Video transcript
Drama Ensembles 2021 - Puppetry Ensemble - 01. Beneath the Sock

[intro music]

RODNEY: Hello, and welcome to the puppetry digital drama ensemble for 2021.

ALL: Hi!

PRESENTER 1: This ensemble includes students from both primary and high school, ranging from Year 5 up to Year 8. We also come from 10 different schools across Sydney.

STELLA: Over the past 10 weeks, we've been introduced to the art of puppetry through online learning.

OSCAR: We've made puppets from trash, brought objects in our room to life, and even had puppet lip syncing battles.

MILLY: La la la.

KASPAR: La la la.

HARVEY: All puppets in the performance you are about to view have been made by the extremely talented students in this ensemble.

RODNEY: It is with great honour that I introduce to you the 2021 puppetry digital drama ensemble. Enjoy. Bye!

ALL: Bye.

[music playing]

OSCAR: Hi, I'm Oscar, and I'm in Year 8 at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. This is my puppet Drake. I made him at a puppetry workshop in Year 4, but have added to him using skills that I've learnt from Rodney. My favourite part of this course was meeting lots of new people and having a great laugh, even though it might have been online.

ISABELLE: Hi, my name is Isabelle. I go to Summer Hill Public School. This is Jake Do-Gooder. And I really enjoy doing puppetry with other people.

HARVEY: Hi, my name's Harvey. I'm 11 years old, and I go to the Darlington Public School. And this is my puppet Stewart. Say hello, Stewart. 'Hello.' He has super long, colourful rainbow dreadlocks that get everywhere in his face all the time. And he also has one big cyclops eye. Say by, Stewart. 'Bye.' Thanks for watching.

OLIVE: Hi, my name is Olive. This is Jake Do-Gooder. Do you want to say hi? 'Hi. I like potatoes. Oh, yeah, and I'm the [inaudible]. Was that good?'

MEGAN: My name is Megan. I'm in Year 8, and I go to Cheltenham Girls High School. I made a trash puppet, which plays Nelly [inaudible]. And I made it using an old cheese box, pieces from an egg carton, some paper, and a bit of thread, as well as an entire roll of sticky tape and a lot of glue. The entire drama experience is really fun, but I think the really cool thing was learning how to be able to make puppets from just bits and pieces laying around the house.

STELLA: Hi. My name's Stella, and I'm 11 years old. And I go to Bourke Street Public School. 'Hi, I'm Badger.' And how I made this puppet was first, I got my dad's old sock. I hot glued cardboard inside the mouth to make the mouth, and then I used pipe cleaners for the glasses and the earrings. I used wool for the hair, and I used cardboard for the tie.

My friend Badger here is a little bit shy. 'No, I'm not.' I know, Badger's favourite colour is green. 'No it's red.' OK, then, Badger. If I can't get anything right, you can do this. 'Fine. The one thing that I liked about this experience is I got to meet new people, and the experience was just great. And Rodney loves my earrings. Was that OK?' Yes, it was fine.

LUCAS: Hello, I'm Lucas. And I'm Nelly. And today, we're going to be talking about how Nelly was made, so let's start with the beautiful red hair. It was made from the flaming leaves of the Berber tree. What about all of Nelly? All this green sock was actually a dirty sock from the gym. But I washed it 15 times, and I could never get the green stains out. So I just went with it.

What about the bright, pure white eyeballs? These were made from snow in the Antarctic. And that's how Nelly was made. I hope you enjoyed her introduction.

HOLLY: Hi, my name's Holly. I'm 10 years old, and I go to Kegworth Public School. My puppet, Brutus, was made out of two socks, for the body and hands. We used these Halloween googly eyes to make him look a little crazy. We used this big wig for his hair, a Halloween moustache for his moustache, a pom-pom for his nose, and some red felt for the inside of his mouth, and an elastic to keep it more movable. And then we put some chopsticks on the end of his hands, so he can use them-- and this cape for his cape.

My favourite thing about this course was probably I wouldn't ever know how to build a puppet. And my favourite thing that we did was the trash puppetry, because it was like a box coming to life.

KASPAR: Hi, I'm Kaspar, and this is Arnold. I am 10 years old. He, on the other hand, is like 4 weeks. I go to Oatley Public School. He goes in my pocket. I made him by-- I chopped his head up from one of my toys, and I plucked it on this. This is pet shorts. And Arnold is very noisy, like makes so much noise. 'Hey, I'm not noisy.' Yeah, you are. 'Ugh.'

One thing I've enjoyed about puppetry, making puppets is fun. But what's even more fun is bringing them to life. Wah ha ha. Thank you, thank you.

MILLY: My name is Milly. I am 12 years old, and I go to Annandale Public School. This is Brutus. He is a villain and is forcing Nelly to marry him. He doesn't like when stuff doesn't go his way. How I made Brutus was using felt for his mouth, styrofoam eyes. They make him look evil-- a moustache made out of cardboard, and same with the hat, a suit jacket made out of black fabric, a felt red tie-- make him look evil-- and of course, a suit shirt made out of a suit shirt

I enjoyed this course, because it was interesting, engaging, and fun. I learnt so many new things about drama and puppetry, and we played so many fun drama games. I got to make Brutus, junior me, and a trash puppet. This was so much fun, and I would definitely do it again. Bye.

[music playing]