Glastonbury 2023

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Cloud Child flies in for fun at the Kidzfield big top , performed by Rachel Riggs with Phoebe Georga

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Lots of fun walkabout puppets and workshops with Shona Reppe & Tam, Sarah Hicks Art, Emma, Jonny, Phoebe, Abbi & Lauren, Ash & Alex

DNA Puppet Crew Glastonbury 2022

How wonderful to be back at Glastonbury Festival! after a 2 year covid gap, it has been such a joy to perform and play in the Kidzfield once again.

Kidzfield crew 2022

This year we had an amazing crew with Shona Reppe performing the very funny ‘Potato Needs a Bath’ in the Big Top with Tam on live music.

Potato needs a bath

Sarah Hicks art led her amazing art workshops creating rainbow accessories- hats, bracelets plus the continuing totem pole installation

Sarah Hicks Art

The Liddle Family created literally onsite a whole family of chooks – from egg to rooster, for a new well recieved walkabout act by a family for families!

Who came first?

And for the first time Cone Man premiered at Glastonbury Festival with silent comedy and games he entertains, improvising with young and old, plus confusing security guards!

Cone Man

We were also blessed to have drama student Phoebe Georga, who is a natural and enthusiastic new puppeteer, joining the DNA crew

Phoebe & Rainbow Cat

The weather was perfect for walkabout and no mud! It was a great celebration of 50 years of the festival and coming together of people!

Rachel& Diva Mermaid

We cant wait till Glastonbury 2023! Thanks to Tony Cordy & all the festival crew for all you do

Queens Jubilee Walkabout

Rachel Riggs from DNA Puppetry was invited to entertain all the family in Bromfeld near Malvern, UK on her recent travels. Young and old delighted in the Diva, Dog and Rainbow Cat in the village square as part of the community celebrations. The mayor is a big fan of puppets, and asked for the Rainbow cat to come and open the farmers market!

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Red Rebel puppet ready for action!

Red Rebels WA

Rachel writes ‘ I started making the red rebel puppet a few months ago, so she would be ready for climate change actions and demonstrations. She can be used as vertical or horizontal rod puppet, so she can move with detailed actions with human red rebels, when bearing witness to others activism, or paraded high at rallies

Mannequin head idea

‘ I had the idea of using a mannequin head, as the Red Rebels movement as street theatre performers is very slow and controlled with clear deliberate actions and gestures. So i began by cutting it cleanly in half , hollowing out to fit rod mechanism and covering with many layers of paper mache, then painting on gesso – a mix of pva glue, white acrylic paint and Tetrion plaster’

2 layers of brown paper and 2 layers of white butchers paper

‘A hole is made to insert the horizontal rod from inside, screwed into a base to stop it turning round. It was essential to reinforce the neck with a metal pipe and integrally connect the shoulders and neck with red cord and plastic pipe to create realistic movement.’

Recycling product packaging and foam

Red cord connects shoulders/arms to neck with all main connections strengthened

Starting to come together!

The head with rod control

‘The head is carefully sandwiched back together with Tetrion and white glue and taped to hold while setting. Then sanded down to create a porcelain effect. The body is shaped with more foam, and red gloves are stuffed with dacron with a card hand shape to give structure and hold shape. Shes ready to be dressed’

Evening out the shoulder area connections

Traditional Red Rebel costume

Her red dress and head dress are fitted, thanks to Lynda Moylan and Chris Clarke for helping with the costume! More ribbons are added. Now to paint the face and traditionally, in making puppets, the eyes are painted on last, to give life’

‘I wanted the puppet to have standout features at a distance and capture the iconic look of a Red Rebel activist with the distinct make up, drawing on theatrical traditions’

A few more details and shes ready to go!

XR Red Rebels are silent street performers who move and act as one chorus. Originally inspired and created by Invisible Theatre Uk, they have troupes all over the world, bearing witness to the climate emergency action with unity, empathy and compassion. The red of the costumes represents the blood that unifies us with all living beings and in Australia, the colour of the land, honouring the original Aboriginal custodians, past, present and future.

DNA Puppetry at Glastonbury

A collection of photos from performing at Glastonbury festival over the years with all the many artists/family weve worked and played with. The DNA team were very proud to be listed in the 50 year celebration book with performances, workshops and walkabout puppets in the theatre and kidzfields. How we very much miss being there this year, due to the current covid situation. I have walked and worked the fields of worthy farm since I was 18 years old and watched many great artists and bands from my favourite spot under the great oak tree in front of the main stage. Its such an important cultural celebration, DNA puppetry has been priveleged to be part of. Lets hope we can all be together again next year!

Rachel Riggs – artistic director

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Round & Round ! early years tour 2019-2020

DNA Puppetry/Imaginary Leaps shared performances of our newly adapted storytelling theatre play ‘Round & Round’ in a tour Nov/Dec 2019, sponsored by the City of Fremantle. With performances at local early years settings, Fremantle Arts Centre and  Sullivan Hall Community Centre.

Photos by Tim Grant

‘Round & Round’ is a show specially made for very young children and their carer, highly visual with little spoken language accessible for all!

There is a 30 min story telling puppetry performance with interactive, sensory play activities afterwards for 10-15 mins to aid full experiential learning and engagement.

And also a story book to accompany, and continue experiential learning when the performance & play is over.

‘Round & Round’ was developed in the UK as ‘Ballpond Bobby’, performed at TATE Britain, London and toured to festivals in Europe! Now, a newly created version is on tour, specially made for early years centre’s in WA.

DNA’s working practice starts with the exploration of physical properties (such as material and everyday objects) through simple play approaches, similar to the way children explore the world.

Underpinning this exploration is the desire to transform the ordinary to the extraordinary, reflecting the ease with which children do this everyday in their imaginary play. Coordinating with Early Years Framework outlines.

‘The purpose of creating work in this way is to encourage and stimulate the imaginative play of children, engaging them as audience and participants in a process of creating characters, stories and worlds out of the everyday objects around us. When creating DNA’s work for early years audiences, the company takes care not to introduce conventions, assumptions or concepts that are beyond young children’s immediate experience or comprehension.’

Rachel Riggs  – Creative Director, with Adam Bennett – Puppeteer and Lynda Moylan – Performer

In Jan/Feb 2020,‘Round & Round’ is performing as part of Fringe World 2020, Perth to large, sell out family audiences.

Imaginary Leaps are also very proud to be part of the smallsize international childrens theatre network, creating and celebrating original quality theatre for young children.

Canterbury Festival Chicken Licken

The classic show Chicken Licken performed by Adam Bennett was presented at a vintage original Spiegeltent in Canterbury as part of the Canterbury Festival 2019

“I really enjoyed performing in this amazing venue,” says Adam ” the people who helped get the show ready and the families who came to see the show were all lovely.”

“I’ve performed this show hundreds of times over three continents in three different languages,” continues Adam and I am hoping to present it in Australia in 2020, taking it to cities and rural communities.”

Adam is taking bookings of Chicken Licken for 2020 from Australian venues, communities and event organisers. If you are interested in finding out more about Chicken Licken, show availability and prices please email adam@dynamicnewanimation.co.uk or call Adam on 0410 880330

Kidz Field, Glastonbury Festival 2019

This year DNA Puppetry took off to the ‘greatest show on earth’ once again with an all women family team of Glasto Goddesses! The Kidzfield celebrates 25 years this festival  and in DNA Puppetry’s 25 year history, we have performed in the Kidzfield and Theatre fields almost every year, with most of our shows!

For 2019, DNA presented a new storytelling show, ‘Tales from the Magic Carpet – Aladdin’ with vintage puppets and props, performed and created by Rachel Riggs with Cerrie Beech on percussion, and assistance from Georgina Solo/Adele Greaves. We performed everyday in the Kidzfield Big Top for families, with the line up including Andy from Cbeebies and the great Basil Brush!.

DNA also present crafting workshops each day with Sarah Hicks and Emma Liddle taking care of the make and play activities, making recycled creations with help from the team.

Georgina Solo has made our DNA puppets for years and we were grateful to have her back with us, making sure DNA’s walkabout puppets were in tip top condition and making set/props instantly on site!

Added to this were our well loved walkabout puppets – the talking Baby, the Rainbow cat, Grumpy puss and Puppy plus marionettes. Performed by our team, Cerrie, Rebecca, Adele and Rachel ,we love to be part of the great and much loved Kidz Field! Thanks to Emma Liddle for all the photos, all the DNA puppetry team, Tony and Emma Cordy, and all the team.

https://www.kidzfield.com/

Imaginary Leaps joins Small size Network

Imaginary leaps is very proud to be accepted as a member of the international early years childrens theatre network Small Size! The Network is a member of ASSITEJ International, Childrens Theatre association

Small Size was founded in 2005 with the support of the European Commission and the Culture 2000 programme. It was established by 4 professional theatre and educational arts organisations: La Baracca (Italy), Théâtre de la Guimbarde (Belgium), Acción Educativa (Spain) and GOML (Slovenia).

The project promotes audience development, in particular the development of children-spectators, making children approach performing arts both in Europe and worldwide, because children, even the youngest ones, have the right to be viewed as spectators of today and not only of tomorrow, and that they are human beings and not just “human becomings”.

Small size Network was founded as an Artistic International Association in 2007 with the aim to widen the performing arts for early years (0-6 years). The Association promotes training, documentation and partnership and friendship programs.

Starting from 2015, every year the network promotes the Small size days. On the last week-end of January, shows, workshops, events dedicated to children 0-6 will take place in all associates’ venues all over the world.

Today the associates are 55 from 4 continents and 26 different countries: Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, South, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and now Australia!

Cloud Child play with Adam Bennett for small size days 2019

http://smallsizenetwork.org

Cloud Child wins Fringe award!

Earlier this year DNA Puppetry’s Cloud Child was nominated for a Childrens Theatre Award at Fringe world Perth! Congratulations to all involved and a big thank you to our Perth audiences!

Cloud child and Lynda Moylan