KARRIE MARSHALL describes Zenwing Puppet’s pioneering puppetry work with adults who use social and care services

A larger-than-life Diva, in tight red dress and sparkly shoes, dances at the end of Fran’s bed in a care home for older people.  It may seem counter-intuitive to have such a lively puppet visiting someone so very frail, but we have been connecting with Fran through a variety of dancing puppets.

The dramatic Diva, who tours in a Zenwing show, leans back as she does a high kick. Fran, whose face is often contorted with pain, bursts out laughing. The Diva blows her kisses as she does the splits. Fran keeps on laughing. For these few minutes she seems utterly transformed and free.

‘Puppetry for creative minds’ is one of Zenwing Puppets innovative programmes for working with adults who use care services. Our backgrounds include a useful mix of professional care and lecturing, with acting and puppetry.

Self-Portrait puppets made with people in Mo Dhachaidh Care Home, Ullapool

Support from Hi-Arts and H.I.E. got us started 6 years ago, and we are very lucky to do such joyful work. It is all about making a connection, exploring ways to communicate and sharing stories, with or without words.

Puppets engage people in imaginary worlds, a world between worlds, open to anyone. This forms the basis of the first principle under-pinning all our work: Puppetry is all-inclusive. Creativity and imagination have no boundaries, no exclusion zones.  Elements of the programmes creep into our touring puppet shows, and vice-versa.

We are excited about all the research that says creativity and imagination can remain intact right to the very end of our lives. Dr Gene Cohen, who studied the effects of aging (The Creativity and Aging Study: The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults  Final Report: April 2006), found that creativity continues to develop throughout life. His studies also showed that working with professional artists has a positive impact on physical and emotional well being.

Zenwing’s Bed-Theatre with puppet kittens and wool

Some people enjoy the puppet-making activities. Harry’s hand hovers above the wooden puppet body he is about to work on. He clutches the sandpaper and makes sanding movements in mid- air, way above his block of wood. Someone else’s’ hand cups his, joining in with the sanding motion, whilst guiding Harry’s sandpaper to make contact with the wood. Harry beams. ‘Now I’m working’ he says with pride.

Harry, in his 80’s, has a form of dementia that affects his vision and recent memory. It was thought that he might struggle to participate. But his sense of pride, of self-esteem and appreciation remains intact.

Bird is offered tea

“It’s wonderful as a nurse,”says Michelle, “to see the interaction and participation … some people will go that wee bit further …  it’s amazing what you can do … it’s all about communication.”

Over the years we have developed programmes that aim to involve staff and relatives, so ideas can continue after we have gone. For example, one relative discovered that having a puppet kitten in his pocket gave him another way of connecting with his mother, whose words had left her. Animal puppets can be used in a variety of ways. They do not require recent memory or words. Puppetry is very ‘now’ … in the moment. Zen-like.

Maggie & Rocky amuse each other

We feel very tuned in to people’s feelings through the puppets. Sometimes, the response is so subtle, others may miss it, but we can feel the connection and build on it. The response becomes more pronounced and we experience a lot of laughter.

“I think the puppets are fantastic,” says Gail, who resides at the home. She flits around the room with the comic-book style puppets she has helped to make.

We are grateful to the Macphail Centre, Ullapool, and the Highland Council for part-funding the work at Mo Dhachaidh (a Barchester Care Home), in Ullapool.  We have been gaining experience in this work for a number of years, and know it makes a difference.

We took up the opportunity to study dementia a few years ago, with a small grant from Puppet Animation Scotland. We made hospital visits, read text books, visited the Dementia Services Development Centre in Stirling, and made great contact with Hearts & Minds in Edinburgh.

A variety of puppet-making activities take place

Our projects and programmes run in various settings. This has included Birchwood Highland (for people recovering from mental ill health), and Alzheimer Scotland (in a day service). We know 110% that applied puppetry can be a powerful way to connect with people, regardless of how they are experiencing the world. Using pieces of narrative and puppetry, we co-create meaningful work.

‘Can You See Me?’ was a valuable three-month project in Invergordon and Inverness, run in partnership with Birchwood Highland.  We were part funded by a grant from ‘See Me’ . The work about mental ill-health & recovery, was incredibly moving and yet so humorous.

Mental health & recovery project puppet made by participant

The Highland Council’s Health Improvement Manager enabled the work to be shown in Eden Court as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. The audience feedback was overwhelmingly up-lifting and genuinely appreciative of the stories being shared through puppetry. Irisaria Productions and Zenwing Puppets made DVD’s about the process and the stories. These are still available from Birchwood Highland for approximately £10.

In the early years, people were skeptical about our work regarding the use of puppets with adults. We were always clear that puppetry has an established history of making political and social comment; so using puppets to explore management issues or adult mental health experiences, seemed natural. Now, attitudes are changing. Our puppetry work is becoming recognised for its person-centred and creative approaches to communication with adults.

We have given talks in Perth-shire (for the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability); London (for The London School of Speech & Drama at The Little Angel’s Applied Puppetry Symposium); Milton Keynes (for the Open University narrative/ story work), and at local events.

Theatre created with people in care home

People tell us how inspired they feel by our work. This comes from realizing that people with profoundly challenging experiences, can still feel the emotions that make a life worth living. We each have the capacity to use our imagination or tap into the creative energy that is always there. We can all make human connections and inspire one another.

Puppet-breathing time… establishing connection

An isolated gentleman sits and sighs. Rocky, the mouth puppet with bright red lips, sighs as well. Together they sit in the living room, sighing and breathing in unison; in solidarity. After a few weeks the gentleman reaches out to Rocky. Another time he smiles. Eventually he says: “Excuse me, I want to join the party, but I don’t know the words.”   Maggie puppet finds the words that have meaning for this gentleman… Together they sing ‘Amazing Grace’.

Meanwhile, Bert has started to speak with other people in the living room. He uses his puppet to tell everyone about the time he tossed the caber at the Highland games. “It went over 200 yards …. Aye… I think I won a silver medal for it.”  For a while, everyone basks in Bert’s obvious glory.  Creativity has no boundaries. No exclusion zones. Anything is possible.

We are fully committed to finding more ways for this work to continue. We have several plans and ideas we would like to take forward. If you have any comments, or want more information, please contact karrie@zenwingpuppets.com

© Karrie Marshall, 2011

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