Puppet show magic at SL library

Mar 25, 2015

A double feature puppet show put on at the Sharbot Lake branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library on March 20 attracted over 40 visitors - youngsters, parents and grandparents.

The show, which was in part celebrating World Puppetry Day (March 21) also provided entertainment to youngsters throughout the county at the tail of the March Break. The show was presented by two members of the programming and outreach staff at the KFPL, Brenda MacDonald and Huda Shaltry. They presented two performances, the first titled “The Mightiest”, based on a children’s picture book by Keiko Kaszo and the second, the traditional classic, “The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen.

Youngsters gathered around the festive satin-clad puppet theatre, which was set up in one corner of the library, and enjoyed the unfolding dramas. Many of the more uninhibited children offered up their comments as the plays unfolded.

Children love puppet shows and MacDonald said that she loves to see youngsters “light up” when watching the performances. She explained that the shows are another special way to bring literacy to youngsters. “Puppet shows are a special thing that children don't get to see every day and a new way to present a story to them - they offer up a new way for children to interact,” she said when I spoke to her prior to the performances.

Shaltry added, “A puppet show provides a new creative outlet for children and is a performance art that children, who may tend to be a bit shy, can still get involved in. It is a way that they can also be comfortable performing.” She added that a puppet show is a low cost, highly entertaining production that requires no technology and licensing. “It just requires our hands, our voices, the puppets and our portable theatre.”

MacDonald had been touring the show to various branches of the KFPL during the week of the March break to hundreds of youngsters.

While the youngsters thoroughly immersed themselves in both performances, I was especially intrigued by the older-style puppets that were used in the second performance, The Princess and The Pea. These colourful, hand-crafted puppets are made of papier-mâché and are meticulously painted. They hearken back to puppets and shows that I had a chance to see when I was a child.

For puppet enthusiasts, World Puppetry Day is celebrated every March 21 and according to Wikipedia was begun by Dzhivada Zolfagariho, who in 2000 at the XVIII Congress of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette, (UNIMA) in Madgeburg, proposed the idea. Two years later, at a meeting of the International Council of UNIMA in Atlanta, the date of the celebration was decided and the first celebration took place in 2003.

Sara Carpenter, head librarian at the Sharbot Lake branch, was thrilled with the turnout for the special march Break event. “It's so great to be able to have had the performance here and we are hoping to have another one here again this summer. We are also hoping that the children who attended the show will be encouraged to come back to the library and enjoy what we have to offer them.”