The missing sock
| Objective: To make your views on the concept of missing shine by turning an odd sock into a puppet! |
Duration: 30 to 60 minutes
Material:
- Your imagination
- An odd sock
- Sheets of paper, cardboard
- Coloured pencils and markers, eraser
- Scissors, glue, arts and crafts materials, recycled materials
Instructions:
Who hasn't faced the problem of socks disappearing in the washing machine? This disappearance can be very annoying for those of us who find ourselves having to wear odd socks. But have you ever thought about the poor sock that has lost its better half? Your mission is to communicate the feelings and thoughts of this sock through a puppet show!
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- Find your puppet. Go through your drawers or laundry basket to find a lone sock. When you find one, turn it into a puppet by putting your hand inside it. By placing your thumb on the heel and your other fingers where your toes would normally be, you'll create a mouth! You can also make eyes with cardboard or hair with string... let your imagination run wild using the materials you have on hand!
- Imagine your show. When your puppet is ready, imagine its story. Is it devastated by the mysterious disappearance of its soulmate, which it misses terribly... or does it feel proud of its independence despite the absence of its faithful companion? Imagine its feelings and thoughts since having lost its other half, and the plans it has for its new life as an odd sock. Write down all your ideas and turn them into a monologue—a story told by a single character... in this case, the sock!
- Set the scene. To present your show, you can build a puppet theatre for your sock by cutting out the bottom of a cardboard box. Don't hesitate to decorate your theatre and to add curtains made with pieces of fabric. Otherwise, the easiest way to create a puppet theatre is to place two chairs back to back, leaving a space of about one metre between them, and to put a blanket over them so that you can hide behind it. This way, all the attention will be focused on your puppet, which will stick out on top!
- Present your show. When everything is ready and the time is right, invite your family to come and listen to the off sock’s tale!
- Think about your show. Ask members of your audience if they have ever felt like an odd sock: How do they experience missing? Then ask yourselves: When we miss someone, is it really the person that we miss... or the part of us that comes alive in their presence? Can we confuse the feeling of missing with the fear of forgetting—or of being forgotten? Should we make sure that we never miss anyone? Why or why not?
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Bonus: In The Symposium, Plato writes that according to Greek mythology, humans originally had four arms, four legs and a two-faced head. They were so strong and vigorous that they climbed up to the sky! Fearing their power, Zeus divided them in two, condemning them to spend their lives searching for their missing half... their soulmate. If you'd like, together with your family, stage this story using pairs of socks! Then ask yourselves the following questions: Can you feel incomplete without a person you miss? Do you need others to be a complete person? Is there such a thing as a soulmate? Why or why not? |
Bonus plus: What happens to the socks that disappear in the washing machine? Do they leave because they can no longer stand the smell of small feet and decide to go out for some fresh air? Together with your family, imagine the life of these lost socks. Create a comic strip about their adventures! Do they miss their old life? In your opinion, is it possible to miss something we chose to leave? Is it better to get lost than to follow a well-trodden path? Why or why not? |
| Tricks for tots: To find inspiration, imagine that a pair of socks is having a fight in the washing machine and that one of them decides to leave! "Your attitude stinks!" says the sock, storming out. What could be the cause of their conflict? Can you argue with your best friend? Is it possible to miss someone with whom you have a conflict? Why or why not? In your show, you can tell the story of this fight and express the feelings and thoughts of the sock who lost its friend... |
| Tips for teens: In the philosophical play No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre writes: "Hell is other people." Hmm... maybe that's why a sock decided to escape from the infernal heat of an overcrowded dryer! Indeed, one could easily think that this quote means that relationships with others are necessarily awful... but his idea is a bit more subtle than that! According to Sartre, it is actually thanks to others that we can know ourselves. He even states that others are of the utmost importance for self-knowledge. Before going any further, take a moment to ask yourself how others can help you to know yourself. For Sartre, there is a close link between this self-awareness and the presence of others. When you meet the gaze of another person, you not only see that person, you also see yourself as seen by that person, in a way that you can never see yourself! Accordingly, others can force you to be someone that you may not be. Indeed, in his view, our judgments of ourselves necessarily involve the judgment of others. And so, if we have a bad relationship with others... it is necessarily infernal! Do you think you can know yourself without the presence of others? Is it possible not to care what others think of you? Do others force you to be a certain person? Why or why not? What part of yourself do you lose when others are not there? |
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