Puppetry is a form of theater, art, and performance that has been around for thousands of years. However, it is not something we first think of when we list art media. Perhaps we don't think of Sesame Street as artwork because the puppets are so real we consider then like real characters in any television show.
Jenn and I decided to use shadow puppetry in our Nightmare lesson plan. I think by using something that you don't typically see in art classrooms it really helped engage students right from the start. Because most students had never created moving puppets they were really excited to try and see how theirs would work. Though I was thrilled with how the shadow puppets came out I also would have like to create three dimensional working puppets similar in structure (but simplified) to the Muppets or the puppets used in the movie the labyrinth.
I recently watched a fantastic documentary on Elmo on Netflix where it shows the room where each puppet is constructed and designed. The documentary is called "Being Elmo"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787660/
This documentary shows construction of puppets for beginners as well as the advanced Jim Henson puppets, and also goes into great detail of the very famous puppeteer Kevin Clash also known as the man behind Elmo.
Labyrinth Clips with some awesome puppetry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ZmiqLiZbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiUt5HuW3xc
One of the puppets in this final link was actually controlled by Kevin Clash before he was Elmo.
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