CivEd Shadow Puppets

January, February, March 2009. Scarsdale Senior High School, CivEd classes. Collaborating teachers: Lisa Yokana, Sue Silver, Beth Colleary, George Olivier.

Starting from the idea of using shadow puppet as the tool to show students' understanding of the story of Odyssey, the Art and English teachers in CivEd program in Scarsdale High School collaborated in putting together this amazing project. I came to talk about Indonesian Shadow Puppet, focusing on several protagonist and antagonist characters that are famous in Indonesia. Also, students were introduced to a few typical Javanese-based characters symbolizing Javanese main philosophy, which values indirectness, humbleness, non-confrontative, and modesty despite possessing the most powerful force. Students were also introduced to the idea the art of shadow puppetry is very dynamic and flexible in nature. The puppet masters can adapt the stories, characters, music to fit into different situations and to better connect with its audience. 

At the end of the project, students collaboratively did a wonderful shadow puppet performance, where they used the puppets they created to demonstrate their interpretation and understanding of the story of Odyssey. The combination of the narration, the movement of the puppet, and the music resulted in a very attractive and enjoyable show to watch. What a fantastic collaboration by the students and teachers!