I’m really excited to be performing my new puppet show ‘The Creation of Spring’ in Zion Community Art Space, Bristol this coming Saturday 13th July at 2.30pm.
The show tells a collection of stories inspired by Greek Mythology. We find out a little bit about the history of Gods including Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the Adventures of Perseus and how Persephone became queen of the underworld.
I particularly enjoy actually playing the part of Hermes; Messenger of the Gods and then jumping back into the stage to procure the puppet of the same character.
The storyline is aimed at ages 5 plus but visually and musically it’s great for all ages. I have learnt a lot over the last few years about introducing dubious characters without scaring nervous children. Hades introduces Cerberus, Guardian of the Underworld with a very silly song all about his dog who has three heads.
Zion is a lovely light but cool space (it used to be a church) so it will be a great place to put on a show during that really hot part of the day. Other than a couple of shadow puppet scenes I’m not going to use lighting as there are no black out facilities but I really don’t think this will matter.
Lots of the characters are hand puppets whose heads I have carved from polystyrene and then covered with paper mache. I like using these materials because the puppet head can be quite big, which is good for big audiences while remaining nice and light. There is nothing worse than struggling with a heavy puppet to spoil a performance. I have picked hand puppets because it’s a great way to play two characters at the same time whilst being able to change from one to the next while the other stays on stage. I have blogged about how tricky this procedure is before but I have been practicing for a while now and I am starting to get the hang of it.
Other styles of puppetry are performed in the show including a Great Big rock and rolling Zeus and 5 Jelly Babies; Zeus’s brothers and sisters who get eaten by Cronus.
I can’t wait, hopefully you can join me on a trip to ancient Greece.
You can meet some of the characters here
Zion Art Space is on Bishopsworth Rd, Bristol, BS137JW
Ticket are £2 for Kids and £3 for Adults.
