Puppetry is my first love, idc idc idc!
The day I walked into Heart of the Beast Theater in Minneapolis, I felt rooted in a way I’ve only experienced when I am hearing stories told in my mother’s or father’s original languages.
I instantly started sculpting four masks, each of which represented one of the four directions of the medicine wheel used in Indigenous American and Indigenous African cultures.
It was like I was taken out of this world, and transported to the worlds which showed me each of the faces of the four Queens that I sculpted.
And for years afterwards I’d bump into some of the other people who sat near me. They weren’t at all surprised that I felt like I’d never seen them before in my life! One little girl pointed shyly and said, “Are you the lady with the masks?”
Her mother added, “You were so focused!”
So when I got the gig with Tatwood Puppets, I was beyond gratified. During the interview, where a bunch of us followed tasks, worked and created together, it seems I made an impression. In one of the tasks, my creature was a playful mini-clown, but when I looked up, the other grown-ups had created creatures with deep and sombre backstories!
I also remember that when we got into flow I defaulted to the way I work with children in groups; in that I am loving, supportive, boundaried, and, yes SLIGHTLY bossy. I was gently sonning a young person…. who ended up being one of the directors. This was so funny to me! However they asked me to come back to work with the children. Perfect.
So I spent a few weeks helping to craft an octo-puppet, develop a blue-print for children so they could make their own, and spend a day supporting them to make and play with their puppets.
As they say in Newcastle, it was all very cushty-bardy.
