Play-Doh - the proper, real Play-Doh you remember from childhood - is made by Hasbro.
Please do buy some and play with it! Click on any of the pictures to be taken to their website.
You can also buy it from amazon.co.uk and from Argos and from Toys-R-Us.
Please do buy some and play with it! Click on any of the pictures to be taken to their website.
You can also buy it from amazon.co.uk and from Argos and from Toys-R-Us.
"I can't remember any of the creator's names unfortunately apart from Jenifer Toksvig. I absolutely adored her and she made every single workshop or rehearsal situation feel really special. They will always stick in my mind and I learned so much from her."
All artforms are collaborative, ultimately between the work of art and the audience. Art exists wherever it reaches someone, generates some reaction, stirs some emotion; any emotion, good or bad.
As well as during the final presentation of art, all artforms are also collaborative in the creative process. The painter, for example, may work alone, but he actively collaborates with the subject he is painting.
He's also collaborating with the medium he is using to create the work of art. That is the craft side of him, the technical artist who knows his medium and the tools that he uses, knows their possibilities and their limitations.That person collaborates with the human being in him, his emotions; the collected emotions and life experiences in relation to the subject of the painting - the things which inspired him to paint that thing in the first place, and that within him which informs his interpretation of the subject at that particular moment.
Musical theatre writing has an added layer of collaboration when more than one writer or composer is present from the very start of the process. This craft of co-creation, this type of collaboration, has its own set of unique values and unique challenges. (An oil palette, for example, will not argue with you about which shade of blue is exactly the right one.)This kind of relationship is also an art, in that there are technical aspects of it that can be learnt. Although there are no specific rules, there are basic guidelines that will encourage a sense of creative freedom and allow one person's energy to spark that of another without feeling that every decision is a battleground.
Other aspects of the art of collaboration are unique to every different writing partnership, and can only be discovered during the process. However, there are tools that can help collaborates make the most of that process: to help them be aware of the process and to nurture it as much as possible, for it is the space in which the work of art will be brought to life and lovingly nurtured.The relationship between co-creative writers is not the only one in which a direct relationship will benefit the work. There can be a direct co-creative relationship between any two or more creative genres: writer and actor, designer and photographer, poet and painter. There are tools for the awareness of this process, too.
Jenifer leads workshops using Play-Doh to stimulate creativity and examine the collaborative process in miniature. These workshops have a relevance for any creative or artistic field, and are equally applicable within the corporate world of business wherever collaboration is part of the creativity of the company. (And you get to take the Play-Doh home with you.)
Jenifer often holds these sessions for musical theatre writers in collaboration with Mercury Musical Developments. If you're interested in developing your work with drama students, please consider joining MMD to take advantage of these and other fantastic opportunities.
