Kids display some puppets made by them at a workshop in Madhusudan Mancha. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

Most children love playing with dolls. They talk to them and often take them for real. Thus, puppet shows too attract more children than adults,” said puppeteer Sudip Gupta of Dolls Theatre while conducting a workshop. Organised by Sishu Kishore Academy, a seven-day puppet workshop (from August 14 to 21) was held at Madhusudan Mancha from 10am to 5pm. Around 23 children between 5 and 14 years participated in it. A special performance was held on the final day at the Children’s Little Theatre (CLT) auditorium.

Beginning with group activities and games, the workshop educated children on basic puppet-making techniques.

“We were divided into groups and asked to develop two plays for a puppet show,” explained Sayantan Dey, a Class VII student of Vivekananda Mission, Joka. Roles were then distributed and rehearsals began.

The kids were also initiated into puppet making. They made all kinds — stick, hand and shadow puppets. Elephants, butterflies, rabbits, tortoises, birds, deer etc were deftly fashioned out of foam, thermocol and paper. The children also had great fun painting their creations. With the help of instructors they even rigged the stage with a screen for shadow play. The plays presented at the CLT show were Bondhutyer Jai, Aakash o Khargosh and Buddhir Jai. There was also a shadow puppet show.

Little Upasana Mondol of Class I ignored her fever and played the role of a butterfly with elan in Bondhutyer Jai. The play also saw Sweta Das and Piyali Das of United Missionaries Girls’ High School, Ratul Sarkar of Desapriya Shikshayatan, Aratrika Roy of South Point, Konika Singh and Banasree Pal singing beautifully a chorus “Ka ka ka ka kakatua…”

The shadow puppet show presented by Beauty Bhakta, Athri Kundu, Joita Koley, Bumba Mukherjee, Souvanik Chakraborty, Eisita Adak and Souvik Ghosh beautifully traced plant and animal life.

“The children also decided on the music score,” said Gupta. Little wonder that none of the kids regretted having missed school.

The Sishu Kishore Akademi hopes to run another puppet workshop soon. “Workshops like these touch different levels of creativity and help in a child’s all-round development. It was fascinating to see how much they are capable of,” said Tapan Bandhyopadhyay, the secretary of Sishu Kishore Academy.