Stay tuned for upcoming shows and workshops with Entangled Puppetry!

Entangled Puppetry in the Gulf Islands Driftwood

Entangled Puppetry enchants

By Elizabeth Nolan on March 20, 2013

From left. The Troll, Tangle Caron and Tyler McClure give their experiences at the Salt Spring Island Public Library a thumbs up. Kyle Heeb | Driftwood Gulf Islands Media

 

A muscle-bound, one-eyed troll with a fondness for Queen and a Mohawked pig prince looking for a mate were among the fascinatingly hilarious characters Salt Spring audiences got to know at Entangled Puppetry shows this month.

The hand and rod puppets, in the style that Jim Henson’s work  made instantly familiar to people around the world, were created on island by Tangle Caron and Tyler McClure. The two puppet and theatre professionals have made a temporary studio of Caron’s mother Wendy Beatty’s home near Vesuvius Bay, turning the dining room into the creative base from which Short TALL Tales was launched.

Caron and McClure put on two performances and gave a puppet-making workshop at the public library this month, introducing thrilled audiences to an amalgamation of three fairytale retellings: The Princess and the Pineapple, the Three Gruff Billies, and Jack and Jill and the Beanstalk. Not knowing how the local population would respond to puppetry, the artists were surprised to see an audience of 85 cram into the library’s new programs room on March 2.

“They’re very personable puppets. We had a really delightful response from people who came to the first show,” said Caron, adding, “Puppets are an interesting art form because people of all ages are really willing to engage in suspension of disbelief.”

Caron’s parallel career path has been in environmental education. She was a member of the Otesha Project, touring the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island by bicycle and giving performances about sustainability, and was a member of Parks Canada’s professional troop Mountain Whit (where she met McClure), touring out of Banff for two years.

She’s found puppetry is a great bridge between education and performance, helping to spread messages through entertainment in a unique way. The Bread and Puppets troop from Burlington, Vt. has been a strong influence.

For Caron, who grew up on Salt Spring but left in her final year of high school to attend a performing arts school in Alberta a decade ago, the trip home between contracts has been a chance to reconnect with the creative community she knew as a kid.

“Salt Spring was such a wonderful place to grow up as a young artist,” she said.

“It was such a nourishing place. Since we were here, we sort of wanted to give back to the community.”

According to Caron, puppetry is kind of the underdog of the theatre arts in North America, but for a creative person it can offer an abundance of riches, involving visual art, performance and movement. She has made puppets in many styles, but says the environment where she produces them tends to have an impact on their design.

The Short TALL Tales characters, for example, have soft and fleecy bodies and clothes made from recycled items and upholstery. Ducky shows the influence of nearby Duck Creek in her ankle-length green braids, marshy skin tone and frog-like face. A seven-foot whale puppet Caron made for the Pacific Rim Whale Festival had a spine and skull of driftwood that she scavenged from the local beach.

Found elements often make their way into the creations, as Caron’s artistic vision has to be worked through on a limited budget — a challenge she calls “exciting and exhilarating” to overcome.

Just as the puppet forms often emerge from the local environment, their personalities are also strangely innate.

“With this show we found the puppets kind of make up a lot of their own dialogue, so we don’t write a lot of stuff down,” Caron said.

“We write a framework but then do a lot of improvisation to tell the story.”

During their three-month sojourn on Salt Spring, Caron and McClure took the opportunity to get involved in another popular project, appearing in the Salt Spring Community Theatre hit Harold and Maude.

Although the pair will be leaving again soon to take up their summer contracts in environmental education, Caron said their recent experience has opened the doors to establishing a permanent studio someday.

“It’s been really nice to be on Salt Spring and really nice to come home as an adult.

“It’s been really encouraging to come back and see such a thriving artistic community,” she said.

To learn more about Caron’s creations, visit her blog at http://entangledpuppetry.blogspot.ca.

Build Your Own Puppet at the Salt Spring Library

On March 19 and 21 we welcomed an enthusiastic group of kids and parents to the Salt Spring Library for a free hour and a half workshop on building puppets.

The Salt Spring Library Program Room

 The workshop began with Tyler reading "Who's in Rabbits House?", a visually stunning picture book about a group of Masi tribes people putting on a play. It was to serve as the inspiration for the puppets we would create. 

Storytime with Tyler

 We had settled on a deceptively simple design that used an envelope as the head of the puppet. Beyond that, the kids (and parents) could let their imaginations run wild!

Everyone hard at work

Just because you're old enough to vote doesn't mean you can't make an awesome puppet

Everyone got about an hour to create their puppet masterpiece. Then we sat down and introduced all the weird and wacky and beautiful creatures that we had made.

Nit and Wit, a puppet comedy duo.

The caterpillar. It has a third rod so it can be a cooperative puppet!

A tribute puppet: she made a puppet version of her Mom.

A beautiful duck puppet.

There were lots of smiles and laughs and incredible displays of creativity from everyone. A special thank you to Stephy, our volunteer, and of course, the Salt Spring Library for providing the space and materials.

Short TALL Tales at the SSI library

ShortTALLTales

at the Salt Spring Library
March 2 and March 16

The Cosmic Dragon welcomes everyone to the Library

The Cosmic Dragon lives in the Library. It is his job to read all the books and make sure the words are all there and all the parts are in the right order. But sometimes he reads so many stories the parts get all mix-mashed. He wants to share his three favorite stories...

The Princess and the Pineapple

The Prince is looking for a Bride. But not just any girl will do...

An intriguing guest devours a bowl of spaghetti

An unconventional happily ever after

The Three Gruff Billies

The Three Gruff Billies are looking to get to Grass-is-Greener-Gables

The Troll and Big Billy battle in an epic thumb war 

 

Jack and Jill and the Beanstock

Jack is ready for adventure

At the top of the Beanstock, Jack and Jill meet Crazy Larry, who gives them three magical items

Jack learns you make more friends with rock soup then with rented swords and wins himself a new friend and a shiny crown

To our delight and astonishment the two performances attracted more then 140 people who squeezed into the Library's Program room to see Short Tall Tales

Thanks to the Salt Spring Public Library and everyone who came to the shows! 

Short TALL Tales March 2nd and 16th at the Salt Spring Public Library

Intermediate Puppetry at Royal Roads University Sunday March 24th

Intermediate Puppetry

Date: Sun, Mar 24, 2013           

Location: Royal Roads             

Length: 1 day   

Time: 10am – 4:30pm   

Cost: $95 + applicable taxes

  

Register Online at http://cstudies.royalroads.ca/courses/TAEA2976-Y12.htm  

By phone (250) 391-2513 or Toll Free 1-866-890-0220

Course Description 

Calling all dolly-wagglers, puppet-mongers and creative types...Puppetry offers an expansive, breathtaking and fun landscape to explore creativity and to catapult you to unexpected discoveries. Intermediate Puppetry is for people who have taken Introduction to Puppetry or already have some experience in the Puppet Arts.

This workshop builds on Introduction to Puppetry elements of physicality, character, improvisation, crafting story, puppet manipulation, design and building. Advanced techniques will include cooperative puppetry, shadow puppetry and constructing soundscapes. The workshop will culminate in the presentation of short puppet shows that the participants create themselves.

Topics:

• Puppet design, building and manipulation
• Cooperative puppetry
• Shadow puppetry
• Character and story development
• Soundscapes
• Creating and performing your story

Facilitator: Tangle Caron is a performer, puppeteer, musician, environmental educator, napper, snacker and Lady Adventurer. Currently, she is a puppeteer for Mountain WHIT, Canada Park's professional theatre troupe, co-director of Entangled Puppetry and a founding member of The Found Object Puppetry Collective. She has had the great fortune to study with Bread and Puppet Theatre and at the Banff Puppetry Intensive presented by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Tangle believes joy is an essential part of the creative process and is prone to fits of exuberant silliness, which she is pleased to have harnessed into a career.

Introduction to Puppetry at Royal Roads March 23rd

Introduction to Puppetry 

Date: Sat, Mar 23, 2013

Location: Royal Roads University

Length: 1 day
Times: 10am – 4:30pm
Cost: $95 + applicable taxes

Register Online at http://cstudies.royalroads.ca/courses/TAEA2976-Y12.htm

By phone (250) 391-2513 or Toll Free 1-866-890-0220

Course Description

You are a puppeteer! Can you say, that at one time or another, as child or adult, you brought a doll, stick, shadow or empty beer can to life, with a voice and identity? Simple, beautiful, joyful and yet incredibly complex, the humble art of puppet theatre breaks through creative boundaries. Elements of drama, storytelling, dance, music, visual arts and ritual combine in this ancient and ever expanding art form. Participants will explore the creative art of puppet theatre through exercises in physicality, discovering character, improvisation, crafting story and puppet manipulation, design and building. In an art form where the boundaries are as limitless as our imaginations, there are no right or wrong answers, only wildly creative alternatives. This day promises deeply imaginative fun and frivolity!

Topics: • Discovering and building a character
• Storytelling: crafting and expressing a narrative
• Styles of puppetry
• Physical approach to manipulation technique
• Design and building puppets
• Puppetry as art form
• Movement and improv

Facilitator: Tangle Caron is a performer, puppeteer, musician, environmental educator, napper, snacker and Lady Adventurer. Currently, she is a puppeteer for Mountain WHIT, Canada Park's professional theatre troupe, co-director of Entangled Puppetry and a founding member of The Found Object Puppetry Collective. She has had the great fortune to study with Bread and Puppet Theatre and at the Banff Puppetry Intensive presented by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Tangle believes joy is an essential part of the creative process and is prone to fits of exuberant silliness, which she is pleased to have harnessed into a career. 

Build your own puppet with Entangled Puppetry at the Salt Spring Public Library