At the K-12 Waldorf School of Orange County in Costa Mesa, students of all ages practice art as a way to enhance and support their academic learning. These performing experiences become markers for their grade level as well as their academic maturity. As they work toward the final goal of producing a full-length play in their senior year, the students have slowly gathered skills, through public presentations of monologues in 11th grade, poetry in 10th grade and a marionette puppet show in ninth grade.
“I remember sitting in the front row when I was in first grade and watching the upper grades,” said Nadia Amirmokri, 15. “It’s a tradition that we’ve been waiting eight years for.”
Students in the lower grades make and use rudimentary shadow puppets and table-top puppets during class. The more complex marionettes are introduced once they have completed courses in biology and anatomy.
“The ninth-graders study the structure of the physical body,” said development director Denise Ogawa, “which makes a connection to the marionette project in art because they are creating a physical body that moves.”
Before the students began molding the faces and bodies of their marionettes, they assembled the wooden control bar that supports the puppets as they hang. After that, they began sketching and printing images of possible characters to use as a guide.
The students were also required to write and direct a play to perform with the puppets. Their production told the story of three teenage kids who fall into a storybook and become fairytale characters. Once inside the book, the teenagers appear as marionettes and meet several more characters on their quest to return to reality. Recognizable characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, and Ursula, Jasmine and Elsa from animated Disney movies intrigued the younger students.
“The little kids love looking at our puppets,” said Eva Illes, 15. “When I walked across the playground they all ran up to catch a sneak peek.”
Added Grace Tomblin Marca, also 15: “The younger kids start to try and figure out the plot line. It’s the very last event of the school year so it’s exciting and uplifting.”
On their final day of classes, 19 ninth-graders gathered with their stringed creations before the entire school to present their original play. The marionette project is designed to give the students performance experience without the pressure of being onstage by themselves. Acting and talking through the puppet helps with stage fright as well as voice projection.
“The audience focuses on the marionette,” said handwork teacher Christine Newell. “They aren’t looking at the student, but at the character.”
More than acting skills, the students walk away with life skills, too. From sawing to sewing, the marionettes project teaches fine motor skills and attention to detail.
“These students are taking dead material and putting life into it, and my heart just opens up with pride,” Newell said.
Contact the writer: 714-796-6026 or kwright@ocregister.com
