Seminars - Workshops

Since 2000, the Experimental Stage of Kalamata created an adult puppet theater group and started organizing puppet shows. At the same time, the artistic group of the association started to organize puppet making workshops, to embody the heroes of the first performances. Then members of the group (artisans) were trained in corresponding seminars and led the effort of learning and other friends in the construction and animation of a theater doll.

These groups were open to everyone and were attended by many interested parties, mainly teachers, unemployed and pensioners. In addition to the theater doll, other interesting things to learn were added, such as theater education seminars for adults and various visual handicraft techniques (cloth dolls and toys, patchwork technique, papier mâché, decoupage, constructions with metal, wood, glass, paper, fabric).

All these creative and educational actions offered a strong motivation to all of them (in the majority women) to train in creative techniques of making handicrafts unknown to them, to fill their time constructively, but also to participate in social creative gatherings. An important benefit of these workshops for many of the participants is the knowledge gained, through the transmission of creative experience from old members of our association to the new members, in terms of solving, even partially, financial and professional problems.

We can document the workshops in the time of their organization, before 2017 when the Puppet Theater Festival started and after. During the Festivals most workshops had professional puppeteers and puppeteers as instructors. 

We are starting the recording of the most important seminars-workshops held for children and adults. We clarify that the seminars are more theoretical in nature, while the workshops also include the field of construction and therefore last longer. 

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2004 – 2016

The first two workshops held were aimed at children accompanied by parents. They took place September 24-26, 2004 in Kalamata as part of the three-day theater festival entitled "Theatre Walks in the City Streets" organized by the Experimental Stage of Kalamata in collaboration with the PANTUM street theater group.

One had the theme of "manufacturing handmade musical instruments" and a musical event with the children in the park of the Railways, and the second workshop took place in the "Panellinion" area of the port, it was visual in nature and "theatrical masks" were made in the traditional way and painted by children with the help of adults. Over 60 people, young and old, took part in both workshops. The experience was unique for this and they repeated themselves many times within the framework of the theatrical game.

In 2004 and 2005, after a trip to Prague, the city of puppets, and on the occasion of the performances that were staged in those years, "Land of the birds" and "The love of the swan", we attempted with the puppet theater group to make goofy dolls which impressed the public.

Then, experimenting with various materials and techniques, we decided to do the first big and open workshop of making and animating theatrical glove puppets in public for adults in 2008, fulfilling the wish of many friends, mainly teachers, who showed interest.

The first took place in the club's hall May 31 - June 1, 2008 and lasted 21 hours. The program included: 7 three-hour lessons, a puppet show and a puppet show, In detail the lessons were about:

• 1^st & 2^nd lesson: Making and Sculpting a doll's head (3+3 hours)
• 3^rd & 4^th lesson: Finishing, Painting and Decorating a doll's head (3+3 hours)
• 5^th & 6^th lesson: Sewing the doll's theatrical costume (3+3 hours)
• 7^th lesson: Handling and playing techniques of the doll (3 hours)

The first 6 lessons were taught by Letta Petroulaki. In the 7^th lesson, animation was taught by the professional puppeteer Takis Sarris from Athens, who also presented 2 puppet shows, one for children and one for adults. 25 adults took part.

The same workshop on "making and animating a theatrical glove puppet" was repeated in 2009 and 2010 with a longer duration for teachers as well as for those who want to expand their artistic pursuits.

The seminar program consisted of 10 courses:

1. Introduction to "puppet theater and its role in education" (1 hour) 
2. Presentation of a collection of dolls. Choose a doll character (1 hour)
3. Doll head construction and sculpting (5 hours)
4. Finishing, painting and decorating doll's head (6 hours)
5. Doll body construction (6 hours)
6. Sewing with a pattern of the doll's theater costume (5 hours)
7. Puppet manipulation and animation techniques (2 hours)
8. Dramatization of fairy tales for puppet theater (2 hours)
9. Presentation by trainees of their work (2 hours)

The construction was entirely taught by Letta Petroulaki and the animation was overseen by the actress and director Christina Dimiza. 15 adults participated each year.

In 2012, on the occasion of the performances "The Milia /the Appletree" by Em. Roydis and "Little Red Riding Hood" it was attempted to create the first giant dolls which were an impressive and original experiment for everyone.

From 2013 to 2016 we start to create the heroes of the shows with table puppets with limbs, finding that their animation is more successful, because they can move beautifully and impress our little friends.

Classic stories and fairy tales such as "The Adventures of Ulysses”, “Don Quixote" and "Pinocchio" come to life with this type of theatrical puppet.

In 2015, alongside the construction of our heroes, we organize 2 open table doll workshops with limbs for the public. These workshops last a month and are among all workshops the most difficult and complex. We use wood pulp or papier-mâché for the head sculpt, wood for the body and limbs, and fabric for the suit. The construction was taught by Letta Petroulaki and more than 25 adults took part.

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2017 – present

In 2017, we decide to stage together with actors the folk tale "Poulia and Augerinos/ Pleiades and Morning Star" and the dolls should be giant, larger than human size. Puppets that completely cover the puppeteers and make them invisible. They coincide with the 1^st Kalamata Panhellenic Puppet Theater Festival and impress many interested parties. We organize 2 giant doll making workshops in Kalamata, a giant doll seminar in Sparta, at the Thematic Museum of Olives and Olives and another one in Gargalianoi. Letta Petroulaki teaches the papier mâché technique for making the head.

Then we try to have our dolls have variety in their construction according to their role. In 2019 we are organizing a mappet workshop with puppeteer Iro Theodorou as instructor, on March 15, 16 and 17. 12 Adult learners took part.

All the rest of the theater puppet workshops took place within the framework of the festivals and are mentioned in their program.

However, in addition to the workshops or seminars of theatrical puppets, the visual group of the club and the people in charge of theatrical play have been organizing all these years for the friends of the club workshops and seminars with various topics of theater education and various visual handicraft techniques. Analytically:

The Experimental Stage of Kalamata organized many years mainly the Spring “seminar of theater education-theatrical play-music kinetics" for adults. The lessons were experiential, with a similar philosophy to the Experimental Stage workshops for young students. The theater play animator Sergios Sofikitis and the musician Katerina Petroulaki taught.

The course program consisted, among others, of the following modules:

• Cycle of adaptation and cultivation of group and individual dynamics through actions, improvisation exercises and dramatic expression  
• Role playing, harnessing a story, possibilities of narrative ways to present a tale
• Cycle of motor expression-training of speech rhythm and music-motor training, learning the method of musical sticks (boomwackers) 
• Ways to use theater play in the daily school life of children, whether they are toddlers, or they are studying in every class of Primary school  

At the end of the lessons, participants will work in groups to organize and present their own theatrical improvisation proposal. The cycle of these courses was completed in 4 meetings every Sunday, March-April lasting three hours from 11.00 to 2.00 in the afternoon.

Another type of craft workshop for adults was "Make a cloth doll or cloth toys" for 3 or 4 three-hour sessions. The plan of the meetings consisted of the following lessons:

• Body and costume pattern making
• Sewing on the sewing machine, stuffing and assembling the body
• Hair and costume making and accessories
• Face painting and ways to paint on fabric

Patterns are offered in various sizes and styles of decorative dolls and the whole process of making, materials, patterned suit, hair, accessories, face painting was taught. Over 10 similar workshops were conducted on adults and over 100 dolls of all sizes were made. Letta Petroulaki taught for free.

Up to 2019, more than 4 cloth toys and decorative items workshops were held in the same stretch. They took place mainly in the autumn and the projects framed craft exhibitions organized by the club before Christmas. The works exhibited were sold to support the association. Taught by Letta Petroulaki.

Interesting workshops for adults were also the teaching of visual techniques such as patchwork technique, collage technique on fabric and paper, decoupage technique and papier mâché technique.

They were:

• Many workshops with the "decoupage technique", from L. Petroulaki mainly to members and friends of the council, whose works framed the handicraft exhibitions of the association.

Since 2017 and the beginning of the Puppetry festivals, many seminars and workshops have been held within the framework of the Festivals which are detailed in their program. 

Online courses

Since the beginning of the pandemic, open seminars and workshops stopped taking place and some were only held online. 

In December 2020, a small workshop was held by 3 members of the Board of Directors. where 30 elf dolls were made. They were donated to the theater children who stopped classes due to the pandemic.

At the beginning of the pandemic, 2000 protective cloth masks were made by a crew of 30 female volunteers. They were offered to the staff of the Kalamata Hospital and the Health Center.

In 2020, 2 online marotte workshops were held with recyclable materials. The theme had figures from the "heroes of 1821".

• The first "online workshop of marottes with recyclable materials" was made in collaboration with the Thematic Museum of Hydrokinesis Dimitsanas of the Cultural Group of Piraeus Bank. It lasted 5 hours and was held in two online meetings. Dimitsanas school students took part with their parents. Taught by Letta Petroulaki. Paper, tape, wooden rod, cloth, knitting wool, paints were used.
• The second "recyclables online workshop" was open to the public, for adults. It was entitled "Forms of 21" and was held in the context of the celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the revolution. Around 25 adults from all over Greece took part. It lasted 5 hours and was held in two online meetings in collaboration with KE.PE.PSO. Taught by Letta Petroulaki. Paper, tape, wooden rod, cloth, knitting wool, paints were used.