An authentic experience with this highly sophisticated traditional Indonesian art form.
Once every one or two years, a NZ-based traditional Javanese puppeteer, Dr Joko Susilo, comes to Wellington to perform and is available to give workshops. Joko has taught gamelan and puppetry in New Zealand since 1993, is fluent in English and has excellent teaching skills.
A typical workshop consists of the following:
brief demonstration of traditional Javanese shadow puppetry in which Joko manipulates the puppets, provides narration, voices all the characters and sings.
groups of 5-6 students then work together to make puppets for a story they devise or choose one they already know. Previous groups have presented fairy tales, and stories featuring spaceships or animals. They design the puppets and make them under the guidance of Joko, using cardboard, split pins, velcro, and sticks. They will be shown how to make and manipulate a variety of puppets. They then present their show using Joko's large screen. Puppets can be made to fit with any theme you wish to explore.
Here are some examples of puppets that school students have made during one of these workshops:
"The whole experience was wonderful and memorable and a really authentic experience for the children." (teacher at Paremata school which held both puppetry and gamelan workshops in 2008)
