This is a slideshow proposal for model puppetry centers with the purpose of creating positive entertainment for families and workshop intervention program for at-risk youths. This model is based on a community in Pomona, Ca, 25 miles E. of Los Angeles, CA.

2. 1 World Puppets for Peace
A model for the transformation of at-risk youths and their communities.

3. Most people think of
puppetry as something
for little kids.

4. But there is another side to puppetry.
Historically and even today, puppets have often
addressed serious subjects.

5. Puppeteers have been jailed or worse for what
the puppets say in puppet shows.

6. When I was writing “Ruler of the World,” a marionette and
shadow puppet show based on The Ramayana, I contacted a
puppeteer from Myanmar, where most of the marionettes
originate. He asked me to never write him in Myanmar,
because puppetry was illegal there and puppeteers faced jail
or worse. We had to communicate by smuggling letters across
the Thai border. This was in the 1980s and is no longer true.
I experienced the
suppression of
puppetry firsthand.

7. Why am I talking about
puppet power?
Because puppets’
power to reach, teach
and transform isn’t
obvious to most people,
especially in the United
States.
Penelope Torribio performs a musical puppet
show about the rain forest at a community
arboretum. forest ecology at unity garden.

8. I learned the power of
puppets as an educator
of at-risk kids and teens.
• I am Penelope Torribio, master puppeteer. I have an M.A.
in behavior transformation and credentials in
communication arts, English and special education.
• I began using puppets in the classroom to teach
academic skills, add fun and humor to lessons and
transform behavior that wasn’t beneficial to my students.
• Teaching students to become puppeteers was the biggest
step toward helping my students find themselves and
begin to walk a more positive path.

9. 1 World Puppets For Humanity
page 1
•
The mission of 1 World Puppets for Peace is to build a safer and
more positive community by providing a puppet theater, museum
and workshop space that has as its focus the education and
transformation of at-risk kids and the communities they live in.
• All themes of of shows and workshops will fall under the umbrella
of building a better world.
• It helps that I have over 600 puppets from around the world as a
basis for this program and I’m a master puppeteer, meaning I
perform all kinds of puppetry.
Proposal: Puppets for Peace.

10. The center will use puppet fun to reduce crime
and the ruin of lives.
• I’ve worked with at-risk students in
public and private schools, often in a
residential setting.
• With this project, we’ll work with
youths to educate and transform
behavior before they’re sent to
residential or correctional facilities.
• This will be done through the artistry
of puppetry which, by the way, teens
love.

11. Teens love puppets.

13. • Elements of the Proposal

14. The focus is at-risk students and
transforming behavior.
• This requires hooking activities with
specific behavioral objectives and ways to
evaluate progress. This will have to be
taught to all facilitators.
• Eventually, videos will be produced so this
program can be modeled across the
country and the world. They are many
puppeteers and puppet spaces waiting to
happen. They just need a model.

15. • The second aspect in the proposal for Puppets for Peace
is part-time employment for artists and technicians,
particularly from the local colleges, to teach the
workshops.
• Puppetry has all the elements of traditional theater and
more.
Employment of Artists
and Technicians

16. Lighting

17. Sound

18. Staging

19. Acting and Vocal Techniques

20. Puppetry is 80 percent writing. Teaching kids to write
scripts improves language arts, communication and
thinking skills.
Writing

21. Puppet Manipulation
• Vent Figures
• Marionettes
• Rod puppets
• Found Puppets
• Shadow Puppets
• Soft Puppets
• Sack Puppets

22. Confidence and
Communication Skills
• Puppetry is communication. Participants gain
conversation skills, confidence in front of audiences,
vocal techniques and the ability to communicate their
own message.

23. Vocational Training
• Puppetry is a profession. It’s not limited to providing
entertainment at festivals and events. It’s also part of
the entertainment and movie industry.
• Puppetry has a very close connection to stop-motion
animation. Many of the techniques learned in puppetry
can be applied to other aspects of entertainment and
theater.
• Puppets for Peace will bring professionals in to give
presentations on jobs in the industry.

24. 1 World Puppets For Peace
There are five basic parts to the
1 World Puppets for Peace plan.
.

25. One
• provide a facility for positive family entertainment
emphasizing messages of guardianship of the earth,
cultural understanding and empowerment of a
community to bring about positive change in their city.
This facility will include a museum, puppet theater and
workshop/art space.

26. Two
offer long-term puppetry workshops for kids and
teens. The focus will be on improving attitudes
towards education, imparting academic skills and
transforming behavior for better thinking and living,
fun and enrichment.

27. Three
 employ artists, writers, poets, puppeteers and theater
technicians to conduct workshops for youth. There will
be a particular focus on working with local college
students to model continuing education.

28. Four
provide outreach programs to schools, libraries after-
school programs and events to help bring attention to the
missions of 1 World Puppets for Peace and to bring
income into the program.

29. Five
Get other community groups involved in this project and locate
grants and other funding for its valuable contribution.

30. • I ‘ll begin the project in my own city of Pomona,
California. This is city of high crime and high gang
activity.. The sign in this photo is located right across the
street from my house in Pomona.
•

31. While the number of homicides have gone down in Los Angeles, they
are up in Pomona. Gang activity has escalated in all high-crime areas.

32. Pomona’s crime, compared to the average city in
California

33. Pomona is a perfect testing ground for
Puppets for Peace.
• This project focuses on major issues of many
communities: gang activity and crime.
• It brings in part-employment for local artists and
technicians.
• It fosters confidence and teaches many skills.
• It brings vocational training to youths.
• It bring quality live local entertainment presented by the
community’s own youths.

34. Despite high crime, Pomona has an art
movement, perfect for Puppets for Peace.
• Puppets for Peace Museum, Workshop and Performance
Center will be situated in the Arts Colony in the heart of
Pomona.
• It will be surrounded by galleries, music venues, The
American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Latino Art
Museum. The area also includes The Cal Poly University
Downtown Center for the Arts, Performing Arts and
Technology. Nearby is the High School of Arts and
Enterprise.

35. Why a puppet theater?
• In a city with so many needs, why should
people invest in and support in a puppet
theater?

36. Fundamental Belief
• This is a complex question with a lengthy answer, some of
which is beyond the scope of a business plan and proposal.
However, it’s based on the belief in the basic good in all
people—the view that we each have talents and interests
that, when tapped, can move us from negative thoughts and
behavior to positive thoughts and behavior.

37. People of all ages love puppets.

39. Penelope’s marionette of
physicist Nassim Haramein. She
gained permission to teach his
ideas through puppetry.

40. Puppets speak a universal language. Penelope
performs for a village in southern India.

41. Visit 1 World Puppets
for more information.
• www.1worldpuppets.com
• www.1worldmusicandpuppets.com
• penelope1world@mac.com
Penelope Torribio, Boy with Blue,
one of Penelope’s 600 puppets
from around the world