Our team of performing artists, educators, and mental health professionals has spent years working with children through the arts. Again and again, we saw the same thing: when children were given space to create and express themselves, they grew more confident, collaborative, and connected. These weren’t just theatre classes, they were transformative experiences.
But most classrooms felt rigid, focused on right answers and individual performance, with little room for imagination or emotional growth. While many schools wanted to nurture social-emotional skills, the tools available were often too abstract or disconnected from how children actually learn.
We created Penumbra to bridge this gap. Our programs use storytelling, theatre, and shadow play to make classrooms spaces of empathy, creativity, and connection. Shadow play engages multiple senses - visual, auditory, and kinesthetic - builds fine and gross motor skills, and offers a hands-on, joyful way for children to believe in their own voice and creativity. Speaking through puppets supports expression and builds confidence gradually. As children co-create stories, they learn to lead, negotiate, solve problems, and celebrate shared success, developing not only creative skills but also deep emotional and social intelligence.
Penumbra’s innovation is implemented through a comprehensive curriculum program that includes teacher trainings, resource materials, and hands-on workshops. In practice, children engage in collaborative storytelling and shadow play, where they build puppets, create stories, and perform. Facilitators guide students through activities that develop storytelling and performance skills, including story structure, visual storyboarding, dialogue writing, puppetry, and emotional expression.
Teacher training is central to our approach, focusing on creative facilitation skills that help educators create a space where children feel free to express themselves, share their ideas, and explore their imaginations. Teachers are equipped with lesson plans, workbooks, and materials to structure sessions that foster both technical storytelling and social-emotional learning. These lesson plans integrate storytelling techniques with SEL skills like self-awareness, collaboration, conflict resolution, decision-making, and problem-solving.
To ensure meaningful impact, we support schools in conducting baseline and endline assessments. These assessments use observational tools, self-questionnaires, and surveys to track progress in both emotional and creative growth, allowing educators to measure the development of SEL and storytelling skills over time.
Our growth so far has been primarily organic, driven by strong word-of-mouth referrals from educators and parents who’ve experienced the impact of our program. On the marketing front, we’ve focused on targeted outreach via LinkedIn to connect with school leaders and decision-makers. We are establishing our community of parents on Instagram. Our efforts have resonated particularly well with top-tier schools across Chennai, Bengaluru, and other cities, spanning both national and international curricula. We've found that once a school experiences Penumbra, the engagement deepens year after year, leading to wider adoption within their networks. To scale further, we’re actively building partnerships with other school service providers who already have access to educational leadership, enabling warm introductions to decision-makers. This ecosystem-led approach allows us to grow authentically while maintaining the trust and quality that form our core.
We’ve evolved Penumbra significantly based on real-world feedback and implementation insights. Initially, our shadow play lab was designed for school or center-level delivery, but it proved to be cost-prohibitive and challenging for group collaboration. In response, we developed a more accessible tabletop kit optimized for 3-member student groups, ensuring better engagement and ease of use. We also introduced a DIY take-home version that folds flat for portability and can be easily reassembled for continued exploration at home. To deepen learning outcomes, we revised our SEL framework to include detailed qualitative assessments and structured feedback for each child, helping teachers and parents better understand growth areas. Additionally, we are building a community of trained facilitators, empathetic, passionate individuals who anchor the last mile of delivery with care and consistency, enhancing both skill acquisition and emotional engagement for every child.We have newly launched an AI-based tool that can support students in developing their storytelling skills. It can analyze childrens' storyboards and stories in both written and visual formats and support the students in developing plot, character, reaching resolution, etc, giving feedback to the students on both their stories and their process.
It’s simple to get started! Just write to us with your target age group. We’ll send you an age-appropriate learning plan that includes access to our digital platform, a content-rich student booklet, puppets, and a kid-friendly tabletop shadow play kit. All you need to do is follow the guided lesson plans, enjoying the hands-on journey through shadow puppetry, storytelling, theatre, and life skills. No prior experience required; just curiosity and joy!
