Shadow puppetry being used to communicate science to primary school children
Esplora, in collaboration with the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, has launched a project entitled ‘Shadows of Malta’s Times’ at the Science Theatre at Esplora Interactive Science Centre, Kalkara.
The project, which is fully financed by the Presidency, uses the art of shadow puppetry, light, music and science to recount a story. Shadow’s of Malta’s Times is a one hour show and is aimed at primary school children. Esplora’s outreach team will be visiting during primary state schools during April and May 2017.
Shadow’s of Malta’s Times was led by by Austrian dramaturg Martina Winkel who has written the original script. It was a devised theatre project done in collaboration with the artists: Abigail Williams, the narrator, Ian Caruana, the musician and Sarah Galea, the puppeteer.
This shadow puppetry project aligns events, understood as components of the Timeline of Maltese History, to present a bigger coherent image of contemporary Malta as it bridges the arts with the sciences and weaves them into one narrative which becomes part of Malta’s culture. Shadow theatre in itself is full of scientific concepts related to optics, shadows, transparent/nontransparent materials, and colours.
This project presents the country’s unique cultural milieu as a rich hybrid bridging the varied art forms and artistic expressions. The latter shall see the concept of ‘Water’ as its basic and underlying theme since water was the medium by which most empires came to Malta. Water is also symbolic with the Mediterranean and Migration, while it is also the basic requirement for ‘Life’ as we know it.
The theme of water also reflects the underlying main theme of the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU, where Migration, Mediterranean and Maritime hold centre-stage.
The Esplora infrastructure is part-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Operational Programme I – Cohesion Policy 2007 – 2013, Investing in Competitiveness for a Better Quality of Life, Investing in your future.