In 2012, our story began as a way to honor the memory of our dear friend Ken Frew, who left us way too early. Ken, a storyteller and sailor, had written a delightful little poem for a young friend about the captain of a boat made entirely of vegetables. From this, it launched our creative juices and we stepped into the world of puppets, hired the talented playwright, Kira Hall, and set sail on a learning adventure of this stagecraft. The play was for all ages, full of bad puns Ken would have laughed at, larger than life characters, and lots of references to this place he called home by the shores of Great Slave Lake. On January 2014, we launched The Vegetable Ship as newly minted puppeteers, all volunteers of passionate spirit and various skill sets in community theater and the local arts scene.
For our first show, we needed to have a name. We looked no further then the name of Ken’s little sailboat.. Kestrel.
And as they say…
… the rest is history.
Who knew that something we did out of love for a friend would turn into something we love to do.
Today, the Kestrel Puppet Players continue on; consisting of northern puppeteers, actors, visual artists, playwrights and backstage crew. Our objective is to explore and advance the theatrical storytelling possibilities of puppetry in the North.
Kestrel Puppet Players are proud members of UNIMA, Western Canada’s Union Internationale de la Marionnette (www.unimawest.com)
Kestrel Puppet Player Founders
The group performs in memory of Ken Frew raconteur and friend.
~illustration by Terry Pamplin~
Our First Show
Vegetable Ship
Photos by James MacKenzie Photo
Why Puppets?
A word from founder, puppeteer and puppet builder -Rose Scott
I have always enjoyed animating objects to amuse myself, friends and and family I just kind of can’t help myself.
-Rose Scott
Thank goodness for the Yellowknife theatre and arts community that are willing to say “YES!!” to this medium of storytelling by being performers, attending workshops, building puppets, assisting with production and more.
Puppetry combines performance, technical skill with craftsmanship and a broad dash of humor. A puppet’s movements are a kind of expressive shorthand, the slightest hand gesture, or a tilt of the head can speak volumes that actors or lines can’t always get across. And in the case of difficult or dark subject matter, puppets offer audiences a safer emotional distance than human performers do: They can embody our fears but free us from having to turn away from them.
Kestrel Puppet Players, have performed original material in four productions, using a variety of techniques and puppets, including Bunraku, shadow 2D and 3D animated objects, and projected imagery. In all performances, I have been involved in development, acted as a builder, and performer. It has been a labor of love and there is something new I learn with each show as I delve deeper into the craft. I am grateful for the experience shared by the talented folks of Old Trout, Clunk Puppet Lab and Long Grass Studios.