Hosted online by The Little Angel Theatre.
Bookings and enquiries: https://littleangeltheatre.com/creativelearning/adults/make-a-wooden-crankie-online/
Dates: 6 October – 10 November, 8 December (7 weeks)
Wednesdays, 6.30-8.30pm (via zoom)
About the course
Crankie theatres are a versatile form of visual storytelling. A narrative is unfolded with scrolling illustrations, which are wound through a box using two rotating cranks with handles. Crankies offer rich potential for theatre makers, storytellers, visual artists, teachers and other practitioners engaged in story-based work.
For example, a crankie can be backlit and combined with shadow puppetry, or it can become backdrop for 3D puppet action. Crankies can be visual aids to enrich a storytelling performance, or to illustrate a poem or song. A crankie box might appear as one element within a larger performance, perhaps depicting a dream or journey sequence. Making a small-scale crankie scroll can also offer a manageable, low-cost way to develop ideas for a larger project.
In the first 6-sessions of this online course, we will be learning to make a basic wooden crankie box (approx dimensions in cm: 55hx30wx20d). We’ll also begin creating a scroll to go inside our box, which can be shared as ‘work in progress’ by the end of the course. Each session will include tutor demonstrations, making time and time for questions. Please note that there will be some making homework between each session.
On the 7th and final session, which takes place on the 8th of December (4 weeks after session 6), there will be an opportunity to share our work in progress together and receive some feedback on how it might develop further.
Participants will come away with a completed crankie box, a ‘work in progress’ scroll and some seed ideas for a short crankie performance which they can continue to develop after the course if they wish.
This course will require some basic tools and materials from your local hardware store. This will be covered as part of the first session of the course. An example list of materials needed can be found here.
This workshop will be delivered via Zoom.