Posted 2011 Oct by Caroline Astell-Burt
Kay Yasugi and Caroline Astell-Burt are involved in research about marionettes and primary school children. The research so far has involved the design and trial of a special puppet designed with a simple control to enable a child to operate a nine-string figure. An article about the start of the project is due to be published in the next Puppetry Notebook of British Unima.
The control of this puppet encourages the child to use the muscles which achieve the same fine motor control used in writing. The authors are firmly convinced that the regular use of these special marionettes can be of great value and should be included in the play equipment of the primary classroom.
Kay Yasugi received her puppetry training at the London School of Puppetry.