Animated props puppet: An effective medium for sensitization and education for participatory community development

Traditionally, the adopted forms of organizing open theatre forums aimed at behavioural change within a given community as a result of identified social issues have been hitherto promoted through the use of model art forms like theatre for development for development which is aimed at behavioural change and among others. Animated Puppetry appears to be a new form of artistic art form impression larger than life. Puppetry as a creative art form have differing conventions such as varying size with different constructional materials. This paper discusses the design exploratory process and impact and the use of the new medium in addressing critical social issues in the 21st century. It also suggests a complimentary feature of an integrated approach which highlights a unique application and principle of Animated Puppetry Theatre with a fusion of costume design as an efficient structure for community mobilization and conscientization for socio-economic development. This paper further explores and gives a voice to inanimate objects to express concerns in relation to human activities such as sanitation, education and health among others by looking at puppetry design formulation and manipulations