Fifth Play
Monday!
The most
wished monthly Monday!Today, our Play consisted in Shadow Puppetry and make a story “à la minute”!
And here it
is! How can we play?
We start by
introducing our Shadow Puppets to our clients so they could choose the names
and the roles that they would have on the story.
So, our
first four characters are:
Sheperd
Manuel
Mimi
Joana
João
After the names were
chosen, we went to play!
In this first part, it
was me and Raquel who controlled the puppets according to the story that our
clients where telling, which was a way to ease up the beginning of our Play.
Ms. C started: “Once
upon a time, there was a girl named Mimi that went to the school along the road
and when she looked to the side, she saw a shepherd that had a herd of sheep
and he liked to sing a lot.”
Ms. C.B. added: “The
girl asked to the shepherd if he could sing for her and teach her the song. And
the shepherd taught it, by starting to sing:
“Toda a vida fui
Pastor
Toda a vida guardei gado
Tenho uma cova no peito
De me encostar ao cajado.”
(Everyone laughed!)
Ms. M said:
“The girl thanked to Shepherd Manuel and kept going to school. She went running
because she was late. As soon as she arrived to school, she apologized to her
teacher about being late and the teacher demanded that would never happen
again, but she was apologized anyways.”
Mr. A also
said: “The girl played a lot in school”
Ângela
asked: “And what did she play?”
Mr. A : “
She played to “Marco Polo”!”.
And Mr. C.
added: “After playing she went to pick flowers. But a man appeared and he was
really upset at the girl because she was picking flowers, but the girl answered
that those flowers were for her mother because that day was her birthday. Mimi
went back home, gave the flowers to her mom that got really happy. Then they
went to lunch and later, the girl did her homework with her mom’s help. At
night, Shepherd Manuel went home and had dinner with his whole family.”
But here
Ms. C.B. suggests: “what if everyone is from the same family?”
That way,
we reformulated the relationship between all the characters! The Shepherd
Manuel changed to be João’s father. João now is Joana’s husband and Mimi is
their daughter and granddaughter of Manuel. After everything’s in their right
places:
Ms. M kept going
with the story: “Because Mimi didn’t want to sleep, her grandfather told her a
story.”
“And which
story would be?” asked Ângela.
Mr. J tried
to start telling it, but then he said that it would be better if other person
do it, now that he thought about it, he thought he wasn’t a good storyteller.
Ms. C. said
that she would help and started telling us the “Little Red Riding Hood”
And so it
was, until Mimi fell asleep.
Meanwhile,
Ms. C.B. arrived and said he went to visit her, so he ended up sitting and
watched our playfull theatre.
SECOND
CHAPTER
Ms. C.B.:
“Shepherd Manuel, after telling a story to his granddaughter, he tried to find
his wife but he could not find her. He searched and searched and nothing. His
son appeared and asked his father who he was searching for. Shepherd Manuel
said it was his wife. But his wife had already passed away. And he didn’t
remember it.”
And then
Raquel asked: “And why couldn’t he remember that his wife passed away?”
Ms. M
answered: “Because he had Alzheimer.”
Ms. C.B.
continued the story: “So, Joana, Shepherd Manuel’s daughter-in-law, that liked
him really much, helped him going to bed, because it was late. Then all of them
went to sleep and dreamed a lot.”
And I
asked: What did our characters dream during the night?
Ms. C.:
“The girl dreamt about toys and school and a bicycle, because she really wanted
to have one. Every girl in the school had one and she didn’t.”
And that
was when Ms. C.B. and Ms. C gain courage and started to manipulate our Shadow
Puppets. Here the Play got much more
special!
So, they
tell the story between Shepherd Manuel and his granddaughter Mimi that wanted a
bicycle.
Ms. C.:
“Hello grandpa! How are you? I wanted a bicycle so much! Can you give me one?”
Ms. C.B.:
“My granddaughter, I don’t have much money, but I’ll offer you the bicycle. I’m
going to sell two sheeps to buy it.”
In this
part, Ângela asked Mr. A what the son could say to his father
Ms. M: “Meanwhile
Mimi’s father appears and gets mad at Shepherd Manuel, because he shouldn’t
offer the bicycle, because he’s too old and forgetful to buy those things.”
Ângela
asked again to Mr. A what could the son say more to his father: “Say whatever
you want Mr. A! Set your imagination free!” Mr. A got a bit nostalgic, because
he reminded of his father: “ I wouldn’t say anything because my father died
many years ago, choose another game for me. Sorry, but I can’t.”
And
everyone respected that Mr.A’s moment,
that watched the rest of the theatre, but always very lost in thoughts.
Raquel
added, doing João’s voice: Now that my old father wants to buy a bicycle to my
daughter… Well, but my father is a wise man, he never went to school, he
doesn’t know how to write or read, but he has a degree in the school of life.
What should I do to my father? He is so sick…
Then Ms.C
said that: “João e Joana talked about
the situation, about which would be the best way of taking care of Shepherd
Manuel, if it would be hospitalised, if it would go to a retirement home, and
they thought that it would be better if he stayed at home, with João an Joana’s
help, because he still takes care of his sheeps alone, although he is sick.”
Ms C.B
added: “So, Mimi asked to her parents why her grandfather doesn’t remember some
things. Is it because he has almost 100 years old? Her father answers that it’s
because he is sick and that’s why he doesn’t remember things.”
Raquel: “My
grandpa may forget a lot of things but I still like him really much! I love my
grandpa! Let’s go see your sheep, because it’s a beautiful day.”
Ms. C:
“What a good idea, let’s go!”
And so, our
great improvised story ended with our clients satisfied with the story and it’s
end (even Mr. A was lively after that.)
At the
beginning, when we went to the room with the puppets, our clients were shyer,
but then, it all got easier and funnier.
We draw the
conclusion that we want to do more Shadow Pupetry, with more characters and
objects!
It was
really interesting to see, during the story, the daily routine portrayal, many
years ago, their relationships with their family, as well their fears after
they started to depend of the help of someone to do their daily activities.
As always,
thanks to my coworkers!
(Extra
thanks to Raquel that borrowed us her projector, and to Joana that filmed and
took pictures!)
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