About the Project

The Mustang Puppet Workshop (MPW) catalyzes student inquiry, imagination, and ingenuity by providing dramatic texts for close study, by supporting handcraft of original puppets, and by facilitating the production of collaborative, student-driven puppet plays for the learning community. During MPW Phase 1 and 2, students will have agency to reinterpret dramatic texts and explore principles of characterization. Beginning with strategies for close reads and script analysis of dramatic texts, students will reinterpret and affect change in the timeless elements of the story. Students will research the original production, then compare and distinguish from their own life experience. Further, students will gain skills in handcrafting to build puppets, in rewriting dialogue for characters, and in creating sound effects and scenic elements to advance the narrative. Students will collaboratively reimagine timeless stories with new treatments of their own design which are relevant to their imagination, personal life experience, or a magical combination of both. In Phase 3, students will leverage their puppet show to build community by performing and publishing their work to a broader audience outside the classroom including the school, families, and neighbors.