Cities around the world celebrate puppet power
While some people associate puppetry with kids’ play, in reality it’s a powerful storytelling tool that can convey tales on many differentlevels.
Puppetry is an art form that will be celebrated in Calgary and cities aroundtheworldaspartofWorld Puppetry Day on Wednesday.
It’s a day especially important for Wendy Passmore-Godfrey, artistic director and founder of WP Puppet Theatre, who hopes the day will raise awareness and get people excited about the Puppet Power Conference being held here on June 1-3.
“I’m a puppeteer so this is my day,myartform,”shesaid.
The Puppet Power Conference will feature international speakers from South Africa and the Philippines, among others, who will explain how they have used puppets for truth and reconciliation and to help children displaced by the typhoon in 2017, respectively.
YouTube sensation The Biggity Brothers, from Pukatawagan, Man., will make an appearance.
Passmore- Godfrey uses puppets in classrooms to teach science, mathematics and friendship, but she said it’s a storytelling medium that can be appreciated by adults as well.
“It’s so exciting to celebrate (World Puppetry Day) and to talk to people about it and get them seeing the potential, (and) breaking them out of preconceived ideas ofwhatpuppetsare.”
Puppets are often used in therapeutically.
“I can say things I wouldn’t be able to say without a puppet on my arm,” said Michelle Warkentin, a career hand and rod puppeteer with 20 years of experience.
Warkentin, who will speak during the Puppet Power Conference, said she hopes that World Puppetry Day will encourage people tocheckouttheartforminJune.
“It’s a celebration of puppets all over the world to share messages, to tell stories and show how magical they really are,” said Warkentin.
Warkentin’s most recent projects, Family Tear and Mii Other Woman, uses puppets as a way to speak about dementia.
“All the parts of us that are children are really there till our last breath,” said Warkentin, recounting her experience of bringing a puppet into a hospice.
Warkentin said puppets also allow people, both as performers and audience members, to be more vulnerable and to let go.
World Puppetry Day was originally brought forth by Iranian puppeteer Javad Zolfaghari in 2003, and since then many cities have followed suit.