Open No 33 Part B March - Dream Puppets

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This week Canberra is celebrating its centenary
- one hundred years as the capital of Australia and the home of Parliament. Walter Burley Griffin from
Chicago was the winner of the International Federal Capital Design competition for a city plan. His
plan was to incorporate the landscape’s natural qualities into the design. The foundation stones were
laid at Capital Hill on 12th March, 1913.
The front cover shows giant puppets of Walter and Marion Burley Griffin from a photo provided by
Hilary Talbot (Canberran puppeteer). Hilary tells us the puppets were made in 1989 by Ron Smith
from the Mardis Gras workshop for the protest play, Keep Your Hands Off our Assets, in Castlecrag,
Sydney. The puppets were on display in the National Museum of Australia’s Landmarks exhibition in
2011.
Puppetry in Canberra
- a recent history by Hilary Talbot
Canberra celebrates its centenary this year, and puppetry takes its place amidst all the events, festivals
and activities that are occurring during the year: Canberra 100, (artistic director Robyn Archer), You Are
Here Festival, Enlighten Festival, and The Village Festival.
When I became interested in puppetry in the 80s and 90's, Canberra's dedicated puppetry company was
Skylark, founded as Skylark Puppet and Mask Company in 1984 by Shelley McDonald, Marie-Martine
Ferrari and Al Martinez. It then had a second life as Company Skylark, under the directorship of Peter J.
Wilson who added sophisticated adult theatre, such as the renowned Inside Dry Water, to its existing
repertoire for young audiences. Hopes of establishing training and a core company of puppeteers,
makers in the capital sadly collapsed when Skylark did, due to the fraudulent actions of its general
manager. People dispersed, some to work on the Sydney 2000 Olympics Ceremony, and then to
Melbourne, where Peter set up the post-graduate puppetry course at the VCA which gave such a boost
to puppetry in Australia in the 2000's
Some us stayed. Catherine Roach is now a director and puppetry director. Imogen Keen works widely as
a designer, maker and costume maker in many theatre productions. I also freelance as a maker and
occasionally as a designer (attributed as HT under the photos). We are all involved with some of the
puppetry productions this year that are mentioned below. Elizabeth Paterson specializes in art made with
paper and cardboard, but remains very interested in puppetry.