For Puppetry,
Collaborative Arts
& Creative Health
Provisions
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Founders of
Workshops
Throughout 2024-2026, we will be launching a brand new 'menu' of bookable collaborative arts & puppetry workshops, making it easier than ever to choose the creative offers that best suit your comunities needs and artistic ambitions.
Many of the workshops below have been devised following an initial pilot run under one of our time limited, grant funded projects, and as such were created with specific target audiences or creative purposes in mind.
New workshops are being added as and when our devising team develop them - including a brand new option >
'The Quest of the 5 Realms'; designed to guide you and your participants through curating your very own 'creative quest' - it's our invitation for you to 'break the mold' and cause some creative chaos with us!
All workshops will offer you the chance to work alongside and in collaboration with our professional artists and specialist practitioners to explore multiple artforms, through one off workshops, a series of 6-12 regularly scheduled workshops or long running/seasonal programmes, devised or adapted especially for your group or setting.
If you'd like to discuss your groups needs, artistic ambitions or idea's before booking, just get in touch! We're happy to meet in person, online or chat by phone, and if you prefer (or require) non-verbal methods of communication, you can also reach us via DM on our socials - we're on facebook, messenger and most frequently, instagram.
Our publicly available workshops are listed below.
PLEASE NOTE: You may need to join a waiting list for booking dates & locations,
which may be restricted due to seasonal capacity and/or creative team availability.
NEW FOR 2024 ONWARDS! > 'PUPPETRY SPIRITS OF THE SEA'
PARADE PUPPETS & WORKSHOPS
If you've been out & about in the South West or following us online recently, you may have already encountered our brand new magical parade puppetry offer, titled 'Spirits of the Sea'.
Produced in celebration of the fact we live and work in 'Britain's Ocean City' of Plymouth, Devon, this is a highly interactive creative provision comprising of a colourful cast of mythical sea creatures, including our 3-metre long featured 'scootabout' puppet, 'Leafy' the sea dragon. Leafy is our biggest 'scootabout' character to date and is operated by a disabled puppeteer on a mobility scooter. He has a fully articulated head, moving eyes and fins, and can even blow magical bubbles!
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Spirits of the Sea also features a giant Sea Turtle 'Ripples' originally commissioned by National Marine Aquarium Plymouth in support of Ocean Conservation Trust, where this provision made its first public appearances at World Turtle Day and World Ocean Day events in Summer 2024. The puppets also made an appearance at Plymouth's West End Parade and accompanied by a rail of puppets for public use, it's now available to book for events, festivals and community workshops, where we can teach you how to be a puppeteer for a day or run group puppet making activities with your communities ahead of an event you're planning.
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'Spirits of the Sea' is publicly open to book, but availability is very limited. Prices start at £500. Please email clare@brokenpuppet.co for more details.
SUSTAINABLE PUPPET MAKING - WORKSHOPS FOR EVERYONE!
Join our colourful characters 'Scrap' the Mouse and 'Scrunch' the Squirrel in their fictional puppetry workshop, where they've been very, very busy collecting the rubbish we humans don't need or want anymore, and turning it into fantastical creatures and beings from their wild and uninhibited imaginations!
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This is our most popular workshop for primary schools and community groups working with children under 12, but it can also be adapted to suit groups of any age and is very well suited to mixed ability & SEN groups too!
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These workshops help teach about sustainability, materiality and environmental responsibilities in a fun and light-hearted, proactive way.
'HEART-HITTING' DISABILITY & INCLUSIVE PRACTICE SEMINARS
AND CREATIVE HEALTH FOCUSED PUPPETRY & COLLABORATIVE ARTS PROGRAMMES
- ALL DEVELOPED & DELIVERED BY ARTISTS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE! -
Broken: Live! is our most specialised and well established workshop programme. It began in 2016 with Arts Council England backing, and is now a touring workshop, seminar and interactive/immersive training programme for students of the arts, creative health, medical and educational sectors. It's for HE/FE/CPD participatory groups, with patrons over the age of 16, due to the sensitive content.
We also take this programme into companies who have a genuine ambition to become more inclusive and incorporate a deeper level of understanding within their working environments.
We share our lived experience of the complexities of living with invisible disabilities through using applied puppetry, theatre, creative writing techniques and a healthy dose of humour; creating a safe space for your team and students to explore these themes too; sharing knowledge and promoting understanding, generating empathy and creating action plans to help make inclusive practices more transparent, readily accessible and easier to implement for everyone.
QUEST OF
THE 5
REALMS
NEW FOR 2024 ONWARDS! > GET OUR HELP WITH YOUR CREATIVE HEALTH PROGRAMMING,
COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS OR ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT!
Workshop ideas for your next creative programme under the guidance of our experienced artists, practitioners and facilitators. With over 20 years of experience devising, developing and delivering community engagement initiatives and collaborative arts projects, our Creative Director (Clare) can guide you through the processes we use to ensure your next arts or creative health project is led by those who will benefit most from it, using our tried and tested approach to programme development, The 5 Elements.
MENTORING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR DISABLED ARTISTS
If you are an artist, maker, puppetry, theatre or collaborative arts practitioner who has lived experience of chronic illness or disability - or if you'd like to learn more about developing your artistic practice to work with artists and communities who do - then you may be able to join us for our mentored co-working/peer support & artistic development sessions, frequently held at Market Hall in Devonport, Plymouth. A small team of freelance and associate artists, student practitioners and puppeteers get together for one afternoon a week (whenever we can in between paid bookings) working alongside our Creative Director/Producer to devise new work and develop key skills.
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These sessions are not publicly available to book, and spaces are limited, but if you are interested in joining us, please email clare@brokenpuppet.co and we'll arrange an informal chat to see if they are a good fit for you! Free for TIPA Members. Activity Fees may apply to some sessions.
Puppets
&
Chips
ONLINE & FACE TO FACE SOCIALS / WORKSHOPS FOR PUPPETEERS & MAKERS
Randomly scheduled online or in person social evenings and TIPA Members workshops take place on an ad-hoc basis throughout the year. These are organised by members, for members and collaborators and are fun, informal, social events and skills sharing opportunities that aim to connect regionally isolated artists together more regularly, so that we can act as a cohesive community, despite us all working for different organisations, running our own companies, being freelancers, newbies or passionate hobbyists!
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These gatherings usually involve lots of puppets and plenty of chips! Most sessions are open to anyone interested in joining the local puppetry community, no matter if you're completely new to the artform or have decades of experience to share - everyone is welcome! Socials are free to attend but we also occasionally offer ticketed skills workshops.
Follow us on instagram @brokenpuppetco for updates!