Projektrückblicke

Objectives

• Traditional puppet and marionette theatre and puppet making as an integrative experience.
• New ways of storytelling that incorporate international experiences with the target groups.
• Traditional manufacturing combined with new technologies from the maker scene.
• How to appeal to a new audience.

Swallow’s Wings Puppetry (SWP) & Dialogus together with our partners successfully developed inclusive puppet-making workshops, combining traditional craftsmanship with digital storytelling. The project culminated in both a virtual and in-person performance at the Makers United Fair in Chemnitz, involving participants from the UK, Germany, and West-Africa and a hybrid conference in London with artist & educators from Germany, Mali, Burundi & UK.

Our project connected puppetry & storytelling to a wider, international audience. It showcased intercultural collaboration with a hybrid performance using green screen. Participants (400 + pupils and 5.000 visitors from the Chemnitz area) co-created puppets & wrote narratives reflecting their lived experiences in their respective countries (looking at living with disability). We were able to demonstrate that puppetry & collaboration can strengthen communities, build connections, and counter polarisation. Particularly in areas impacted by social division, with limited access to cultural enrichment.

• Carolene Ada (Swallow’s Wings Puppetry, UK): Inclusive puppet theater, work with neurodiverse children and refugees.
  Swallow’s Wings Puppetry is a grassroots arts group using inclusive puppet theater to celebrate African Caribbean culture and engage neurodiverse children, refugees, elders, and marginalized communities. We partner with major institutions like the V&A, Tate Britain, and rural touring networks to enchant, educate, and foster dialogue through accessible, cross-generational puppetry. Founded by a QEST scholar with 25 years’ experience.
  
  
• Ingeborg Weinberg (DE): Traditional puppet carving (Hohnsteiner Kasper), woodcarving workshops.
• Pavel Rudzyak (CZ): Storytelling, direction, interactive methods (audience participation).
  Osvěta Association (founded in 2017) promotes inclusive film education for visually impaired young people through innovative methods and workshops. Pavel Ruzyak, filmmaker and initiator, develops accessible film technologies and international projects that enable creativity to be experienced without the sense of sight. Goal: integration, awareness and career opportunities through art.
  
  
• Tobias Tauscher & Sandy Pöschmann (Startpunkt Media, DE): Virtual puppet stage (green screen, digital media).
  Startpunkt Media makes media possible. Startpunkt Media supports companies and organisations with future-proof strategies and creative media solutions, enabling them to reach their target groups on an emotional level and build genuine connections with their messages.
  
  
• Jan Haubensak (Dialogus e.V., DE): Project coordination, social inclusion.
• Oliver Hoh (Dialogus e.V.): Project implementation, stage construction
  Dialogus Kultur fosters inclusive, experiential dialogue through art and community. Our flagship project, Paula’s Journey, is an interactive wood-sculpture exhibition inviting visitors to explore creativity, diversity, and craftsmanship with all senses. We also offer workshops, school projects, and urban initiatives like Quatsch mit Holz, promoting democracy, inclusion, and empathy. Our mission: uniting art, sustainability, and social connection.

• in the workshops ‘Inventing Stories’ (Mittweida, 2-5 June 2025), individual puppet theatre scenarios were developed, which were later integrated into performances
• we had participants with and without disabilities
• we used a collection of pre-formulated categories such as ‘drama’, ‘comedy’ or ‘rainy’, ‘location’, ‘background’, “props”, ‘theme’, etc., each with several examples.
• main direction: The characters should help each other when they encounter challenges on their way to the cultural capital.
• find your story behind these cards
• express your story in a short presentation
• write a complete story and bring it to life in the form of a puppet show
• rethink and revise parts so that they can be better played in the puppet show

Hohnsteiner Kasper Casper (not Punch!)

• affectionate
• persistent
• honest
• stands up for his friends
• looks edgy
• has loving eyes

Anansi is a legendary spider and trickster figure of West African mythology who achieves his goals with wit, cunning and intelligence. His stories are entertaining, instructive and have influenced generations of people in Africa.

Ehli - the 3. character

task: as a doll or another (task)

• challenge
• not perfect
• special abilities (in each)
• extraterrestrial creature
• different
• amiable special characteristics and abilities
• makes "mistakes"
• helps others

Analog: two level wooden stage, first level suitable for puppetplayer in a wheelchair, second level for Marionettes etc.

Digital: Green screen stage (Startpunkt Media) for virtual worlds.

Workshops:

• Nonverbal communication (gestures, puppets) enabled participation regardless of language skills.
  Accessible methods (tactile, auditory, visual, cards) for children with and without disabilities

Storytelling:

There are stories with inclusive Elements, for instance

• Scene1_CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE UNIVERSE - disabled parking
• Scene3_ HEAVILESS - wheelchair expierence
• Scene4_EYE CARE - blindness, white cane
• Scene5_ VIREN - deaf, sign language

Audience Participation: Children became part of the story and tried wheelchair, white cane, earprotection...