1 World Puppets for PeaceA model for the transformation of at-risk youths and their communities.

Most people think of puppetry as something for little kids.

But there is another side to puppetry. Historically and even today, puppets have often addressed

serious subjects.

Puppeteers have been jailed or worse for what the puppets say in puppet shows.

When I was writing “Ruler of the World,” a marionette and shadow puppet show based on The Ramayana, I contacted a puppeteer from Myanmar, where most of the marionettes originate. He asked me to never write him in Myanmar, because puppetry was illegal there and puppeteers faced jail or worse. We had to communicate by smuggling letters across the Thai border. This was in the 1980s and is no longer true.

I experienced the suppression of puppetry firsthand.

Why am I talking about puppet power?

Because puppets’ power to reach, teach and transform isn’t obvious to most people, especially in the United States.

Penelope Torribio performs a musical puppet show about the rain forest at a community arboretum. forest ecology at unity garden.

I learned the power ofpuppets as an educatorof at-risk kids and teens.

• I am Penelope Torribio, master puppeteer. I have an M.A. in behavior transformation and credentials in communication arts, English and special education.

• I began using puppets in the classroom to teach academic skills, add fun and humor to lessons and transform behavior that wasn’t beneficial to my students.

• Teaching students to become puppeteers was the biggest step toward helping my students find themselves and begin to walk a more positive path.

1 World Puppets For Humanity page 1

•The mission of 1 World Puppets for Peace is to build a safer and more positive community by providing a puppet theater, museum and workshop space that has as its focus the education and transformation of at-risk kids and the communities they live in.

• All themes of of shows and workshops will fall under the umbrella of building a better world.

• It helps that I have over 600 puppets from around the world as a basis for this program and I’m a master puppeteer, meaning I perform all kinds of puppetry.

Proposal: Puppets for Peace.

The center will use puppet fun to reduce crime and the ruin of lives.

• I’ve worked with at-risk students in public and private schools, often in a residential setting.

• With this project, we’ll work with youths to educate and transform behavior before they’re sent to residential or correctional facilities.

• This will be done through the artistry of puppetry which, by the way, teens love.

Teens love puppets.

• Elements of the Proposal

The focus is at-risk students and transforming behavior.

• This requires hooking activities with specific behavioral objectives and ways to evaluate progress. This will have to be taught to all facilitators.

• Eventually, videos will be produced so this program can be modeled across the country and the world. They are many puppeteers and puppet spaces waiting to happen. They just need a model.

• The second aspect in the proposal for Puppets for Peace is part-time employment for artists and technicians, particularly from the local colleges, to teach the workshops.

• Puppetry has all the elements of traditional theater and more.

Employment of Artists and Technicians

Lighting

Sound

Staging

Acting and Vocal Techniques

Puppetry is 80 percent writing. Teaching kids to write scripts improves language arts, communication and thinking skills.

Writing

Puppet Manipulation• Vent Figures• Marionettes• Rod puppets• Found Puppets• Shadow Puppets• Soft Puppets• Sack Puppets

Confidence and Communication Skills

• Puppetry is communication. Participants gain conversation skills, confidence in front of audiences, vocal techniques and the ability to communicate their own message.

Vocational Training• Puppetry is a profession. It’s not limited to providing

entertainment at festivals and events. It’s also part of the entertainment and movie industry.

• Puppetry has a very close connection to stop-motion animation. Many of the techniques learned in puppetry can be applied to other aspects of entertainment and theater.

• Puppets for Peace will bring professionals in to give presentations on jobs in the industry.

1 World Puppets For Peace

 

There are five basic parts to the 1 World Puppets for Peace plan.

 .

One• provide a facility for positive family entertainment

emphasizing messages of guardianship of the earth, cultural understanding and empowerment of a community to bring about positive change in their city. This facility will include a museum, puppet theater and workshop/art space.

Two

offer long-term puppetry workshops for kids and teens. The focus will be on improving attitudes towards education, imparting academic skills and transforming behavior for better thinking and living, fun and enrichment.

Three employ artists, writers, poets, puppeteers and theater

technicians to conduct workshops for youth. There will be a particular focus on working with local college students to model continuing education.

Four

provide outreach programs to schools, libraries after-school programs and events to help bring attention to the missions of 1 World Puppets for Peace and to bring income into the program.

Five

Get other community groups involved in this project and locate grants and other funding for its valuable contribution.

• I ‘ll begin the project in my own city of Pomona, California. This is city of high crime and high gang activity.. The sign in this photo is located right across the street from my house in Pomona.

While the number of homicides have gone down in Los Angeles, they are up in Pomona. Gang activity has escalated in all high-crime

areas.

Pomona’s crime, compared to the average city in California

Pomona is a perfect testing ground for Puppets for Peace.

• This project focuses on major issues of many communities: gang activity and crime.

• It brings in part-employment for local artists and technicians.

• It fosters confidence and teaches many skills.

• It brings vocational training to youths.

• It bring quality live local entertainment presented by the community’s own youths.

Despite high crime, Pomona has an art movement, perfect for Puppets for Peace.

• Puppets for Peace Museum, Workshop and Performance Center will be situated in the Arts Colony in the heart of Pomona.

• It will be surrounded by galleries, music venues, The American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Latino Art Museum. The area also includes The Cal Poly University Downtown Center for the Arts, Performing Arts and Technology. Nearby is the High School of Arts and Enterprise.

Why a puppet theater?

• In a city with so many needs, why should people invest in and support in a puppet theater?

Fundamental Belief• This is a complex question with a lengthy answer, some of

which is beyond the scope of a business plan and proposal. However, it’s based on the belief in the basic good in all people—the view that we each have talents and interests that, when tapped, can move us from negative thoughts and behavior to positive thoughts and behavior.

People of all ages love puppets.

Penelope’s marionette of physicist Nassim Haramein. She gained permission to teach his ideas through puppetry.

Puppets speak a universal language. Penelope performs for a village in southern India.

Visit 1 World Puppets for more information.

• www.1worldpuppets.com • www.1worldmusicandpuppets.com• penelope1world@mac.com

Penelope Torribio, Boy with Blue, one of Penelope’s 600 puppets from around the world