Stack of paper, or newspaper,

some marker pens

one or two rolls of masking tape

scissors

Whatever furniture or bigger objects are already in the classroom, for example, desks and chairs, or books and other furniture, school bags, etc.

Exercise One: LARGE OBJECT EXPLORATION – 

1. Find a larger object in the space that you can still pick up and manipulate. Possibly a chair.
2. Look at your larger object from all angles.
3. Explore it’s balance.
4. Explore it’s orientation.

Exercise Two: REPETITIVE PATTERNS – 

1. Separate into groups of five.
2. Find a bunch of the same object (chairs, or tables, or pens, or books etc.)
3. With your group, design your own repetitive pattern with your object.
4. Find how the pattern can move around the space.
5. Play with all the dimensions
6. When you’re done, show the other group.

Exercise Three: CREATING A SET PIECE –

1. In your group of five…
2. Bring your objects all together to create one large object.
3. Make sure it’s large, and impressive, and bold.
4. Explore ways in which one person can interact with the object.

Exercise Four: SMALL OBJECT EXPORATION –

1. Find some paper.
2. Explore the different qualities of your piece of paper.
3. Explore how you can change the paper to adjust its volume, texture and look.

Exercise Five: BODY SHAPES – 

1. Crumple up some paper.
2. Place the crumpled paper under your clothes in different places to change the shape of your body.
3. Observe and explore how this changes your posture, movement and sense of character.
4. Think about the character that you made with Billy, how you changed your body shape. You can use paper to build upon that.

Exercise Six: COSTUMES – 

1. List all of the pieces of clothing or accessories you can possibly name.
2. Pick one that would suit a character (possibly the character you created with Billy)
3. Use your masking tape and paper (or whatever else you have on hand) to create that piece of clothing.
4. Each participant should have one piece of costume created with paper and masking tape or whatever else they had on hand.

Exercise Seven: GIMMICKS – 

1. Separate into groups of five.
2. Use your paper and marker pens to create three speech bubbles.
3. The speech bubbles should just be one word, or a sentiment (i.e. Wow, Haibo, No! Yes! Etc.)
4. Play out a short scene with your three actors, each has an action that provokes a speech bubble popping up.
5. Rehearse your short silent play, and show it to your other group.

Jemma Kahn is a theatre and film maker born and based in Cape Town. She studied Fine Art and Drama at Wits University. Shortly after graduating, she spent two years in Japan which has had a strong impact on the content and form of her work.

Her primary theatre focus is Japanese kamishibai or ‘paper theatre’, a 12th Century highly visual storytelling medium. The kamishibai as it is practiced today evolved from a street theatre performance form that involves a narrator who travels around the small towns of Japan with sets of illustrated boards that are placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated by changing each image to illustrate scenes.

Kahn has been creating and performing kamishibai since 2009. To date there have been over 600 original drawings produced by her and other South African artists that are used in the performances. All her kamishibai shows are intensely collaborative, bringing together a broad range of South African writers, illustrators and directors. Since 2012 Kahn has been developing a stylistic shift in the medium. The story boxes in her shows have developed to include panoramic images, composite images and boxes that pivot from landscape to portrait. At the time of writing, Kahn is the only person in the world to have pushed the medium of kamishibai in these directions.

Her shows include The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults (2012), We Didn’t Come to Hell for the Croissants (2015), in bocca al lupo (2016) and The Borrow Pit (2018). They have been performed at Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Festival, Venice Biennale as well as in Holland and Australia. In 2018 Kahn was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre.