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We’re in the countdown to rehearsals for Terrapin’s next touring show, Feathers. In the role of puppet designer, mentor and lead maker, I’ve been working with Danny Miller and Mads Hillam for almost a year to build seven characters, all technically challenging in their own way. The emphasis, as always, has been on using materials…
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After three years as Lead Maker and Head of Workshop at Terrapin Puppet Theatre, I’m handing over the reins. In that time the workshop has gone from a corner of the waterfront rehearsal room to a well equipped unit in the industrial area. I’ve taught, worked with and learned from many makers in the network…
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Joan and Judy is a touring show for aged care centres, designed in response to the residents’ wishes. Initially we baulked at the idea of Punch and Judy, but the memory triggers are strong for those who remember it from their childhoods, on beaches and at fairs. So we hacked it. A travelling troupe rolls…
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After a schools tour that played to almost 11,000 Tasmanian kids, Paper Escaper has hit the theatres of the island. It’s a wordless show, told in images and sound, and tells the tale of a pop-up book character who tears themselves out of a boring story. The Maker, a force for order who slowly loses…
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It’s been a mind-altering week at the Creative Climate Leadership course. 25 artists and culture-workers intensely connected, probed, debated, and staggered away with determination. Hosted by Creative Australia and facilitated by Julie’s Bicycle (UK) and Ruth Langford, I’m incredibly grateful for their cumulative wisdom and generosity, and still digesting what it means for the years…
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It’s Saturday night above a pub in Thirroul NSW, and the band is playing Purple Rain. This little creature is bound for the Wollongong Art Gallery tomorrow and it needs some urgent attention, so I’m doing surgery with paper bags and school glue. It was made in 1997 for my first solo show, Pets and…
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I’m heading to NSW next month for a convergence of arts workers around the climate crisis. Julie’s Bicycle (UK) and the Australia Council for the Arts are hosting a week long Creative Climate Leadership program in the beautiful, wombat-riddled Bundanon grounds. It’s an incredible chance to share knowledge, ask questions, generate and refuel, and if…
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Our Puppet design and construction workshop wrapped up with some frantic safety pins and flying scraps of fur. There’s never enough time to finish a puppet just the way you’d like, but at least these makers have peered into the bewitching rabbit hole that is puppetry. On the last day everyone took turns to puppeteer…
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Thinking in multiple planes can really melt your brain. It’s Day 4 of our Puppet Design and Construction intensive, and everyone’s working on their mechanisms. Mads (pictured) set herself the challenging brief of swivelling eyeballs and moving eyebrows for her rabbit, all operated with one hand. The process of moving from a 2D drawing into…
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Puppet makers, meet puppets: Day 1 of an Intensive Workshop at Terrapin. Over the next five weeks I’ll be guiding six promising makers who have skills in a range of areas – painting, shoe-making, carving, feltwork – but haven’t had a lot of exposure to the obscure and miscellaneous skill-set that is puppetmaking. Using Jon…
