NEWTOWN ITALIAN SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER SHADOW PUPPET STORYTELLING WORKSHOP Friday June 2, 2023

 NEWTOWN ITALIAN SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER

SHADOW PUPPET STORYTELLING WORKSHOP

Friday June 2, 2023

Today is our final class before the Public Celebration on June 9. It has been a privilege and an honor to be working again with my colleague Spica Wobbe and the amazing students of the Shadow Puppet Storytelling Workshop at Newtown Italian Senior Citizen Center. We want to express our sincerest gratitude to the Director, Maria Cuoco and her assistant, Heidi Schmidt as well as the rest of the staff. They have enthusiastically supported our program and offered us assistance whenever it’s been requested.

 

Spica met early with Paul and Rita Tang to go over their shadow puppet performance. Once in the classroom, Paul performed his story twice for recording purposes. As Paul cannot attend the Public Celebration next week, we will play a video of this performance. Other students marveled at Paul’s deft manipulation of his puppets as well as his clear storytelling. Paul told the story of his experience of the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11, his subsequent cancer diagnosis as a result of being in the close vicinity and his use of Tai Chi as a means of regaining his health. Paul also masterfully incorporated sound effects to enhance his storytelling.

 

Each student took their turn telling their story through the medium of shadow puppets. This also gave them an opportunity to practice how to best manipulate each puppet, bringing the puppet close to the light source then slowly revealing it as well as the entrances and exits of each puppet. 

 

Nerissa in My Travels, tells the story of the many countries she traveled to on a steamboat as a member of the Girl Scouts from her homeland in the Philippines, through Southeast Asia. As an adult she has continued her travels including her dream of visiting Spain, which she symbolizes by opening a real fan in the shadow screen.

 

Chui Fong’s Gardening Fun tells of her love of gardening showing her using a shovel and watering can to grow her many vegetables including a bitter melon. Rita retells her childhood memory in Hong Kong, The Charity Event on the Master’s Birthday of going with her mom to receive free food from the owner of a lumber store who was giving away food for his birthday. She incorporated the store sign as well as the various pots of different food, cleverly distinguished by use of colored cellophane. 

 

Nidia tells a very personal story of her son’s depression when they moved to Spain after a 3 month visit to NY. He missed his new life in NY so much, she decided it best to give up her dream of Spain and start a life in the USA. Why I am in the U.S. explains her story and the successful lives her and her son have built here. Rona tells the story of My First Communion, with a large church replete with stained glass windows made with colored cellophane and doors that open. Her shadow puppets include a large candle and the pew she knelt at. She uses her own hands to pray the Rosary.

 

Fabiola put the finishing touches to her puppets by making a large guava using green cellophane and adding a guava tree beside her house. She also added color to the windows of her house and the church which feature in her story, History of Fabiola. She tells the story of the guava tree which grew in the yard of her childhood home in Colombia and the guavas her older sister would give her. She also remembers her older sister going to church to get married. Beatriz, wrote out her story so she would be better prepared for her performance, Growing Plants. Her puppetry includes 2 flowers which emerge slowly from the bottom of the frame after she waters then with her watering can. Hilda won’t be able to attend the Public Celebration next week but is happy for us to present her shadow puppets, including a colorful title page, Memories, her carefully traced face and flexible body puppet. 

 

Everyone is excited to have the opportunity to present their work at Flushing Town Hall before an audience of fellow shadow puppetry participants from another older adult center, friends, and family.