(music by Breandain O’Shae, narration by Kate Laycock)

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1. There will be breath in my work.

2. My work will consist of three equally important parts: things that i know how to do, things i don’t know how to do, and things that i discover at the very moment of doing them.

3. I will try to take reality as a miracle, a riddle or a game. i will keep my senses open for learning my art from any possible sources – children, dogs, sand in the wind, drunkards, train stations, melting ice and vegetable sellers.

4. Knowledge becomes a knowledge only when it is passed on to others. I will openly share my knowledge always when possible.

5. I may only suggest to a puppet a story or visual concept, movements, positions or sounds. I may not impose them upon it.

6. I will do my best to assist materials and objects to tell their own story.

7. Play is already half of my work. I will spare the time for playing with materials, puppets and scenery.

8. Puppets and their parts will be allowed to travel from one performance to the other and to exchange identity.

9. The so called co-incidents and mistakes during the working process will be appreciated as a gift from life; their results will not be rejected.

10. I will take care that my work will not serve the politics of war, racism and exploitation. Therefore i will not co-operate with organizations who create it or culturally support these attitudes in society.

11. When producing a performance, i will always try to work as far as possible on the base of sharing, using networks and other open equal systems; i will do my best to avoid the capitalist market.

12. Time is not money, it is much more valuable. I will be realistic and will not give too much importance to financing when creating.

“One day is one hundred thousand shows” -Joel Falke, 4 years old.

Last signed: 30th January, 2023

Ishmael Falke