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“We incorporated Larrikin Puppets into our Design Technology and Drama units. The Year 1 students absolutely loved the puppet show and were completely engaged throughout it. The opportunity to learn how they work was fabulous.”
Puppeteers Brett Hansen and Elissa Jenkins and their cast of funny characters provide high quality children’s entertainment, education and fun for schools across Australia, including in and around Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.
Some of our school incursion options are listed below, but there’s also a comprehensive Primary School Incursion Info Pack available and a Rate Card. We can put together a proper quote once we know how many sessions you’ll need and how many students per class. For multiple shows or workshops in the same location we can offer an attractive discount package.
Our comprehensive Primary School Incursion Info Pack outlines all the available options and curriculum links. For costs and discount packages, check out Rate Card #1 – Primary School.
Option 1: Puppet Show
Our puppet show is a colourful, interactive and crowd-pleasing comedy variety show for schools which includes a segment at the end on how the puppets work. The performance is 45 minutes, including a “how the puppets work segment” and the option to have a meet-and-greet or a class photo with the puppets at the end.
Our comedy puppet show always goes down a treat, but we also offer themed and educational puppet shows including: Marina’s Marine Adventure, Health & Wellbeing, Kindness & Anti-Bullying, Environmental Sustainability, Musical Christmas or Australia Day. Have a browse then let us know what you’d like to book!
For costs and discount packages, check out Rate Card #1 – Primary School.
Cost Covers:
- Two Puppeteers.
- 30 minute puppet show of songs, games, jokes and comical interaction with the audience.
- 5 minute “How the puppets work” demonstration.
- 10 minute puppet meet-and-greet / Photo opportunity.
- Time allowance for travel to and from venue.
- Set-up and pack-down of the puppet stage, props, puppets and sound equipment.
- Rehearsal time prior to the event.
- Quality characters.
- Quality puppetry.
Contact us to discuss a puppet show at school.
Option 2: Puppetry Performance Workshop
Our puppetry performance workshops are invaluable to school students of all ages from Prep to Year 6 as well as high school English and Drama.
Larrikin Puppets provides performances and workshops that form part of the Australian primary school Prep to Year 2 Design and Technologies curriculum. As part of this curriculum students create a simple two dimensional design then learn about working parts and how to turn their design into a three dimensional puppet character.
Our puppetry performance workshop is a hands on workshop teaching students the mechanisms of Muppet-style puppetry. We provide 45 of our professional workshop puppets for students to use in the session. We also have little puppet eyes (pictured) that we use in the class too. We teach lip sync, eye focus, walking, arm movement, character voices, etc.
Puppetry is great for building confidence, improving communication and making people laugh. Students get an opportunity to come up on stage and demonstrate what they’ve learnt in the class.
There are three performance workshop options available:
45 min – 1 hour workshop: Short puppet show at the beginning to show how the puppets look when performed; educational talk about different styles of puppetry and how the puppets work; a hands-on puppetry performance workshop.
Cost: For costs, visit our Schools Rates Card. Maximum of 50 students per workshop.
1 1/2 hour workshop: As well as all of the above, this option includes the opportunity for students to view the Larrikin Puppets puppet show from both the audience perspective and from backstage. This is a wonderful and rare opportunity for students to watch puppeteers in action. Students also learn a group puppet dance choreography.
Cost: For costs and discount packages, check out Rate Card #1 – Primary School. Maximum of 50 students per workshop.
2 hour workshop – Puppetry Performance Workshop For Stage And Screen: This very special option includes one hour learning stage puppetry (as above) and then one hour learning monitor puppetry for film and TV. This is a wonderful and rare opportunity for students to learn the puppetry techniques developed by Jim Henson for film and television, and used by the Henson team of puppeteers on productions such as The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Bear in the Big Blue House, The Furchester Hotel and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. In addition to the students being able to work with real puppets that we lend them for the class, we also bring along the technical equipment required to teach the unique and challenging skills that enable film and TV puppeteers below the frame to perform their characters within the frame – with good eye focus, walking and lip sync – all while keeping human/puppeteer heads and arms out of the shot. We look at single puppets within the frame, and more than one puppet in a frame. All very tricky and fun, these are the techniques we were taught in the USA by Jim Henson puppeteers from Sesame Street and The Muppets. This version of the workshop can also benefit high school students studying film and TV, as well as university and TAFE students of film and TV.
Cost: For costs, visit our Schools Rates Card. Maximum of 50 students per workshop.
Contact us to discuss a puppetry performance workshop at school.
Option 3: Sock Puppet Making Craft Workshop
This is our premium option for schools.
The Sock Puppet Making Craft Workshop can run for 2 or 2 1/2 hours and features:
– 10-25 minute introduction puppet show and talk
– 70-80 minute craft workshop
– 35-45 minute puppetry performance workshop
Using super fun and colourful puppetry kits featuring a range of pre-cut materials, we teach students how to construct a beautifully detailed, quality sock puppet they can perform with and take home – something that has a long shelf life that they won’t just throw away.
The craft segment is followed by a 35 minute puppetry performance workshop where we teach participants how to operate Muppet-style puppets.
While waiting for the glue to dry in the newly created sock puppets, we lend everyone a professional puppet to work with as we teach lip sync, arm movements, emotions, voice work, walking and various other techniques used to bring puppets to life. Great for building confidence, improving communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and having fun!
The 2 1/2 hour version of the Sock Puppet Making Craft Workshop includes the opportunity for students to view the Larrikin Puppets intro puppet show from both the audience perspective and from backstage. This is a wonderful and rare opportunity for students to watch puppeteers in action.
Cost:
For costs, visit our Schools Rates Card.
A minimum of 35 and maximum of 50 participants per workshop.
Important note: Bookings for the Sock Puppet Making Craft Workshop must be made a minimum of 8 weeks in advance. To book this option, we require a 50% deposit upfront to secure the booking. This gives us a firm commitment on and time to purchase the materials and prepare the kits.
Risk Assessment:
Each child is provided with a craft puppet kit. In the kit, each child is provided with their own tube of UHU Craft glue to use or to share for the duration of the workshop. Download the Sock Puppet Craft Workshop Risk Assessment.
Cost Covers:
- Two performers (Brett Hansen and Elissa Jenkins).
- 2 to 2 1/2 hour sock puppet making craft workshop (including short puppet show and performance workshop).
- Sock puppet craft kit materials sourced and prepared.
- The use of 45 of our professional workshop puppets.
- Time allowance for travel to and from venue.
- Load in, set-up and pack-down of the puppet stage, props, puppets, sound equipment and craft materials.
- Quality characters.
- Quality puppetry.
It’s quite unique but in one single large space (eg. a school hall) we would need:
– Space for our puppet theatre and space for the kids to sit in front and watch the intro puppet show.
– Space for them to learn how to perform with Muppet-style puppets (often we can use the same audience space to conduct this section of the workshop).
– Craft tables and chairs set up in the same space for the sock puppet making. This is because we need to be connected to our speaker and audio at all times. We would use our own P.A. speakers and microphones.
Contact us to discuss a sock puppet making craft workshop at school.
Option 4: Hijabi Girl – A Musical Puppet Show COMING AUGUST 2022
Hijabi Girl is a children’s book for ages 7-9 that Larrikin Puppets is transforming into a musical theatre performance for schools featuring puppets. Full details here: https://www.larrikinpuppets.com.au/hijabi-girl-a-musical-puppet-show/
Co-authored by prolific Australian author Hazel Edwards OAM and children’s librarian Ozge Alkan, and illustrated by Serena Geddes (pictured below), Hijabi Girl is a refreshing look at the diverse mix of cultures within most Australian schools.
With themes around diversity, identity, anti-bullying and creative problem solving that align with Australia’s Intercultural Understanding school curriculum, Hijabi Girl is a celebration of multicultural Australia, and a statement about acceptance and coping successfully with being different.
Hijabi Girl: A Musical Puppet Show will be a visual extravaganza using 21 spectacular human puppets, shark and tadpole puppets, pencil puppets, a football puppet and food puppets in the style of The Muppets & Fraggle Rock as well as exciting, innovative black light (UV) puppetry. Initially this production will be performed in theatres – where school groups will be able to attend as an excursion. Requirements for a performance space at school are listed below.
8 year old Melek always finds answers. Some are under her super hijab. For others she needs the help of newcomer Tien (who draws fantastic worlds as an escape), dress-ups-guru Lily and even soccer-mad Zac (who NEVER agrees with her). Melek wants to start her own Aussie Rules girls’ football team.
Unable to find a book character in a hijab for the Book Week Parade, Melek writes her own, with illustrations by awesome Tien.
Melek solves all problems, even rescuing Zac in the pool. And luckily her fashionista mother designs club colour-coded hijabs for footy fans.
Larrikin Puppets will be bringing these children’s voices to life, transforming the written word into a fun, musical puppet show that will shine a spotlight on much-needed, multicultural themes around diversity, identity, anti-bullying and creative problem solving to children in schools across Australia.
Hijabi Girl Puppeteer Elissa, who’s a first generation Australian of Italian and British descent, believes food is a great equaliser – and that’s the passion behind creating a rice paper roll puppet and a kebab puppet. She’s enthusiastic about ensuring each new wave of migrants and refugees is welcomed into Australia in the same way her parents and grandparents were, but with less challenges rather than more.
Hijabi Girl Puppet Show Pricing:
For more information and rates visit Artour.
Requirements of performance space:
- Ideally a darkened school theatre with stage lighting. Note, we can adapt and perform in a daylit school hall. However, the puppet show and UV black light puppetry will be enhanced by stage lighting.
- Stage or performance space that’s at least 6m long (along the front of stage) and 4m deep (from front to back of stage).
- Ideally the height of the stage or performance space should be at least 3m. Note, we can adapt and perform with a height of 2m. However, the puppet show and UV black light puppetry will be enhanced by having more height.
- If stage lighting is available, we would appreciate the support of a teacher or student – trained in lighting – to manage the lighting.
Contact Artour to discuss bringing Hijabi Girl: A Musical Puppet Show to your school.
Option 5: Poetry With Puppets – English Language Learning (Prep to Year 6)
Australian primary school classes (P-6) can incorporate ‘Poetry With Puppets’ live shows and workshops into their English Language learning curriculum.
More more information and prices visit the Poetry With Puppets: English Language Learning section of our website.
