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Puppet Theater

AWAQ WEAVER OF DREAMS

Puppets rebuild our social fabric

State of Project
Closed
Starting date
26-08-2020
Country
Colombia
Place of development
Bogota
How and Why

New artistic product that involves the indigenous communities settled in the territory of the town of Engativá and Suba (Bogotá - Colombia)

  • During the pandemic, when our daily roles were interrupted and we were exposed to a forced lockdown that limited the social environment, meetings between pairs, and in-person community coexistence, thus weakening the social fabric structures in the territories, it was necessary to generate proposals that tended to reinvent ourselves, to consider a different kind of meetings that led to strengthening solidary ties in the communities, creative proposals that eased a dialogue around these new ways of communication. It was at this point when the idea of making a puppets theatre play rose, whose content laid out the importance of human understanding as part of a social fabric that is analogous to the fabric in indigenous communities, an art that is transferred from one generation to the next one through oral tradition. The play was designed as a contribution from art to the understanding of individual responsibility in strengthening communities’ social development, where actions from our daily practices result in either the strengthening or detriment of the community bonds and so its harmony. The play sought, with a spreading accessible to the general public, to contribute to the transformation of conversational practices by raising awareness of our responsibility as a structural part of that big human social fabric.

Project's Impact

  • The realization of this proposal not only did provide a new artistic product that will be spread in different spaces, be them local, district, national or international, besides, involved Indigenous Communities settled within the territory of the Engativá and Suba municipalities, in the city of Bogotá, as well as in national territories, socializing its cosmogony with the local, national and international communities, thus making possible a knowledge transfer from these communities about their uses and customs, and, specifically, the origin, development, and importance of the fabric in each community, and how this is connected to the social development.
aimed sector
  • Cultural
State of Project

Closed

Satarting date

26-08-2020

Finish date

15-06-2021

Country

Colombia

Place of Development

Bogota

Aimed Sector

Cultural 

General objective

Creation and production of a puppet show play in a visual and sound language aimed at a family audience, which raises awareness about the collective construction of the social fabric in territories through the spreading of this artistic proposal on virtual platforms.

Project’s description

The creation and production of the play “Awaq Weaver of Dreams” as a puppet show were considered to be presented to a family audience, in a virtual modality.

The play was created as a visual and sound proposal (with incidental and instrumental music) with voiceover narrations that put the course of the story in context. The technique used was table puppets and handling at sight, with wooden articulated puppets.

The play provides from art to understanding the individual responsibility in strengthening the communities’ social development, where actions from our daily practices result in either the strengthening or detriment of the community bonds and thus in their harmony. The play achieves providing in the transformation of conversational practices thus rising awareness about our responsibility as a structural part of this big human social fabric through a spreading that is accessible to the general public.

Development plan

The creative process was carried out in the following order considering the needs the realization of the play demanded:

  1. Alliances management.
  2. Design and publication in advertising media.
  3. Spreading process
  4. Pre-production
  5. Production and realization
  6. Popularization of play
  7. Project closing

+Info

“Awaq” means “Weaver” in the Quechua language, and, as a tribute to women who in different cultures and communities have devoted their lives to this art that is transferred from one generation to the next one, the protagonist of the story carries this name. The play’s text is inspired by the art of Andean weaving and its relationship to community development.

Considering the art of puppet shows as a pedagogical and awareness-rasing tool, the development of this creative process was set out with a staging using the Bunraku technique with handling at the sight and table puppets, where interchangeable sets showed the different scenes where the story occurs.

Alliances

District Institute of the Arts IDARTES

Official financing entity of the artistic creating proposal

The Hatch Theater and Puppets

Professional puppet show company, which works in favor of human ecology, thus providing spaces of transformation around environmental matters, using theater as an awareness-raising tool.

Comunidad Indígena Muisca Chibcha de Bacatá

Embera Chamí Indigenous Community Resguardo La Mirla