Many immersive experiences struggle to invite participation without instruction or pressure. This hands-on workshop explores puppetry as a craft for designing invitations to play.
Working directly with puppets from The Wylding Woods, participants will experiment with gaze, movement, scale, and restraint to feel how small choices open or close audience engagement.
The focus is not on puppetry technique, but on how puppets communicate permission, safety, and curiosity—especially across mixed-age audiences.
Attendees will leave with embodied insights they can apply to participatory moments in their own work.
Key takeaways:
- A felt understanding of invitation vs. performance
- Tools for lowering audience anxiety and resistance
- Transferable patterns usable beyond puppetry