Puppetry and Art Education: a Personal Journey Buffy Serene Quintero University of Iowa
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University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations 2011 Puppetry and art education: a personal journey Buffy Serene Quintero University of Iowa Recommended Citation Quintero, Buffy Serene. "Puppetry and art education: a personal journey." master's thesis, University of Iowa, 2011. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1063. This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1063 PUPPETRY AND ART EDUCATION: A PERSONAL JOURNEY by Buffy Serene Quintero A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment 1 of the requirements for the Masters degree in Art (Art Education) in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2011 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Steve McGuire Copyright by BUFFY SERENE QUINTERO 2011 All Rights Reserved 1 ! ! "#$%&$'(!)*++(,(! -.(!/012(#31'4!*5!6*7$! 6*7$!)1'48!6*7$! ! ! ! )9:-6;6)<-9!=;!<>>:=?<@! ! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ! B<C-9:DC!-E9C6C! ! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ! ! -.13!13!'*!F(#'154!'.$'!'.(!B$3'(#D3!'.(313!*5! 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J3 !!K9"F:L@!;"F!65@A1F!:05M">.!;<!DN"F:!'9">.E! CC! H3 !!K9"F:!65">A">.!6/661A!915:!5>:!75@O!P5@1!8;F;0@!! CQ! I3 !!K9"F:L@!R5S!95>:!6/661A! BB! Q3 !!K9"F:L@!DN"F:!'9">.E!6/661A! BG! T3 !!K9"F:L@!DN"F:!'9">.E!75@O! BG! 2U3 !!!&A/:1>A@!M;0O!8;;6105A"#1F?!;>!P58O:0;6!! BI! 223 !!)">"@91:!P58O:0;6! BQ! 2C3 !!N9101!A91!N"F:!'9">.@!V01!@A;0?!P;50:! GU! 2B3 !!K9"F:!:05M">.!W!R5S!711A@!A91!DN"F:!'9">.@E! GU! ! "#! PREFACE On August 17, 2008, we celebrated my son’s third birthday with an elaborate birthday party. At that time I was a full-time working mom with a three-year-old son and a six-month year old daughter, striving to find the elusive work/life balance. The birthday party was crazy and chaotic, as children’s birthday parties are, but it sparked an artistic awakening in me. On a hot and sticky August day in Iowa, children made monster hats and then paraded around the neighborhood to accordion music played by my father-in-law. We staged a puppet performance of Where the Wild Things Are, based on the children’s book by Maurice Sendak, in our backyard. I performed the Max puppet, my friends and relatives wore “wild thing” masks and costumes and emerged from our garden when Max arrived at where the wild things are, and other relatives accompanied the story on the penny whistle, viola, and clarinet. As I prepared for this celebration, I realized that I wanted to do this kind of work on a daily basis: to bring people together to make art, build community, tell stories, and encourage the imagination and creativity of young children (including my own). Fast-forward one year, on August 17 of 2009, my four year-old son, eighteen month-old daughter, husband, and mother were returning from a month-long trip to Germany. I was returning to Iowa to a new start in life: I had resigned from my full-time job, would be completing an MA in art education focusing on using puppetry arts in educational settings, and would spend more time with my two young children. v 1 CHAPTER I ART TEACHER AS PUPPETEER Researching Puppets: The puppeteer, through his/her own imagination, creates magical self-contained worlds on the puppet stage. Puppetry is a combination of theater arts, visual arts, storytelling, and often times music. This art form, with rich histories spanning across various cultures, has transforming effects on students engaged with the art form. Unfortunately, a scant amount of contemporary research has been done on puppetry arts and puppetry arts in educational settings. The aim of this thesis is to add to the body of puppetry arts research. In conducting my research for this thesis, I worked to develop, from start to finish, a puppet performance. My work included writing the script, building the puppets, props, and stage, practicing, and performing. The two primary reasons for this undertaking included: to build my skills and confidence as a puppeteer, and be able to better teach children in art making experiences in puppetry arts. Simultaneously while honing my own artistic craft, I conducted a primary source interview with a professional puppeteer; long-time friend and mentor, Monica Leo, to better understand the 1 philosophical underpinnings of the practice, the realities of the profession, and for guidance in developing my own performance. I also researched the writings of other puppeteers and scholars to better understand puppetry as a form of art, the history of puppetry, how it has been used in educational settings, and technical aspects related to practicing puppetry. The second part of my thesis research involved teaching a two-week enrichment program to children between ages seven and eleven years old focusing on 2 puppetry arts. I used this experience to put my theories on teaching into practice and as an opportunity to reflect on my teaching methods. A Puppeteer Next Door: My personal history with puppetry began as a four year-old. My mother and I lived next door to Monica Leo, freelance artist and puppeteer. Eulenspiegel Puppets is Monica’s professional puppetry company, currently based in West Liberty, Iowa. Her house was a magical place for a young girl. I remember my mother and her talking about art and puppetry over a cup of coffee at her big claw-foot oak table in her kitchen while I dusted and arranged the mouse house. The mouse house was a dollhouse that Monica had made and furnished with handmade furniture and small stuffed mice and rabbits that she made. It was its own self-contained world that I slipped into as arranged the furniture and played with the toys. Colorful handmade masks of devilish creatures hung on her bathroom wall, bunnies had the run of her house, a green bird and a cockatoo squawked in a golden cage, and an old wooden curio cabinet with glass doors displayed a collection of dolls and toys from around the world – her house was a place of wonderment.