Lesson 9

Something dramatic that catches and holds our attention and has an emotional impact. If our teaching is dramatic, our students get attracted, interested and affected.

Dramatized experience can range from the formal plays, pageants to less formal tableau pantomime, puppets and role playing.

·      Plays depict life, character or culture or a combination of all three. They offer excellent opportunities to portray vividly important ideas about life.

·      Pageants are usually community dramas they are based on local history, presented by local actors.

·       Pantomime ad tableau, when compared to a play and a pageant, are less demanding in terms of labor, time and preparation.

·       A pantomime is the art of conveying a story through bodily movements only.

·       A tableau is a picture like scene composed of people against a background.

Dale (1996) claims that a puppet, unlike the regular stage play, can present ideas with extreme simplicity-without elaborate scenery or costumed, yet effectively.

Types of puppets :

1.   Shadow puppet – flat back silhouette made from light weight cardboard and shown behind a screen.

2. Rod puppet – flat cut out figures tacked to stick, with one or more movable parts, and operated from below the stage level by wire rods or slender stick.

3. Hand puppets – the puppet’s head is operated by the forefinger of the puppeteer.

4.  Glove and finger puppet – make use of old gloves to which small costumed figure are attached.

5.  Marionettes – flexible, jointed puppets operated by strings or wire attached to a cross  and maneuvered from directly above the stage.