Shadow Puppet Workshops- Songs of the Abyss Tour 2013

While on tour with Ishi's Brain,  Eamon and I had the opportunity to facilitate Shadow Puppetry Workshops for a wide variety of participants and venues. We shared our experience and talked about the International history of shadow puppetry  with youth, art and puppetry enthusiasts, puppeteers, teachers, and senior citizens in California, Ohio, and New Mexico.

Puppets Retake Northeast Los Angeles Festival (Los Angeles CA)

Short Stop Youth Program (Columbus OH)

Wise Fool New Mexico (Santa Fe NM)

Quest Fest 2012- Community Arts Residency

As part of Quest Fest 2012, an annual international visual theater festival in Baltimore, we at Black Cherry Puppet Theater did a community arts residencies in collaboration with the Creative Alliance's Open Minds after school arts programs.

I worked with a group of high schoolers at a local library.

We used the Lakota ghost story "The Man Who Was Afraid of Nothing" as inspiration for our puppet show.  We read the story and discussed its origin, themes, and relevance to our culture today.  The students designed the set and puppets for the show, and we collaborated on expressing the story through wordless-choreography set to music, which helped our show be accessible to the broadest audience possible.

QuestFest Community Showcasewith Black Cherry Puppet TheaterSaturday Mar 24, 4pm. Eastern Ave Puppet Parade 3:30pm FREE! Creative Alliance at The Patterson 3134 Eastern Avenue Baltimore Maryland 21224

Creative Alliance wraps our QuestFest community residencies with a showcase of visual theater, featuring our own Open Minds youth with Black Cherry Puppet Theater, and folktales told through movement & gesture by students from Friendship Academy, Gwynn’s Falls Elementary and MD School for the Deaf. Opens with a puppet parade on Eastern Ave bus stops by Communities for All Ages, Baltimore Medical System and FAST at 3:30pm. Reception follows.

Presented by QuestFest.

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We had our last rehearsals yesterday, and our performance will be this Saturday March 24th.

It is also being held at the Creative Alliance and is Free and open to the public

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Recreation Center Puppetry Workshop - Baltimore City

 

This past summer, I had the opportunity to work at a Baltimore City Recreation Center with several groups of young people.  After several weeks of projects that introduce the kids to building types of hand and rod puppets, we ended the summer camp with a puppet show. "Zombies In My Neighborhood" was written, designed, and choreographed by the older boys in the program.  

I helped the boys choose their roles (as director, set designer, choreographer, etc.) in the creation of the show, as well as facilitated and moderated production meetings.  Giving the older boys the responsibility and freedom to create a show and a performance date deadline kept them focused and excited for art class duration of camp.

 They performed for an audience of the younger kids in the Recreation Center, and it was a fun time for everyone.  Especially the surprise choreographed Thriller dance sequence!  After the show they all were excited to make puppets and try out being puppeteers!

Shrine Workshop at The International Art In Response to Violence Confrence

I was invited to give a talk and host a workshop at the 1st International Art in Response to Violence Conference at Northeastern Illinois University held September 30-October 1, 2010.

This event was sponsored by the Illinois Art Therapy Association, Adler School for Professional Psychology, as well as the MA in Counseling, Fine Art, and Psychology departments at NEIU.

I gave a presentation about my experiences working in communities as an artist since moving to Baltimore in 2008 and hosted a workshop on building shrines.

Creative Activity Workshop

Workshop Title: Shrine Building Workshop

Proposal: I have been building small shrines from things I find on the streets of Baltimore City. I collect objects and arrange them in handmade boxes, creating something beautiful from a very turbulent and violent city. In this workshop, materials will be provided for construction of a small shrine or amulet. Participants will be guided through quiet personal reflection on a difficult experience, and technical assistance will be provided for the design and creation of an object to symbolically transform or commemorate their survival of the situation. Participants will keep their shrines or amulets.

These are some of the end products:

I would definitely give this type of workshop again. I enjoyed the atmosphere working with a group of artists and art therapists, but I could see doing this with many different groups of people. The participants in this workshop really liked the way the it was organized and I was satisfied with the outcome of the prompts I used for the project.

This was the description I submitted for my presentation:

Paper presentation

Presentation Title: UnWIREing Baltimore

Proposal: The Wire, a popular television series, has familiarized people all over the world with Baltimore’s story- the corruption, the high murder rates, the 42,000 abandoned houses, the heroin and gang activity…but there is another story that needs to be told. I would like to share my field experience as an artist working with inner city youth in those neighborhoods of Baltimore. In my presentation, I will share art programming and student work from these neighborhoods, as well as a slide show of several of my own shrine installation and sculptural art works that have emerged from their stories and my own reflections. I will provide information, stories, and effects of other activists’ projects and partnerships with the city- such as murals and community gardens that have transformed abandoned lots where drug and gang activity had been taking place. Such undertakings in these neighborhoods provide a source of inspiration and hope for the community.

The presentation was very cathartic for me. I have had a wide range of experiences in Baltimore and needed to mark my growth since leaving Chicago. It was very helpful for me to take the time to process my experiences and have a venue to share with an interested audience.

Presenter Bio

Lisa Krause (b.1979) is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. A native of Illinois and 2007 graduate of Northeastern Illinois University,she focused her BA on art-based research with youth in psychology and recycled materials in sculptural installation. Currently, Lisa facilitates art workshops for youth in rough neighborhoods, builds shrines and bear-bombs, & participates in solo, group, and puppet shows.