Puppet Animation Scotland was founded in 1984 and is a champion of puppetry, visual theatre and animation at home as well as across the world, providing year round support to artists working in these fields. For the first time during its 37 year existence, Puppet Animation Scotland has had to make the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Puppet Animation Festival.
However, in these challenging times when parents and carers are faced with the new concept of home schooling and as well as keeping children entertained away from gaming on screen, Puppet Animation Scotland has come up with some ideas for getting creative during lockdown.
In collaboration with puppeteers across Scotland, Puppet Animation Scotland has created a series of tutorial videos designed to create puppetry at home. These will be released from 30th April to 4th June and be presented by a different artist based in Scotland providing easy to follow instructions on how to create puppets and crankie theatres (traditionally used in folk singing and storytelling they work by scenes being changed like the turning of a page within the box of the mini theatre by means of a handle or crank) using materials that can be found at home, or readily ordered on-line.
The short videos that can be accessed via the Puppet Animation Scotland YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts, are entitled Puppetry at Home – How to make a Crankie Toy Theatre and Puppetry at Home – Finger Puppet Portraits.
If you’re running out of new ideas to keep everyone alert during lockdown and making your own puppets and mini theatres sounds exciting for you and the children in your life, then this innovative project is the one for you.
Looking ahead, Puppet Animation Scotland is appealing to companies and artists interested in touring with them during the 2021 Puppet Animation Festival. That’s the way to do it!
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 