On a string but entertaining as ever!

Beyond any doubt the Ishara International Puppet Festival has inspired children and parents to learn and appreciate the art of puppetry.

It was just the first show with Drew Colby and around 100 people had gathered with their family to be part of the show. Little children laughed, shrieked, sobbed and were bowled over by Colby’s finger and shadow thumb theatrics.

Colby’s magical fingers created several cats, dogs, wolves, hare, camel, spider and flies. He engaged the ‘child’ in the assembled gathering, interacting with the children and their parents and narrating stories through his art.

Not unlike a stage performance, Colby singularly handled the stage, the sound and his characters enacting stories from La Fontaine and Aesop. The fast-footed camel, mischievous dog, singing rabbit etc all imparted a moral lesson to the children.

The music too was so emotive and peppy that it was difficult for the children to hold back their excitement.

Colby is a UK-based artiste and has been doing puppetry since he was five. He made puppets out of waste material and paper and invested his time in learning the art all by himself. Since five years he has been into hand and thumb puppetry.

“I think puppetry is something you learn throughout your life. I knew how to make one kind of cat and now I can make several cats with my hands and the same goes for other characters,” Colby told Metrolife.

‘The old lady who swallowed a cow to catch the dog to catch the cat to catch the mouse to catch the spider to catch the fly she swallowed,’ wooed the children, who gathered around Colby after the show holding heart shaped balloons, wishing him luck and sending him flying kisses. Parents were also enquiring about any puppetry classes being held in Delhi.

Carol Sterling from United States is a Fulbright scholar who was also present at the festival. She will be in India for five weeks more, travelling to different cities and teaching children the art of puppetry.

Sterling says, “When a puppet does something wrong, it’s not the child, it’s the puppet. I make children do goofy things before starting any class so that they can open up.”

Sterling is holding classes at Ambience Public School and has put together workshops to strengthen vocabulary, written and oral expression of the children.

Sterling adds, “Puppetry can teach life skills to children at a very early stage, for example, dealing with bullying is one. I make children open up through puppets and confront the bully through words and silence and not with violence.”

Most people may wonder that puppetry is a form of entertainment and specific to artistes, but puppetry is also a medium of education and can be adopted as a hobby by anyone, and Sterling proves this. During a conversation with Metrolife she spoke not in one voice but three or four. And, if one believes that this art is targeting adults then they may be wrong again.

Dadi Pudumjee, the visualiser of the festival has done this for the past 13 years. “We started with four countries representing themselves and today, we have over 20. I hope we keep growing on these grounds.”

Also, Pudumjee explained, these artistes from different countries are self-funded and are participating of their own accord. This year the festival includes Portugal which is participating for the first time.

Ishara International Puppet Festival plays will be on at India Habitat Centre and Epicentre, Gurgaon till February 11 from 7.30 pm onwards.