Puppetry Workshops
GSW’s artistic experimentation feeds directly into teaching which happens in NYC and Dutchess County public schools, community settings and museums all over the world, at Festivals, in Universities, and in youth prison facilities.
GSW’s practice is grounded in the ethic of gathering – and sharing – skills, content, resources with each other, with our associates, with the communities we work with. It is a fully-embraced process – research-based, community-based, critical, with a full appreciation for the craft of puppetry and a sense of adventure in discovering its many developments across different traditions.
Mentoring younger artists is one of GSW’s core functions. We share physical space, tools and materials, as well as our history of investigating popular theater techniques, and our commitment to engaged content in our shows. We write about theater history and theory, teach in formal (classroom) and informal (workshop) settings, and consider the intersections of performance, social justice work and public space, believing that being part of a theater community can be a model for participating in democracy.
Toy Theater Workshops
In its Toy Theater Workshops, Great Small Works invites participants to create their own toy theater productions. The company has worked with kids, graduate students, artists, teachers, performers, and activists to teach the form and to make it accessible to a wide variety of practitioners. Workshops have taken place at Casteliers Festival in Montreal, the Museo de Culturas Populares in Coyoacan, Mexico City, and the National Theater Workshop for the Handicapped in Belfast, Maine. Tianan, Taiwan, Ko Festival in Amherst, MA (2019), Puppeteers of America’s bi-annual national festivals (2017 and 2019).
Puppetry Workshops In Jails and Detention Facilities
Great Small Works has been facilitating puppetry workshops in jails and youth detention facilities including Riker’s Island since the 1990’s. They work in close collaboration with formerly incarcerated artists and abolitionist organizations including Milk Not Jails, Release Aging People in Prison, The Justice Committee, Life Up/ Guns Down, and Carol Prud’homme Davis’s new organization, Inside Change.
GSW believes that an appropriate curriculum for these students and communities can only come from people who know the experience of incarceration intimately. Each teaching team forms a creative think tank. They combine the best of traditional puppet and visual theater techniques with the wisdom of people who have survived the carceral state, and want to support younger community members with their knowledge. The artistic approach holds the intense stress of the prison situation, but defends the rights of young people to play. Team members merge the powers of critical thought, artistry and belief in transformation to set the stage for this work. The students add the final spark of creative genius. Great joy is experienced by all when these bodies of knowledge come together.
GSW youth projects invite students to build their voices, and try on new attributes. Formerly incarcerated team members are credible messengers for problem solving techniques shared with youth, and families impacted by violence. Inside Change/GSW collaborations have included work with incarcerated youth at Horizons Detention Center in the South Bronx, and in public schools in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.