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Puppets As
an Intercultural Communication Tool
Written
By Harold R. Oaks
We are on the campus of a
secondary school in Western Samoa. It is
February, just before school is to start for
another year, and the teachers from the
system are gathered for preschool workshops.
A few minutes into the workshop a murmur
ripples through the group as a hand puppet
appears over a screen at the front of the
room. This, we learn, is Dirty Mary, a girl
who doesn’t know about germs, washing hands,
proper food, or why using a toilet is
important. Her mother warns her about germs,
but Mary still doubts they exist. Then the
germs appear, drawing wondrous “oohs” and
aahs” from the teachers. They crawl and jump
from behind the screen and discuss in
strange voices their chances of getting into
Mary’s stomach, and what they will do when
they get there. They are on Mary’s hand,
which is not washed before a piece of bread
offers a free ride inside for the germs.
Mary gets sick, and goes with her mother to
see the doctor. He gives her medicine to get
better, and some advice about staying well.
Mary repeats the information with the nurse
and the puppets disappear. The teachers,
held fascinated during the presentation,
applaud. Another workshop is under way.
Dirty Mary, her family, the
doctor, and the germs are all players in a
larger dramatic conflict with basic health
problems in developing countries. The
information on how to improve conditions,
live longer, eliminate pests and many
diseases is available; indeed, millions of
dollars and many years of research have
produced the information, but he major task
of convincing people to change life patterns
and habits is most difficult. The target
population is primarily illiterate, so
newspapers, magazines, manuals and books are
useless. There are no televisions, and only
selected areas have access to radio. Where
it is available, dramatizations of problems
are more effective than the direct
presentation of factual material. We need a
tool for person to person contact,
inexpensive, in an interesting form that
will hold attention and give logical
reasons, from the viewer’s point of view,
for changing behavior. The tool also needs
to have as little cultural identification as
possible (that, is, it should not be
identified with something brought from the
United States to these “poor people,” to
make them more “American”.)
Puppets can help! They are
small, inexpensive, and easy to transport;
one person can operated several puppets,
they are fun to see and easy to operate.,
and they get and hold attention of both
adults and children. They can talk about
things that we might not like other people
to say (like why we should use the toilet or
why something is not good for us to eat).
They can help start us thinking and talking
by asking questions or helping us to see
ourselves more clearly. They can give
information or instructions; represent an
extreme or negative trait ( like Dirty
Mary_;’ create imaginative situations (like
the germs, or a talking tooth that likes to
be cleaned)’ be a control agent (like
Carried Cleanup who tells us about and
checks up on our cleaning). And they can
give us a new view of situations ( by
allowing us to role play another person.
These assertions were tested in
a project funded by the Welfare Services
Division of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. The task was to develop
ten scripts dealing with basic health
concepts, create and construct puppets for
the scripts, record cassette tapes of the
playlets, write a short handbook on puppets,
their construction and use, and teach the
use of all these materials in teacher
workshops in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.
A student assistant,
Wendy Rees, and I started work on the
project feeling there were significant
opportunities to contribute, using our
skills in theatre focused on a communication
task. That, after all, is the central goal
of the theater, and even though we were not
trying to produce an artistic product per
se, the possible benefits seemed well worth
the effort.’
Ike Ferguson, Personal Welfare
Services coordinator, helped us gather
material on the major health problems and
suggested specialists who could help with
social / environmental / health issues in
the project and began writing the scripts.
We would usually spend some time discussing
the basic problem; why use a toilet, for
example. We would focus on the health
aspects of the question, and on the social
patterns established in the county. Then we
would discuss some possible plot outlines
and characters that might be used to
illustrate the issues involved. One member
of the group would then attempt to
incorporate the elements in a simple script
lasting from three to five minutes. This
would then come back to the group for
evaluation and suggestions based on an oral
reading of the script. Following the
revisions at this level, the script was
given to one of the health consultants for
their review and suggestions. Almost always
we had overlooked some elements or were not
aware of local attitudes, and another
revision would follow (sometimes several) to
work out all the problems. After review by
Dr. Ferguson, the scripts were ready for
recording and construction of puppets.
To simplify script structure,
give identification figures, and reduce the
number of puppets necessary for precaution,
Mary and her family were central figures in
all plays. Most of the puppets were simple
hand puppets that could be constructed from
local materials and manipulated with minimum
practice. The long term goal was to have
puppetry attractive and easy enough that the
teachers would want to use it in their
classes, not only in health areas, but also
in other subjects as well. We constructed a
full set of puppets for each country, to be
left there for reference and use.
The handbook
“Puppets as a Teaching Took” included
advantages of using puppets, construction
materials, diagrams for step by step
construction, drawings of all puppets,
suggestions for manipulation, script
development, puppet applications in other
subject matter areas, and the scripts.
All workshops were organized on
a format, focusing on application in the
classroom. The opening session covered the
general approach to health issues, a puppet
play, assessment and review of health
information and small group preparation of a
list of the most important national health
problems. In the second session, each group
selected one of these problems (like worms)
and wrote a puppet play about it. To do
this, they would first analyze the problem
(why are worms bad), list possible causes
(how do we contact them, how do they
survive,), and list possible solutions ( pen
animals, use a toilet or latrine, go to the
clinic if you have symptoms.) The script
would then be developed to present this
information and the suggestion of how to
deal with it. Focus was always on what they
could do—not on external action by outside
forces.
The next puppet session (there
were other health information sessions
between the “active” puppet workshops) dealt
with construction. Several puppet examples
were shown, and two construction methods
were explained and demonstrated. Each
participant then constructed at least two
puppets, a simple sock puppet and a basic
hand puppet with a variety of possible faces
to suggest different characters. Some chose
to make one of three other types of puppets
we demonstrated. Although some sewing
machines were available (peddle only) most
of the puppets were hand sewn, since it was
sometimes faster than waiting for the
machine, or they didn’t know how to operate
it.
When the first puppet was
completed, workshop participants were given
manipulation instruction by using their
puppets to go through a series of exercises
to help them know what the puppet could do
and to help them all to relax in working
with these new tools. They were asked to
make the puppet do simple activities (walk,
jump, sneeze, smile, frown, etc,)l interact
with another puppet (see someone you like,
greet them, be sorry to part, etc.), develop
a voice and full character (find a voice for
the puppet, talk fast, slow; be excited in
telling about something, whisper a secret,
etc.). These island people enjoyed making
these pieces of material come alive, and
they often giggled and laughed as they
worked the puppets.
The final session provided some
brief rehearsal time for each group, then
they presented their “show” for the rest of
the workshop members. Sample shows were;
“Toilets” which included a germ that talked
with relish about “getting” two girls who
don’t use the latrine:; “The complainer”
dealing with people who complain about not
having food, but the puppets grow a garden
(with plants that “grow” on stage) and
provide the needed variety for the diet;
“Washing Hands”, a puppet play presented in
Tongan, used humor and a germ to illustrate
the need for washing hands before eating or
preparing food; “Round Stomach” including a
puppet with a round stomach on selection of
proper diet; and other plays on boils,
flies, dust, rats, diarrhea, etc.
Reaction to the plays, most of
which contained some humorous elements, was
positive. Ideas were explored, and the
teachers had discovered a new way to teach
some difficult topics in an interesting way.
Church health missionaries were also
impressed with the possibilities, and
organized a special workshop for all the
local and foreign health missionaries on the
island of Tonga, Within six months, every
zone in the Samoan mission had puppets and
all the plays were translated into the
native language. In addition, there were non
health applications as well. One of the
participants in Fiji had recently
transferred from a Government school, and,
after the first workshop session had taken
the handbook home and read it all by the
next day. She was very excited about the
idea and said they had introduced puppets at
the teachers college, but had done it “
laughing” and had made paper mache and it
was “hard to do not fun like this.” She said
on Monday, she was going down to her former
principal and tell her what she had learned
and show her puppet.
A church application was
mentioned in a letter a few months after our
visit, “At a Stake Mothers and Daughters
Conference in Savaii, Samoa, which Sister
Bowman attended, a lady who had seen your
program used puppets to teacher her class
and it went very well.”
At the conclusion of each
workshop, participants were asked to
complete forms evaluation what had been
done. When these were compiled for the four
presentations in the three countries, “the
single teaching technique and accompanying
exercise of greatest interest in the
workshops was the use of puppetry in
teaching health concepts” and , of twelve
activities or presentations listed in order
of usefulness, puppetry was listed “most
useful.”
Follow up contact was made in
the fall of 1980 to determine what use had
been made of the puppetry handbook. The
following letter, dated Oct 10, 1980
summarizes conditions:
1. The basic document was
published in January, 1977 and has been
presented to all Welfare Services
missionaries going into the field since that
time.
2. Two returned Welfare
Services missionaries were commissioned to
develop a one and one-half hour training
presentation to the Welfare Services
missionaries. Such training has been ongoing
for more than a year and a Half. In this
training, each missionary has had an
opportunity to develop a script and put on a
short puppet show.
3. Because of the felt
usefulness of puppetry, this aspect of
training has been “institutionalized:” for
Welfare Service Missionaries. Reports come
quite often from the field indicating
important puppet education programs in
various parts of the world. It has been
particularly successful in Southeast Asia
where the Oriental peoples tend to prize
puppetry as an effective and culturally
well-accepted form of entertainment.
I was pleased to learn of all
these developments and feel that your
efforts have been very well internalized
here. You can be proud of your involvement.
Good luck on your future
endeavors.
Signed,
Isaac C Ferguson
Manager, Health Services
Welfare Services Department
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints
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