The department of Visual Communication of School of Arts and Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Mysuru campus, organized a puppetry workshop from January 23-24, 2018. Mr. Charles Barnabas and Mrs. Gwedaline Barnabas of Gwen Puppets Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, were the resource persons. Students from B. Sc. Visual Media, Integrated M. Sc. Visual Communication, M. Sc. Visual Communication and MJMC participated in the interactive session.

The workshop provided a great chance to learn, build and perform with puppets. The students developed concepts on various social themes and developmental topics. These concepts were developed into scripts with dialogue and background music. Practice sessions were conducted where students participated enthusiastically, trying their hand in each of the puppets and lending their voices for their characters in the script.

A special session on ventriloquism was also a part of the workshop. Voice modulation techniques, tonal variation, pitch, frequency and intonation intricacies were dealt with in detail. The students performed the various concepts on stage using the puppets. A review, along with comments on improvement, were shared in a participatory evaluative form. The workshop on the making of puppets using socks, soft toys, plastic waste, balloons and scrap materials added color to the event. The two-day puppetry workshop served as an eye-opener to students as a way to engage in creating social transformation, through the use of a cost-effective folk art medium.