Zenwing Puppets

Ross-shire-based Puppet theatre group ZENWING PUPPETS are this month’s featured company

Mission Statement

Zenwing Puppets love creating puppet shows and workshops for children and adults. This includes family puppet shows, participative community events, personal development programmes, and workshops in schools. Our overall aim is to do our creative best for every audience or group we work with.

Creativity is a shapechanger, and we experience the energising flow and plunging collisions this brings into our lives. We build puppets that make us laugh; and puppets that tangle their strings overnight. We are not (yet) virtuoso performers, but we are passionate about puppets.
 
Zenwing Puppets began in 2005 with thanks to HIE Easter Ross Enterprise (or RACE as was) for a start-up grant. ‘The Ross-shire State Puppet Circus’ family show was our first major touring production.

HI~Arts Producers Fund was our life-line, and we toured the Highlands and Islands, meeting many creative communities and children. Bless all the people who participated in that show. The venues ranged from village halls to an artic fish wagon.

We endeavour to apply puppet humour and metaphors to look at sensitive issues. The ‘Equality & Diversity’ show uses a variety of puppet sketches based on people’s real experiences of discrimination. The audience is tied up with wool to represent the legislative framework that protects or suppresses people (depending on viewpoint). Puppets lead a practical demonstration to prove everyone in the audience is equal … or diverse.

‘Inside-Outside’ (for emotional well-being) was a 2-month project designed and delivered by Zenwing in 2006. This was supported by the Highland Health Board, Artsplay Highland and the Health & Happiness project. Participants explored experiences of bullying and depression through puppets and masks and created a comical shadow puppet show.

‘Vasalisa’s Power’ (2006) was our second major production, with help from H.I.E. to tour 16 venues. It was based on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ psychological interpretation of an old Russian Tale. The show uses mixed media, and hardly any text.

Children have offered some profound understandings of the show from their perspectives, about the meaning of power and intuition. We ran workshops before each show, so children could participate in the performance.

We recognise we are at a pivotal point in Zenwing’s life. The world of puppetry crosses several art-forms and we are acutely aware of the complexities this means, and the need to work with people who have expertise in different media.

Current Production or Work-in-Progress

‘Vasalisa’s Power’ is on the road again with Puppet Animation Festival in March and April, 2007. This tour has taken us out of the Highlands to Edinburgh, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway.

Our third touring family show ‘Dragon Tales’, is being developed for this summer (2007), with support from the HI~Arts Producers’ Fund. The Dornoch Dragon, the Kelpie of Loch Garve and Smok Walwelski (the Polish Dragon of Krakow/Walwel Hill) make up three shows in one performance. We were keen to look at the similarities and differences of Polish and Highland cultures through folk-lore, and discussions.

Fantasy Theatre

The first dream has been in incubation for almost 30 years and still isn’t ready for ‘birthing!’… One aspect of this dream involves deepening our knowledge, skills and understanding of puppetry in different cultures and eras.

The second dream is to build our own spectacular and accessible puppet theatre, with a workshop for making well-designed puppets, using the wonderful concepts of old master puppeteers, and working with a variety of performing artists for resident and touring shows.

The purpose built puppet theatre would include amazing sets of mechanical (and technical) brilliance. For the moment we have a very old, but nice shipping container hut with shelves.

Golden Moment

The first time I felt a puppet take on its own life was thrilling. Watching a group of managers talking to our professor puppet (a frog) about procedures was inspiring. Many wonderful audiences. Plus the toddler who climbed on stage to get the pedal car off a puppet, and a woman who made a very long journey by different modes of public transport to see ‘Vasalisa’s Power’ because it had special significance for her.
 
And Not So Golden Moment

The worst moment was when we both had a complete and utter crisis of confidence at exactly the same time. We gave what felt like the worst performance in the history of theatre! Other not so golden moments have taught us valuable lessons, such as the time the whole front row of children ran away screaming, swiftly followed by their parents, when the witch appeared, or being squashed against a very low ceiling on our raised platform, trying to manipulate marionettes in a tiny venue.

Highland Theatre – Is There Such A Thing, and If So, What Is It?

Our initial response was ‘yes, of course’… Where there are Highland Theatre companies, performing in and around the Highlands, or coming from the Highlands, there exists Highland Theatre.

There seems to be a deep and creative energy in the Highlands, which I’ve always linked to the landscape, the solidity of the mountains and the big skies. But each time I read this question I become less certain about what it is asking. Somehow it feels boxed in, and my response is to want the question to be free to breathe… to answer itself, with something bigger than YES!

I’m not sure if that makes sense… but it’s the best I can offer until I can offer more!

© Karrie Marshall and Chris King, 2007