BLOCK THEATRE
Method Manual to the World of Wooden Blocks
Wooden blocks invite you into a stream of associations. An empty block is full of endless possibilities. A block is both a finished form and an unfinished piece that grows as imagination creates it new meanings. The experience of building with blocks can evoke thoughts, memories, and emotions that can lead to new realizations and conversations.
Block theatre is a form of visual theatre and a method that centers on the Human-Shaped Reconstruction Kit, carved out of different types of wood. Block theatre is interactive puppetry, a form of inclusive artistic work that focuses on encountering the participant, and on the stories and dialogue the participant can experience and create through puppetry.
Block theatre has been performed in schools, daycare centres, child welfare centres, asylum centres, retirement homes, mother and child homes and shelters, psychiatric hospitals, and care units for disabled people. In this publication Roosa Halme, a puppetry artist who has been rolling the blocks for 10 years, discusses the essence of block theatre and shares her experiences on block theatre work in different environments. We also get parallel views to the world of block theatre through Kai Ruohonen, the visual artist behind the blocks, Matthew Bernier, a professor of art therapy, and puppetry artist Marja Susi. The manual offers new ideas and methods into interaction with people from all age groups and
different cultural backgrounds.