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Richard Tucker

A Punch and Judy Show in the art room? That's the way to do it! Richard Tucker is a brilliant Punch and Judy man, and children of eight years of age are a brilliant audience. He arrived one morning, set out his theatre in the corner of the room, laid out a fine collection of puppets across the tables and proceeded to entertain the troops.

Try hard to imagine the excitement generated by the thrill of such a visit, and you will still fail to appreciate the noise and the intensity of the experience. His shows were followed by quiet interludes, when he carefully explained all about the history and traditions of Punch and Judy.

They have apparently been around for four hundred years, the earliest English records dating from Samuel Pepys London, but having their true origin in the commedia dell' arte. Other characters in the plays emerged at later dates, like the ghost, the crocodile, Toby the dog - all products of the show's Victorian heyday. The pupils were hugely privileged to gain close views of the puppets, and were allowed to handle them in order to improve their understanding of the form and feel of the models. Observation drawings became very useful visual records, used to help the pupils make hand sized puppets with painted ceramic heads, and cotton robes. One group of pupils made much larger versions from Modroc (plaster soaked bandage), wrapped over card and papier-mache forms, whilst yet another made fully functional, small scale, brightly coloured puppet theatres in the technology workshop.

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