Skill sharing, leadership development, and the propagation of puppetry arts are important aspect of Spiral Q's mission. These innovative workshops are designed to teach puppetry and facilitate small group art-making in the neighborhoods and classrooms of Philadelphia.


These workshops have been developed in collaboration with our "Guide to Puppet Pageantry", that was created by a group of teachers, the Philadelphia Education Fund, a Samuel S. Fels Fund Community intern, and the Spiral Q Puppet Theater staff. Spiral Q's workshops are designed to work for you! They easily fit the schedules of schools, community centers, after school programs, summer camps and other neighborhood-based organizations.


Try picking a few workshops and designing your own Spiral Q residency of a week or more!

Please note that workshops must be scheduled at least 2 weeks in advance.

Q Puppetistas

Let's Make a Parade!
People all over the world have made parades to celebrate joyous occasions, honor the dead, and unite their communities to demand better living and working conditions. Hire us to teach your group to build the puppets, flags, wearables, masks, and musical instruments necessary for the parade of your dreams. A great way to bring a whole neighborhood, school or community together!
Time: Varies 10 hours to a month
Ages: 5 and up Maximum participants: Unlimited

The Spiral Q Custom Residency
We've made pole puppets and giant puppets for the Bodine Schools International Day, huge talking heads for a school play at Stoddart-Fleischer School, and created a pageant with Germantown children and elders about domestic violence. These programs were specially designed to realize the visions of the partnering organizations. And we can help you
construct yours as well!

Do you want a giant banner telling the story of your neighborhood? How about a procession of flying creatures carrying silk-screened flags? How about a full-scale performance celebrating a community hero? All these and more are possible. Spiral Q will work with your organization to create the program tailored to your groups skills and needs.

Visit Spiral Q's Puppet Museum
More than just a repository for the community-made giant puppets of the
Philadelphia region, the museum has worked with school groups, after-school programs, senior centers, and social services organizations to offer our guests a voice with which to express and explore the messages most important to them.

In addition to the museum tour itself, which includes six-foot human heads, giant schools of fish, flocks of birds, and an enormous paper-maché matador, visitors can choose from several activities-which can range from making unique masks or puppets to our wildly popular scavenger hunt.
Time: Fridays through September Ages: 8 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Peoplehood: An All City Parade and Pageant!
Every October the Spiral Q Puppet Theater host its largest event of the year. Communities from all over the city bring their puppets, flags and other creations to a huge parade that winds up in Clark Park for a participant-driven public pageant, open to the public. Your group can play an important part of this city-wide event! Workshops for Peoplehood begin in July. They can be workshops listed in this brochure, or like the Puppet Package, you can design your own program with Spiral Q.

The Pageant
A pageant is somewhere between a parade and a play. Often performed in public places like parking lots or parks, pageants rely on larger than life objects to narrate a story. A pageant is the perfect way for your group to articulate and share its message with the world.

Learn about the rich and surprising history of pageants while designing, building, and performing a pageant of your very own. Learn to define a narrative; make a story board; decide what puppets, props and objects are needed; We'll be there to help you rehearse for the big show which will be performed for neighbors, peers, students, you name it! This is great for large numbers and people that are new to performing.
Time: Varies 15 hours to a month
Ages: 8 - adult
Maximum participants: Unlimited

Spiral Q
Puppet Theater Performances
A Spiral Q staff artist will present a theater piece using music and various puppet forms to address an issue of social justice or personal development. The performance can be tailored to fit different age groups and levels of awareness or engagement.

This program is an effective way to broach subject matter that may be difficult to introduce through more conventional means. The program includes a 20-minute show with a 45 minute after program on the given subject matter. Possible subject areas include (but is not limited to): Racial injustice, Gender Inequality, and Building Self-Esteem. This is great in the classroom, at conferences and at demonstrations.
Time: 1.5 hours
Ages: 10 - adult


The Art of Liberation

Basics of Street Theater
Street theater can be a new way to explore difficult issues and inject an organization with renewed energy and perspective. This workshop empowers groups and individuals with the knowledge to create powerful images and objects from words and ideas.

We begin with a discussion about the history of puppetry and its roots as a way for the poor and the disenfranchised to organize and advocate for social change. Participants are exposed to different puppet technologies, resources, and methodologies for organizing an effective performative presence to accompany any protest, march, demonstration or your popular education campaign.
Time: 2 hours
Ages: 13 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Masks and Headgear
Masks have been used around the world for purposes as diverse as spring rites and community celebrations to funeral rituals. The workshop includes an overview of their traditional usage of masks and headpieces and also teaches the participants basic sculptural techniques. Participants build and paint their own headgear in the process of creating an audience ready performance designed to effectively communicate their visions and
aspirations.
Introduction
Time: 3 hours
Ages: 8 - 13
Maximum participants: 20

Advanced
Time: 6 hours
Ages: 13 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Wearables and Multiples
Wearables is a term we use to define any artwork that is used to transform the body into another form. The construction is often simple but can be used to change a person's outward appearance into birds, cars, flowers or any number of things. This medium can be used for anything from celebration to political satire.

Multiples are produced when a group brainstorms images and/ or slogans that are representative of their group, identity or cause. The products of both of these workshops are great in the classroom, at conferences and at demonstrations.
Time: 4 hours
Ages: 6 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Elements of Giant Puppetry
Giant puppets have been used as a fun way to build community and group identity, as an effective media tool and a means of building esprit de corps. This workshop will focus on making a large backpack-framed puppet.

Participants learn papier mache, cardboard sculpting, costume making and painting in order to create their own multi-person puppet that represents their ideas and creative vision.
Time: 10 hours
Ages: 10 - adult
Maximum participants: 15

Contastoria (Italian for sung story)
A Contastoria is an entertaining age-old craft that traveling minstrels used to spread news, stories, and revolutions to the masses. It consists of a short story broken down into sections or pages. Participants illustrate these pages (large pieces of fabric or cardboard) and designate narrators and chorus members to speak, sing, rap, make sound effects and move to each section of the story. The finished product is a simple, fun, and portable piece of group theater that is great for learning about individuals and movements in history.
Time: 8 hours
Age: 8 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Flag making
People have long used flags as rallying points for causes or in times of crisis. This workshop helps participants develop images to create flags that celebrate specific individuals, groups, or ideas. Each participant learns to create at least one flag, made from fabric, paint, bamboo, and other building materials. Together we'll design a synchronized flag dance or procession with songs and chants!
Time: 2 hours
Age: 8 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Silk Screening
Silk Screening is a fun way of reproducing pictures or ideas that then can
be displayed or worn. Students will begin with a concise history of
silk-screening and learn to create their own t-shirts, flags and posters on
various surfaces. (There is an additional materials fee of $25 for this
workshop)
Time: 3 hours
Ages: 10 - adult
Maximum participants: 8


Creative Empowerment

Piñata Making
Piñatas originated centuries ago in Mexico and have long been a center of celebrations and community festivals. In this workshop participants learn a brief history, chose what form the piñata will take, what to fill it with, and even techniques for bashing it! Participants learn to design and build their own piñatas out of balloons, cardboard, newspaper, mache, and paint. Their creations are theirs to keep upon completion of the workshop.
Time: 8 hours
Ages: 13 - adult
Maximum participants: 15

Suitcase or Shoebox Theater
We've all got stories to unpack - some smell like flowers or mothballs, others come from distant lands. Participants in this workshop work to write short stories or poems to enact in their own mini-theaters. This workshop teaches how to transform a shoebox or suitcase into a stage, how to build
simple puppets, and works with students on the development of characters, plot, setting, and performance.
Time: 10 hours
Ages: 10 - adult
Maximum participants: 10

Hand and Rod (Muppet Style) Puppet Building
Hand and rod Puppets represent the most familiar form of puppet since to their popularization by Jim Henson and The Muppets. In this workshop you design and create one of your very own. Participants discuss their creative inspirations and develop their idea for a puppet for use in teaching, theater or personal enjoyment.
Time: 3 hours
Ages: 10 - adult
Maximum participants: 10

Cardboard Caper
This workshop teaches character and plot development in the course of
creating a creative show with just plain cardboard. Participants also
practice with their voices, noises, timing, and movement to put together a
good show that is ready to perform.
Time: 6-8 hours
Ages: 13 - adult
Maximum participants: 10


The Possible Beast

Beasts are typically represented as scary creatures that represent evil or danger. We want to challenge that interpretation. We can build puppet beasts as embodiments of stereotypes, as carriers of our dreams or fears or secrets, as our group mascots, protective totems, or representatives of recovery, addiction, or other important personal and societal issues. It all starts with brainstorming, and discussion about topics that are front and center for your group.

Beast Mobile
After a simple writing activity, brief discussion and instruction period, participants build their own small, individualized beasts. Finished products are powerful symbolic decorations for classrooms or shared spaces.
Time: 2 hours
Ages: 8 - adult
Maximum participants: 25

My Beast
Based on discussion, journaling, and instruction, individuals design and build their own medium-sized beasts out of cardboard, paper, fabric, odds and ends. Depending on time and focus of group, beasts can be stationary art or participants can develop a performance out of their writing and creations.
Time: 5 hours
Ages: 12 - adult
Maximum participants: 20

Our Big Beast
With brainstorming, discussion, theater games, and demonstration, participants in this workshop decide on a beast (or beasts) to be built by whole group. These creations come to life through cooperation, elbow grease, and community building. Perfect for inclusion in parades or events in which your group (or issue) needs to be represented creatively.
Time: 12 hours
Ages: 12 - adult
Maximum participants: 20


Contact us!
To schedule a workshop or if you have any questions at all, call the Ted Enoch at 215.222.6979 or email him at tedenoch@spiralq.org. We would love to hear from you!