Almonte returns this year as a hotbed of puppetry, with the first-ever PuppetCon taking over the town 45 minutes from downtown Ottawa.
After a six-year hiatus, the international Puppets Up! festival returned last summer as a biennial event, led once again by Artistic Director Noreen Young, who started her career in puppetry in 1967. 2023 marks the launch of PuppetCon, which will take place on off years between Puppets Up! events.
Photo by Amy Boughner.
While Puppets Up! celebrates the best puppeteers everywhere, PuppetCon is explicitly designed to grow the puppetry community through 15 workshops and three panels.
“The focus is on education and development,” says event organizer Jenny Sheffield. “You can learn how to build a puppet, how to work a puppet, how to write a storyline for a puppet show, how to market a puppet show.”
There are also lectures diving into puppeteers’ careers. The panels are equally instrumental in growing a puppetry community, as they will expose people to the inside world of puppetry, including a trade talk for established and aspiring puppeteers.
“I don’t think of puppetry as being modern or old-fashioned; it’s evergreen. It changes and evolves like every art.”
—Noreen Young, PuppetCon Artistic Director
“We’re hoping to recruit some new puppeteers and new volunteers and develop the festival,” says Noreen Young, who described herself as “puppet crazy.”
“The panels are an opportunity to have discussions among workshop leaders… a little more of the down-and-dirty of puppetry, if you will,” says Graff. There will also be an Under the Umbrella Tree cast reunion, a CBC show that ran for 280 episodes.
Photo by Amy Boughner.
Some workshops are for children, others for adults only, and a few are for the whole family, like the Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers’ sock puppet workshop. They’ll cover all aspects of puppetry for all ages.
There is a lot to being a puppeteer. Organizer Joey Graff calls it “a truly multidisciplinary art.” Graff and Sheffield say they owe their start in puppeteering to Young: Sheffield started about ten years ago and is now part of the Rock the Arts company that performs children’s shows. Meanwhile, Graff got his start at age six, with a puppet-building class taught by Young, and he now does a lot of work building puppets, performing, and directing shows.
Photo by Amy Boughner.
Puppetry is a very old art form with a firm foothold in the modern world—Graff points out that there is a ton of puppetry in contemporary culture, from modern Broadway shows like The Lion King and Avenue Q to Yoda in Star Wars. You’ll see puppets on Sesame Street and the Fringe stage.
“I don’t think of puppetry as being modern or old-fashioned; it’s evergreen. It changes and evolves like every art, but it’s a wonderful art that’s as old as storytelling,” says Young. “It’s a commentary for the common person.”
Along with the workshops, one of the big draws will be Below Board on Saturday night, a late-night talk show hosted by a “rather unique” puppet named James HD. It’s unscripted, unrehearsed, and involves audience participation. What more could you want?
PuppetCon runs from August 11–13 in Almonte, ON. For a list of events and tickets, check out their website.
