Some photos from my latest STARS Grant, which was generously funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Counsel, 2024. So grateful to create with these students again and to do this fun project with them. This was done after school and the students worked and played very hard to create every aspect of this show.
I facilitated the Colrain Central Elementary School, 1-6 grade students to create a story, script, puppets, sets, and performance for their peers, their families, the school staff and community. Twenty one brave children performed on May 22, 2024 at the school. Collaborating with the music teacher and the librarian, before the performance we had a pagant parade, up and down the halls to alert the classes that the show was about to commence. Puppet participants help big and small puppets and students who are involved in the school music program played music to wake up the classrooms.
The students made three types of puppets with me. Hand in Mouth (sock puppets), Rod puppets, Made from recycled cardboard and wooden sticks, with many embellishments, and a large “Bread and Puppet” style Pageant puppet, made from recycled mailing bags, cardboard, old curtains and paper mach’e with news paper and used paper bags. Every kid, age 6-12 had their hand in every aspect of creating. And the older students were willing to mentor the little ones, which was very sweet.
The Art of Amy Dawn Kotel 