When the international community seeks new directions for puppetry arts
Nearly 100 members from 4 continents have just taken part in an online event named “Forum on Applied Puppetry for Community Development” to find feasible solutions of developing puppetry in the community.
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| “Forum on Applied Puppetry for Community Development” attracted nearly 100 members from 4 continents. |
As part of the “Vietnam Puppet Opera” project, facilitated by May 1st Ensemble under Mekongaholics with the support of the Ignite Creativity Grant from Goethe-Institut Ho Chi Minh city, many experience-sharing sessions on Vietnamese puppet opera, renovated opera as well as the forum on applied puppetry for community development were held. These events have contributed to highlighting the role of community in conservation, preservation and further development of Vietnamese cultural identities together with recognizing puppetry as a tool to empower sustainable development in Viet Nam.
The forum which was jointly held by Vietnam Puppet Opera Project facilitators, Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Binh Phuoc Province, Future Technology Media Corporation and CTM Translation and Consulting Co., Ltd. attracted nearly 1,000 online participants on social media platforms.
Nowadays, puppetry arts are not only developed within clubs, teams, groups at local Children Houses/Palaces, Teen and Youth Activity Centers but are also applied and developed in the community in many areas such as teaching, psychological consultation, community communications, entertainment… with potential opportunities for sustainable development.
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| Mr. Phan Tuan Quoc - Head of Mekongaholics (Study Group for Viet Nam-ASEAN Best Practices on Community Culture) talked about the diverse aspects of applied puppetry in community development. |
Mr. Phan Tuan Quoc - Head of Mekongaholics (Study Group for Viet Nam-ASEAN Best Practices on Community Culture) proposed that culture originated in the community and was developed by the community. In fact, puppetry is a form of artistic expression via puppets; applied puppetry is puppetry-based activities beyond its purely artistic sense and community puppetry is the idea of bringing applied puppetry into community development.
Attending the forum, Mr. Tran Quoc Duy - Secretary of the Binh Phuoc Provincial Youth Union encouraged the community puppetry troupes and emphasized that the Binh Phuoc Provincial Youth Union would join hands with these puppetry troupes in conserving folk puppetry in connection with community development and youth and teenager empowerement in Binh Phuoc province.
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| Mr. Mpangi Otte - Director of Goethe-In Ho Chi Minh city stated that puppetry would never become obsolete, especially in Cologne (Germany) - his hometown. |
According to Mr. Mpangi Otte - Director of Goethe-Institut Ho Chi Minh City, puppetry will never become obsolete. In his hometown, Cologne (an old city in northern Germany’s metropolis), there is a very popular puppetry theatre that has existed for over 200 years - the Hänneschen theatre. Until now, this theatre has still been playing an important role in telling the stories of the city by reflecting different characters, perspectives and even conflicts in society.
Target participants in the forum are puppetry practitioners or those who feel interested in applied puppetry in Viet Nam, especially southern Viet Nam or pay much attention to sustainable development goals (SDGs) and wish to learn more about puppetry.
The forum welcomed members from social projects/activities, development funds, NGO, NPO, governmental organizations, social-impact entrepreneurs, CSR projects... and 56 puppetry practitioners who actively discussed and shared practical experience in applying puppetry in supporting the community of young artists of a wide range of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), teaching English, organizing extra-curricular activities.
The forum provided all members a chance to share knowledge on applied puppetry in diverse aspects of life; introducing applied puppetry as a STEAM approach for interdisciplinary collaboration with social sciences and humanities in community development activities; promoting a new development stage of Peace Arts Exchange Network via training newly established community-based puppet troupes that are linked to social projects with sustainability.
Senior puppetry practitioners also had a chance to learn more about what locals are doing with puppets in schools and social projects and interact with new ideas from puppetry-integrated activities in southern Viet Nam.
On this occasion, Ms Tran Thi Ngoc Han - Culture Officer at UNESCO Office in Ha Noi said that there was a need to diversify the applied puppetry projects for community development to enhance community outreach and more attention should be paid to helping these projects appear across many communication channels.
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| Mr. Fedelis Kyalo, Vice President of UNIMA Africa Commission (left top corner) and Fulbright Scholar - Professor Claudia Orenstein, Hunter College, USA (right bottom corner) brought many interesting ideas to the forum. |
From the United States, Fulbright scholar and professor Claudia Orenstein (Hunter College, City University of New York; Board member of UNIMA-USA) shared some ideas with the forum. She assured that she was impressed with the creativity and dedication of the forum’s participants and the wide variety of ideas they are pursuing to use puppetry for educating their students and communities about important issues and develop a love for the art of puppetry not only in their audience but also in themselves.
Ms Claudia Orenstein also added that it would be great if there were clear routes for the children who attended these projects and found out that they really loved puppetry enough to continue their pursuit throughout their school years so as to become creative artists in the future.
Meanwhile, from Kenya, Mr. Fedelis Kyalo (Vice President of UNIMA Africa Commission; Founder and Director of Krystal Puppet Theatre; Member of Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre) expressed the need to promote techniques of creating much more interaction with audiences in all the puppetry-based stories (UNIMA: International Puppetry Union).
Moreover, there were also various valuable ideas from PLEMS Education (IRED Institute of Education), Centre for ASEAN Human Resources Research and Training (VNU-HCM), Australian International English Center (Binh Phuoc province), Future Integrated School (Dong Thap province), Vietnam International Reggio Emilia Society, Dua Xanh water puppet troupe (Ben Tre province), Mat Tran Ensemble, Little Nest Ensemble as well as international puppetry professionals from Thailand, Germany, Kenya and USA.
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| Mr. Tran Quoc Duy - Secretary of the Binh Phuoc Provincial Youth Union suggested that the community puppetry troupes should join hands with Binh Phuoc Provincial Youth Union to conserve and develop puppetry arts in connection with developing youth and teenagers in Binh Phuoc province. |
In this forum, ideas about applied puppetry for sustainable community development together with actively interacted via online discussion groups have been shared by many community puppetry organizations affiliated with Peace Arts Exchange Network, 6 community puppetry organizations and 29 participants of “Vietnam Puppet Opera” - the shadow puppetry course within the “Vietnam Puppet Opera” project organized by Mekongaholics (“Vietnam Puppet Opera” project includes 4 sharing sessions, 1 forum and 1 conclusion session as an online shadow puppetry festival).
The forum helped finalise 6 ideas by the mentioned community puppetry organizations as listed below:
1. The Peaceful Fishing Village (mainly operated in Quy Nhon city, Gia Lai province, Ho Chi Minh city): support the teaching of social skills, empower youth and students with raising awareness and joint actions for saving environment. Their first community puppetry work is based on the folk tale “Eating starfruits, paying gold” - the ending part.
2. The Far Far Away Stars (mainly operated in Ho Chi Minh city): illustrate stories and literary works with community cultural values. Their first community puppetry work is based on Vietnamese renovated opera’s stories and scripts, honouring Vietnamese women, preserving national arts.
3. Home of Cloud (mainly operated in Ho Chi Minh city): spread the stories with positive meaning, empowering children with expression. Their first community puppetry work is based on the story “The journey of cricket - chapter 1”.
4. The Baby Home Theater (mainly operated in Gia Lai province, Ho Chi Minh city): support the teaching of social skills and empower children with emotional management. Their first community puppetry work is based on literary works with community cultural values.
5. Dragon and Snake (mainly operated in Ho Chi Minh city): empower audiences with raising awareness on mental health, in general and animal welfare, in particular. Their first community puppetry work is based on true story about family pets as important mental support.
6. The Book Window (mainly operated in Da Lat city, Ho Chi Minh city, Dong Thap province): support the teaching of language skills; empower children and parents with reading culture and raising awareness on environmental protection; advocate for more equality in education and less gender discrimination. Their first community puppetry work is based on the folktale “The Toad Sue the Heaven - COVID-19 prevention version”.
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| 6 community puppetry groups presented their creative ideas within the roadmap to development community puppetry. |
The quick poll in the forum revealed that the theme initiated by The Book Window was voted by most participants and tended to become the main theme for Peace Arts Exchange Network in the year 2022.
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