Culture Days fun comes with strings attached
Looking for something a little different to do? Something a little creative? Then check out Culture Days in St. Catharines.
The event, which is celebrated across the country, has been expanded into a monthlong event in St. Catharines. It began Friday and will run until Oct. 25.
The event is run by the arts and culture community and offers free activities.
There are online and in-person activities, including painting workshops, drawing, illustration, performance and more. Online activities include art, theatre music, film and puppets.
Firstontario Performing Arts Centre is offering free socially distanced or online performances and film screenings.
One of the activities offered Saturday was a socially distanced puppeteering workshop hosted by theatre company Carousel Players, held at Pearson Park in St. Catharines.
After six months of lockdown measures and limited social contact, participants are more than happy to have a little fun outside.
“We are all in theatre, this is our little bubble. We love to create things,” said Wendy Mackie who was there with two of her friends, life-sized puppet in tow.
“We are all community theatre people and everything is closed. We like to support any theatre that is doing anything. It’s something to be outside and being in nature in a safe way.”
Monica Dufault, executive director of Carousel Players, said the company was looking for a way to engage the community during Culture Days outside.
“We thought of making bug puppets so people can be far apart and safe but still enjoy a live performance,” she said.
“This is a participatory performance. We have put a tutorial on our website so people can build their own giant puppet at home and then come to the field and we are basically doing a puppet dance together.”
Circles large enough to fit a family and life-sized puppet were laid out on the ground about three metres apart. During the workshop, participants were taught how to make their puppets “dance.”
“We planned this before the new restrictions on outdoor gatherings, so we have planned for 100 people. We had to, unfortunately, minimize that to 25 participants,” said Dufault.
Said Victoria Kyoto, as she waited for the workshop to begin, “They’ve been very good at expressing all the protocols especially when the government came down with the harder rules.
“It put a kibosh on some of the plans they had, but they adjusted, they adapted and, obviously, there are a lot people looking at participating and having a lot of fun today.”
Carousel Players is also hosting a scavenger hunt in downtown St. Catharines that runs the whole length of the event.
“We have partnered with nine different businesses and we have taken props and costumes and set pieces from our past 39 seasons of performing and we have put little displays in different shops downtown.
“There is a secret message that families can go and find all of the clues and put together the message and we have prizes for people who solve the message, you are entered into a draw. Or if you take pictures of yourself with some of the clues, you can send us your photos and all photos we receive will be entered into the draw,” said Dufault.
For more information or a detailed list of upcoming events, visit Carousel Players Facebook Page, Culture Days in St. Catharines, or stcatharines.ca/en/experiencein/culture-days.asp.