Storytelling with Puppets
after school with adelka polak
As the seasons change and the sun begins to set earlier and earlier, the Wonder Kids experience the magic of nightfall, drawing inspiration from puppetry and the relationship between shadow and light. They create their own stories and learn new ones alongside expert performer and teacher Adelka Polak of Sova Theatre.
As daylight retreats and shadows twirl beneath the canvas of the darkening sky, a transformation unfolds in the Wonder Village. The arrival of winter, with its early evening cloak, brings not a sense of limitation, but rather an enchanting embrace. The Wonder Kids gather, huddled close, and bring to life a new and exciting kind of magic that blossoms amidst the winter's chill.
Our imaginative explorers receive a special mission from Gaia to manipulate materials like flashlights and sheets to rehearse and perform a puppet show. Suddenly, puppets emerge as the storytellers of the season. Shadows become the stage for tales untold, and in the hands of the children, new characters dance into existence. The darkness becomes a canvas for creativity and a playground for imagination as the Wonder Kids bring to life epic stories of monsters, spiders, and squirrels.
Later, the Wonder Team is lucky enough to collaborate with an expert puppeteer, Adelka Polak of Sova Theatre, who leads them in a workshop, teaching them the guidelines of puppetry and giving them a space to practice and create their own. She later visits the Wonder Village and uses her puppets to tell the indigenous tale of "The Rabbit and the Moon.” Puppets fashioned from natural objects, crafted by the Wonder Kids under Adelka’s guidance, become conduits for storytelling. The Wonder Village resonates with the echoes of tales and the rustle of leaf, wool, and pine cone puppets.
Puppetry in the Wonder Village transcends mere play. It becomes a powerful vehicle for empathy and communication. Nature itself becomes the stage upon which conflicts are resolved, and compassionate communication is honed. Through puppetry, the Wonder Kids learn to shapeshift from human to something else, exploring the boundaries of their creativity and practicing empathy by stepping into the point of view of another. The process of crafting natural puppets becomes an exploration of material science, as each pine cone and twig reveals its unique properties.
Adelka imparts a profound truth:
"Puppetry creates a container in the forest in which care, kindness, and social interaction is encouraged."
Within this container, children not only play but also learn to navigate the complexities of the world. Winter, with its early darkness, becomes a beacon of inspiration, and the Wonder Village transforms into a realm where the warmth of stories and the glow of puppets illuminate the path toward a globally minded community of compassionate creators.
If you’d like your child to join our after school adventures, you can read more information here!