Puppet Power: Festival of Ideas opening panel explores the difference between celebration and entertainment, the role art has to mirror and shape reality and the special role puppets can play as representatives to act as proxies for voice in both celebration and social justice.

"People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle…. Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions. "Source: The Wisdom of Heschel ― Abraham Joshua Heschel

Puppet Power 2022: Celebration! is the 10th edition of our biennial Festival of Ideas featuring local, Canadian, and international master puppeteers whose inspiring performances, workshops, and panel discussions link to intriguing ideas.

Accessibility: This live online session will be presented with auto-generated English captions.

A bit about the Artists:

Jeremiah Bartram - Moderator - is an Ottawa-based artist and critic who was swept away by the insurrectionary delight of puppet theatre six years ago and has never recovered. More writer than performer, he has attended intensives, festivals and workshops in North America and Europe, fashioned a collection of imaginary beings and provided them with scripts, and is working on a book about puppet theatre. But his main preoccupation is the “why” of puppets: what is the primal source of their power? He holds four degrees, a doctorate in literature from the University of London among them.

Gary Friedman After six years of puppetry studies in Charleville-Mézières in France, including a film and television puppetry course with the late-Muppet master Jim Henson, Gary started a non-governmental organisation with ‘PuppetsAgainst Aids’ to educate communities in Southern Africa. This project was soon adopted in Africa, Canada, Europe, Australia and the Pacific Islands and is still running today.

He was commissioned by the South African national broadcaster to cover the first historic post-Apartheid elections. His puppets interviewed President Nelson Mandela and other politicians for ‘Puppets for Democracy’ soon followed by ‘Puppets in Prison’, ‘Puppets Against Corruption’ in Kenya and ‘Puppets Against Abuse’ in South Africa.

After 20 years of adult educational projects, Friedman took on children’s television shows and began teaching ‘Puppetry for Film and Television’ at Sydney Film School and ‘Puppetry in Education’. Together with Occupational Therapist, Sharon Gelber, Friedman conducted puppetry & creativity workshops for all ages, in Europe, Canada and the United States. They embarked on a ‘puppetry for literacy education’ program in both primary and high schools in Australia. Followed by international workshop tours. In 2012, they relocated to Melbourne, from where they now operate an international puppetry, therapy and documentary film consultancy.

Chamindika Wanduragala is a Sri Lankan American puppet artist and filmmaker based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. She is the founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Monkeybear's Harmolodic Workshop, which supports Native, Black, Indigenous and People of Color in developing creative and technical skills in contemporary puppetry. You can see her artwork at chamindika.com and the work of her organization at monkeybear.org

South Miller Direction, visual conceptor for puppets, masks and set, co-author, and co-founder of Les Sages Fous. South was the recipient of the prestigious “Award for Artistic Creation” from the Quebec Arts Council in Quebec in 2007; South and her collegue Sylvain have received several awards for their co-set design: Jury Prize at the 39th International Puppet Theatre Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, for the scenography Bizzarium: Aquarium (2006); and the Prize for the best scenography and puppets for The Orphan Circus at Spotkania festival in Torun, Poland (2011).

South has participated as creator for all the shows of the company as well as making all of the puppets and sets collaboratively with Sylvain. She has toured as an actor-puppeteer and all over the world with the Sages Fous productions.

Nathan Millar An artist and recent graduate of Bachelor of Child Studies, with a major in Child and Youth Care Counselling. Nathan participated in an extensive Capstone Project as well as a practicum with WP Puppet Theatre, looking at the efficacy of applied puppetry within its vast professional contexts. He has worked as a Child and Youth Care Counsellor in varying roles for 20 years. In addition to emerging interests around the use of simple puppetry in counselling, Nathan illustrates and colors independent comics, and works as a Research Assistant at Mount Royal University studying vicarious trauma.

This event is also available as part of our Puppet Power: Festival of Ideas All Access Pass and Event Recording Package.