Art of Puppetry workshop by Dadi Pudumjee

The Communication Design and Interior Architecture & Design (IIAD) hosted an interdisciplinary workshop on the Art of Puppetry with the renowned puppeteer - Dadi Pudumjee, a Padma Shri awardee. He is also the founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust and has been was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992.

Storytelling has become a part of every culture and the most effective medium of communication throughout history.  In the current times where digital art has dominated the media landscape, traditional mediums like performing arts and puppetry still offer a strong insight into the evolution of storytelling.

Design is based on telling a story and giving narrative arcs to thoughtful experiences. To inculcate the ethos of this art of storytelling into the designs that the students will create, a workshop was organised.  It was a two-week-long intensive session of theoretical and practical approaches to the visual theatre-making process, with a focus on story development, puppet making and performing arts. With special emphasis on the art of puppetry, concepts of performance and storytelling, the workshop incorporated the learnings from image making, animation, spatial narratives, construction methods and material exploration.

The interdisciplinary workshop was aimed at upgrading the act of individuality in students and crafting puppets in a personalised manner. Besides, the intent was also to help students understand unique mediums of storytelling and their importance.

Students of  Communication Design and Interior Architecture & Design, Level 5 actively participated in the workshop conducted by Dadi Pudumjee. The workshop was to keep storytelling as the central theme and subsequently allow students to experiment with materials and methods of representation. The workshop covered immersive shadow theatre/storytelling, tabletop object theatre, crushed paper puppet theatre, masks and dance performances and single-screen shadow puppets. The session captivated students and faculty alike with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to watch the maestro, Dadi Pudumjee himself work his wonders. Pudumjee said “We as a country should have more traditional puppet theatres as compared to the urban-based modern puppet theatres. We definitely need to do much more to revive puppetry in the country and continue to keep it alive and thriving.”