting. The fear is still there, but the group are keeping on top of it
through decision making. Depending on the group’s decisions, the puppeteer can
help implement the action of running away or tricking the dragon or maybe the
group will decide to try and help him be kind and stop his behaviour. The
puppeteer can lead the story forward, but the participants can be empowered to
make the decision. When the dragon is dispensed with, the group can reflect on
their decisions. How can this be used in everyday life when something is scary?
Was working as a group helpful? If you have fearful feelings in real life, who
can you tell? Are there dragons in real life? Why was the dragon being unkind? What
else do we find scary? And so on.
Puppetry can
be gentle, humorous, encouraging or unnerving, but all these emotions and more can
be expressed in a safe environment. It allows us all to reflect on how we will
deal with various scenarios in everyday life and helps us find solutions to
problems. For the sensitive souls among us, that can only be a good thing.
