Puppet theatre

Samuel Lucas JMI School, Hertfordshire

Years 5 and 6 (9 to 11 year-olds)

The children worked collaboratively with an author-illustrator to make a giant puppet theatre, complete with decorated proscenium arch and scenery. This was all hand painted by the children, as were the masks. From an original idea of cardboard puppets, the children, wearing masks, became the puppets and the narrators the puppet masters.

The play was developed out of the students' observations of the principle characters in the painting. They were given appropriate names and identities and even relationships and personality traits. The inspiration for the play was the mystery of the change in Renoir's style over the five years he worked on the painting.

Helen Davis (Lead Teacher)

© Samuel Lucas JMI School. Photo: The National Gallery, London.