Workshop Participants Feedback 2005-2006

“"( the workshops are)... extremely valuable not only in their ability to stimulate us creatively, but bring us to a different level of understanding about ourselves and about how we interact with each other.

I think we all need a chance to relax and to release things, and to explore possibilities with people .... 

Puppets are able to do and say things that people often cannot....she (a student) was able to open her self up and discover things about herself and about how to build positive relationships in a very short space of time.....

It opened up tremendous new ways of solving potentially problematic scenes and issues in school. 

The workshop brought puppets out of the cupboard and into the spotlight. It unleashed the power of puppetry as something much more creatively challenging to students and teachers.

I found the workshop personally very liberating" 

Mhairi Macinnes
Head of Drama, Vienna International School, Austria, 2007  

"It provided the students an opportunity to tell their stories and share parts of themselves that they never get the opportunity to. All sorts of steriotypes were cracked wide open. The boys let down their guard and discussed very sentsitive issues.They did not feel the need to mainatin a macho image or play the hero." 

Sile Ni Bhroin
Head of Drama, Prague International School, Czech Republic, 2007

"It was just astonishing...
It was good to feel that we were in  a real safe environment that we could trust each other and explore and create.. magical.. absolutely well worth the day!"

Artist and performer, Vancouver, 2007 

 

"Through just playing with something as simple as  a piece of paper,and allowing the piece of paper to tell them how it moves, how it might sound, how it might interact with another piece of paper, another character, another body in the space, they can see that anyone, at any time is capable of making new stories."  

Jessica Bowles
Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2007

“I have attended three of Gary Friedman’s workshops this year with the intention of deepening my skills both as a Drama and Play Therapist. Both the 'World of Paper'  and Object Manipulation Workshops exceeded all expectations I had. The experience of the workshop refreshed my own creativity, developing my spontaneity further enhancing the gift of a magical introduction into the world of objects and their value in terms of holding symbolic and metaphoric meaning for the unconscious. I would recommend these workshops to any therapists, performers or individuals who are prepared to engage with themselves in a wonderfully different and creative way”.

Lesley Bester, therapist in South Africa
BADA Hons (RSA), MA Dramatherapy (London), PGDip Play Therapy (London) November 2006