Hi! Here are some details about myself: |
My name is: |
Tuvia P. |
I have a home page at: |
midbaryehuda.wordpress.com
| Is this Link Broken?
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My occupation (when I'm not doing puppets!) is: |
Accounting |
My approximate age is: |
25 - 35 |
I live in the state of: |
Jerusalem |
... in the country of: |
Israel |
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Here's some information about my church or puppetry organisation: |
My organisation's name is: |
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My organisation's website is at: |
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Some of My Puppetry Background |
Q: Why do you write puppet scripts? What motivates you? |
We are a small congregation of around 50 people, mostly families in a small suburb of Jerusalem, Israel. We all pitch in to help with everything. I teach kids, I preach, I lead worship, I account. It's all part of the service. The writing of puppet scripts is my way to make the kids' lesson more attractive and funny. The material we get to teach from is usually very good, but mostly just a lecture script (besides it's usually in English, and many of the jokes and implications are untranslatable). I need to involve puppets, actings and jokes to make it more interesting. I've been using this website for a few years now, and thought it might be time to give back to the website that has helped me so much. Whenever I've made my own scetches I've usually improvised on the spot. Now I will try to actually write it down before, so I'll have something to upload.
I write the scripts in English so people on this site will understand it. I'm used to print out English scripts and "dub" them to Hebrew on the spot as I make the scetch, so that's no problem. |
Q: Tell us about your church or puppet organisation. |
We are the only congregation in this suburb of Jerusalem. We started in 2005. We meet in the pastor's living room and use his children's rooms as classes. I use my children's soft toys as the puppets. My class has around 10 kids ages 6-12. |
Q: How did you get started in puppets and what attracted you to this area? |
There was a need for more teachers, and I was asked to help, so I did. After a while I realised that if I don't do stuff to make the lessons more alive, the children will continue to fall asleep and misbehave during my lessons. Now I'm their favourite teacher, and they jump of joy when they hear that I'm teaching, asking "did you bring puppets?"
It's a great feeling |
Q: Where does your inspiration come from to write puppet scripts? |
From my weird twisted mind.
And from God, who gave me that weird twisted mind. |
Q: What advice would you give to someone just starting out in puppetry? |
Be funny, and make sure to involve the children. Never see a script as definite, always improvise according to need. Make sure the message is not "drowning" in all the funny. When you tell a bible story, always act out the characters instead of talking of them as third person. |
Q: Who are your favourite puppet characters and what do you like about them? |
I try to switch, because the kids get annoyed if I bring the exact same puppet every time. I do like the cow and duck (duck being the teacher and the cow the gooofy one, not knowing anything and asking silly questions).
You can always get a few cheap slapstick jokes out of sharp things as a cow's horns (duck sitting down on the cow, shouting ouch etc). And it's always funny to emphasize every ooooooo in every single word when the cow is talking. |
Q: What are the most important qualities in great puppet scripts? |
That things are happening. Not just two puppets talking about the subject of the lesson, but things around actually happening. The more surreal and twisted the better. |
Q: What would you do if you were a puppet? |
Uhm... be played with I guess. I wouldn't have much self control, would I? |