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                    Videos

                    Hands with fabric collage
                    Get creative at home and make your own fabric collage, craft a nature mandala or build a backyard cubby.

                    For ages 3 to 9.

                    Please note adult supervision is required.

                    Making Puppets and Sets with Natural Materials

                    Artist: Papermoon Puppet Theatre 
                    Music: Lachlan MacLeod 

                    Artists from Indonesia's world renowned Papermoon Puppet Theatre will show you how to take a simple design and turn it into a spectacular puppet and shadow set, using natural materials that you can find in your garden.

                    What you will need:
                    • Branches, sticks or twigs 
                    • Leaves
                    • Scissors and/or a Stanley knife 
                    • Small rope, string or twine 
                    • Masking tape 
                    • Glue and/or hot glue gun
                    • Paper 
                    • Pencil or pen
                    Please note: Adult supervision is required for using the hot glue gun and stanley knife. 

                    Age: 8 to 12 years


                    Mirrors & Markers

                    Artist: John Marc Desengano
                    Music: Lachlan MacLeod

                    Have you ever found yourself brushing your teeth in the mirror and wondering:

                    "What would I look like if I had a giant beard? Or a monobrow? Or horns coming out of my head?!"

                    Join Actor John Marc Desengano and answer all of these questions and more with just some whiteboard markers, a mirror and your imagination!

                    Mirrors and Markers is an exploration of the imagination that comes to life on the reflective surface.

                    Now, you can not only imagine a world in your mirror, you can put yourself in it!

                    From facial features and characters, to games and atmosphere creation, Mirrors and Markers is simple, fun and requires minimal materials.

                    Just make sure you're using whiteboard markers or water-based textas... learn from John Marc's mistakes...

                    What you will need:

                    • A m​irror
                    • Whiteboard markers or water-based textas

                    Optional:

                    • Paper
                    • Pens, crayons or pencils
                    • Blu Tack or sticky tape
                    • Scissors

                    Age: 5 to 10 years


                    Fabric Collage

                    Artist: Annick Aisha Akanni
                    Music: Lachlan MacLeod

                    Create your own vibrant collage with textile artist, Annick Akanni.

                    In this workshop, textile artist Annick Akanni will show you how to create a unique collage made from pieces of fabric and paper. 

                    Experiment with shape, colour and placement as you harness your creativity to make something unexpected.

                    What you will need:

                    • Fabric and paper pieces
                    • A piece of thick paper or card
                    • Scissors
                    • Glue (PVA)
                    • Your creativity and imagination

                    Age: 4 to 8 years


                    Nature Mandalas

                    Artist: Emma Grace
                    Music: Lachlan MacLeod

                    Create your own unique nature mandala with sustainable artist, Emma Grace.

                    In this easy to follow workshop, Emma Grace will show you how to create vibrant mandalas from leaves, flowers and twigs that you can find around you.

                    Search for your natural materials, prepare your elements and then use them to create a beautiful one-of-a-kind mandala. 

                    Get lost in this engaging process of focus and creativity.

                    What you will need:

                    • Natural materials such as leaves, flowers and sticks
                    • A keen eye for spotting your natural materials
                    • A space on the floor to make your mandala
                    • Your creativity and imagination

                    Age: 4 to 12 years


                    Cubbies

                    Artist: Ashlee Hughes

                    Create your own couch cubby or backyard cubby with natural materials. 

                    In this fun activity, get prompts on how make a cubby with household items in your lounge or bedroom. Or make an outdoor cubby or cave with natural materials. You can also create a costume from newspaper, leaves, and twigs to live in this new home you’ve built. 

                    You can create your own environment with objects, fabric and nature. 

                    What you will need:

                    • Sheets or blankets
                    • Pegs
                    • Couch or chairs
                    • Newspaper
                    • Masking tape
                    • Natural materials

                    Age: 4 to 8 years


                    Paper and Tape Escape by Polyglot Theatre

                    Presented by ArtPlay and Open House Melbourne

                    Paper and Tape Escape demonstrates the endless possibilities for creativity and play with simple materials. Polyglot artists take children through a range of techniques for bringing creations to life with paper and tape. Participants will also explore creating environments, costumes and headwear in this playful workshop.

                    This video workshop is approximately 20 minutes, and is captioned. It will be available for viewing from Friday 23 July to Sunday 25 July.

                    What you'll need:

                    • Paper (scrap, newspaper, wrapping paper - anything you can find in the recycle bin)
                    • Tape
                    • Your imagination!

                    Age: 6 to 12 years

                    Polyglot Theatre is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. This online workshop was developed with support from Lucas Dental Care.

                    Polyglot logo Open House logo


                    Make a comic strip using objects

                    Video by: Suhasini Seelin
                    Assisted by: Aarna Jeevan

                    If objects around us could speak, what would they say? 

                    In this fun activity, get prompts on how to look for faces in different objects, and give them short dialogues to turn them into comics. It helps you see things differently, and get creative with words.

                    It could turn out to be quite a 'pun-ny' experience! 

                    Editing and Photography: Wilari Tedjosiswoyo
                    Music: The Green Orbs
                    Sound Effects: Zapsplat & GFX Sounds

                    Age: 4 to 8 years


                    ​Tentacle Tales

                    Artist: Briony Farrell
                    Sound design: Lachlan MacLeod

                    Rethink rubbish with Briony by making and creating with stuff you might find in the recycling bin! 

                    In this two part video, you will first construct a Jellyfish from recycled materials. Then learn some super simple story writing tricks that will inspire a short film about your new sustainably made friend! 


                    What you’ll need: 

                    • Plastic bag and/or bubble wrap
                    • String
                    • Black sharpie or marker
                    • Scissors
                    • 2 bottle lids
                    • Large plastic lid
                    • Masking tape

                    Age: 6 to 12 years


                    ​Create an Illuminated Box Building

                    Video by: Lara Tumak

                    Finished your cereal? Great, now you can transform the box into an illuminated building!

                    A simple task for budding architects with some adult participation required. 

                    What you’ll need: 

                    • A cardboard box (cereal, biscuit or tea box. Soft, coloured cardboard works best)
                    • Colouring utensils 
                    • Tape
                    • A torch that will fit inside your box 
                    • Scissors or a cutting blade for the adult

                    Age: 5 to 8 years


                    ​Make a Diorama

                    Video by: Lara Tumak

                    Stop! Don’t throw that empty cardboard box away - turn it into a diorama! What is that you ask? You’ll have to tune in to find out. They can be enchanting, scary or as funny as you like. 

                    What you’ll need: 

                    • A cardboard box (cereal, biscuit, tea or shoebox will do fine)
                    • Some extra cardboard or other materials to colour and cut out
                    • Colouring utensils 
                    • Scissors
                    • Tape or glue 
                    • A torch

                    Age: 8 to 12 years


                    ​Using Objects in Performance

                    Video by: Suhasini Seelin and Wilari Tedjosiswoyo

                    Pick up something around you. It may seem like it can only be used in one way. Enter the world of performance, and you will discover there are many things an object could resemble. A bag could be a balloon, a comb could be a mike, a shoe could be a phone... the possibilities are as big as your imagination. Give creative thinking a shot and try to create a short performance using one object in a few different ways. 

                    Music: Bensound

                    Sound Effects: Zapsplat

                    Age: 6 to 9 years


                    Let Your Hands and Feet Tell the Story

                    Video by: Tess Stapleton-Clarke and Ashlee Hughes 

                    What ways can your body move through your house or garden? How can you balance, jump, hop, stretch, dance, spin and move in interesting ways through a space? Perhaps you can create some hands and feet to lead the way on a journey through your house.

                    Music: Jalapeno baby

                    Age: 3 to 6 years


                    Learn to Juggle

                    Video by: Tess Stapleton-Clarke and Ashlee Hughes 

                    Make your own recycled juggling balls from some socks and rice and then practice throwing and catching. Can you balance one on your head? Or your foot? How many ways can you throw, catch, balance, or move a juggling ball? 

                    Music: Jalapeno baby

                    Age: 3 to 6 years  


                    Miming Objects

                    Video by: Suhasini Seelin and Wilari Tedjosiswoyo

                    Enter the world of miming through exploring everyday objects you can find at home. First, we get to know the object really well through the five senses, and then have some fun miming them. How do you respond to different sensations, taste and smell - such as the taste of a sour lemon, or the smell of freshly baked cookies? Bring these responses into little mime activities you can try at home - like peeling a banana, wearing a hat, reading a book, the list is endless. Voila, you've taken the first steps towards creating a mime performance! 

                    Music: Bensound
                    Sound effects: Zapsplat

                    Age: 3 to 6 years  


                    Create Hand Characters

                    Video by: Suhasini Seelin, Aarna Jeevan and Wilari Tedjosiswoyo

                    You don’t always need your face to tell a story - your hands can be equally expressive. Here are some ideas on how to dress up your hands as different characters - people, animals and unknown creatures. Create short scenes and get a family member to film it on a phone. 

                    Make your very own ‘hand movie' that the whole family could watch with popcorn!  

                    Music: Bensound
                    Sound effects: Zapsplat

                    Age: 6 to 9 years  

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