Education and Therapy Program 2014 for the Professional Day for Teaching Artists and Therapists Write-up
Name: Marc W Kohler
Currently: Self-employed as puppeteer. face painter, storyteller, arts workshop provider, and Manager of the Roger Williams Educational Foundation.
Cell Phone: 401-286-2221
Web Site: marcwkohler.com
Title: A Method to use Puppets in Education and Therapeutic Situations
Do you work with children and/or teachers?
Both
Overview
The Kohler Puppetry Method is a set of activities which utilize puppet making to provide explorations of fiction, self-esteem, and writing for children, teens, adults, and children and adults in special needs situations. It is based on the idea of making a “quick puppet”, performing and “getting to know” the puppet,
and then using the decisions made about the puppet as a source for writing, performing, and self-discovery. It also places an emphasis ion an understanding of the nature of the art of puppetry—the reality of a puppet, the imperatives of performances, the power of the connection between puppet maker and puppet,
and other positive an profound nature of puppetry in building a creative and inspirational process. It cam rout of my work with a puppet that I invented, hold a patent on, and which was made by over 25,000 children, teens, adults, and special needs children and adults over a twenty year period.
Duration of the project: This program has evolved from 1977 to today.
Type of assessment: None now, but lots of teacher reviews, and I presented part of this project at the Professional Day for Teaching Artists and Therapists at the Puppeters of America Regional Fedstival held at Rhinebck, N.Y. in September.
How it relates to goals, standards, educational styles: The puppet is an excellent educational tool and resource, but too often, the actual act of creating fiction is not included in the process. Pieces are created from “outside” sources, where in this method, all characters are original and created by the puppet makers. This method meets most of the writing goals for the Core Curriculum in writing skills and the arts. The story creation based on the puppet’s character provides all populations a powerful and successful structure for building confidence and confidence in writing and/or recording texts.
The experience that leads to your making this presentation: I made my first “Puffet” when I was a teenager. By 1976, I applied for and received a patent on this puppet U. S. Patent Number: 4,019,570. Over the next 20 years, I directed the Puppet Workshop where we made over 25,000 of these puppets with children teens adults, and special needs children and adults groups.
I have a draft of Introductory Handbook to the Kohler Puppetry Method available if you would like to read it.
Bio: Born in Newark, NJ in 1947, and started performing puppet shows before we moved to Palo Alto, California. In Palo Alto, I worked in my high school theater, the Palo Alto Children’s Theater, and did puppet shows. During the summer of 1965, I worked as the Assistant for Mr. Alan Cook at the Lytton and Savings Loan Association. After graduating from Brown University, I served two years Alternative Service as a Conscientious Objector with the Providence Recreation Department where i performed shows for every school in the City. In 1972, after the service ended, i created The Puppet Workshop which was in business until 1993. We were a non-profit educational puppet theater which created original puppet shows, educational puppet shows, taught puppetry and related arts, and explored new sues of puppets in therapy, communications, and other art forms. You can see much of our work on Youtube Channel: Marc Kohler. Since 1993, I have been doing puppet shows, arts workshops, face painting, and storytelling.
The experience that leads to your making this presentation.
This has been covered in previous sections. I managed the making of over 25,000 Puffets in school and therapeutic agencies over a twenty year period. I believe, though, that it took another twenty years to understand exactly what the Method was and why it works. I realize, too, that the title of the method may sound presumptuous, but it was the best title that i could come up with. It is working method and is based on decades of experience with thousands of clients and students.
Thank you for your consideration.
Marc W. Kohler
Proposal
Do you work with children and/or teachers?
Both
Overview
The Kohler Puppetry Method is a set of activities which utilize puppet making to provide explorations of fiction, self-esteem, and writing for children, teens, adults, and children and adults in special needs situations. It is based on the idea of making a “quick puppet”, performing and “getting to know” the puppet,
and then using the decisions made about the puppet as a source for writing, performing, and self-discovery. It also places an emphasis ion an understanding of the nature of the art of puppetry—the reality of a puppet, the imperatives of performances, the power of the connection between puppet maker and puppet,
and other positive an profound nature of puppetry in building a creative and inspirational process. It cam rout of my work with a puppet that I invented, hold a patent on, and which was made by over 25,000 children, teens, adults, and special needs children and adults over a twenty year period.
Duration of the project: This program has evolved from 1977 to today.
Type of assessment: None now, but lots of teacher reviews, and I presented part of this project at the Professional Day for Teaching Artists and Therapists at the Puppeters of America Regional Fedstival held at Rhinebck, N.Y. in September.
How it relates to goals, standards, educational styles: The puppet is an excellent educational tool and resource, but too often, the actual act of creating fiction is not included in the process. Pieces are created from “outside” sources, where in this method, all characters are original and created by the puppet makers. This method meets most of the writing goals for the Core Curriculum in writing skills and the arts. The story creation based on the puppet’s character provides all populations a powerful and successful structure for building confidence and confidence in writing and/or recording texts.
The experience that leads to your making this presentation: I made my first “Puffet” when I was a teenager. By 1976, I applied for and received a patent on this puppet U. S. Patent Number: 4,019,570. Over the next 20 years, I directed the Puppet Workshop where we made over 25,000 of these puppets with children teens adults, and special needs children and adults groups.
I have a draft of Introductory Handbook to the Kohler Puppetry Method available if you would like to read it.
Bio: Born in Newark, NJ in 1947, and started performing puppet shows before we moved to Palo Alto, California. In Palo Alto, I worked in my high school theater, the Palo Alto Children’s Theater, and did puppet shows. During the summer of 1965, I worked as the Assistant for Mr. Alan Cook at the Lytton and Savings Loan Association. After graduating from Brown University, I served two years Alternative Service as a Conscientious Objector with the Providence Recreation Department where i performed shows for every school in the City. In 1972, after the service ended, i created The Puppet Workshop which was in business until 1993. We were a non-profit educational puppet theater which created original puppet shows, educational puppet shows, taught puppetry and related arts, and explored new sues of puppets in therapy, communications, and other art forms. You can see much of our work on Youtube Channel: Marc Kohler. Since 1993, I have been doing puppet shows, arts workshops, face painting, and storytelling.
The experience that leads to your making this presentation.
This has been covered in previous sections. I managed the making of over 25,000 Puffets in school and therapeutic agencies over a twenty year period. I believe, though, that it took another twenty years to understand exactly what the Method was and why it works. I realize, too, that the title of the method may sound presumptuous, but it was the best title that i could come up with. It is working method and is based on decades of experience with thousands of clients and students.
Thank you for your consideration.
Marc W. Kohler
