Puppet Power 2025 - Puppetry Workshops

These workshops run concurrently and participants need to choose ONE of three.

Option 1: NINA VOGEL - Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Nina Vogel is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist—director, puppeteer, singer, and designer—creating original visual puppet theatre. She has performed in over 20 countries and received international recognition, including the Lisa Simon Scholarship. A graduate of Célia Helena and UQAM, Nina is regularly invited to artistic residencies worldwide.

PART 1: (90 minute workshop)

Playing Costume of Freedom invites participants to create their own animated costume prototypes as a form of personal expression. Nina will briefly share her creative process—how she envision costumes as both setting and character—and will guide practical exercises to build a miniature universe within each costume, using textures, colour palettes, and visual symbols, all aligned with the theme of the talk and performance.

PART 2: (60 minute talk and performance)

Art, Immigration and Migratory Birds - a diplomatic creative way towards peace.

Nina will share stories of connection and challenge, where puppets served as agents of harmony. She’ll showcase two works: Uirapuru Tori, co-created in Japan, and Little Blue, about a child refugee. The talk will conclude with The World Within Us, a 15-minute performance inviting global audiences to exchange handwritten messages of peace, unity, and hope through the wings of a traveling puppet.
This workshop is in person.

Option 2: CATHY STUBBINGTON - Enderby, Canada

Cathy Stubington is a multi-disciplinary puppeteer and community artist. As founding director of Runaway Moon Theatre, she creates site-specific, folklore-inspired works that connect people to land, community, and social issues. Her decades-long collaboration with the Splatsin First Nation informs her art, grounded in place-based storytelling, ritual, and creative engagement.

Growing Roots – Shadow Puppets and Stories

Building on a project Cathy facilitated with Mohammed Zaqout for a group of asylum seekers, from Afghanistan, Colombia, Iran, Peru, Iraq, and Southern Mexico, this workshop centres around trees. Trees are a metaphor for finding belonging, becoming anchored and bringing the community something valuable. They are a comfortable springboard to deeper conversations about being a newcomer.

Participants are invited to think about a tree they know (or used to know), that holds special meaning for them. Then, with instruction, they build a simple shadow puppet. The 2.5-hour Growing Roots workshop finishes with everyone sharing their puppets and stories as they wish.
This workshop is in person.

Option 3: GERALDINE YSSELSTEIN - Calgary, AB

Geraldine Ysselstein (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, and researcher who lives in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) in Treaty 7 Territory. After twenty years of working as an arts manager/educator in multiple arts organizations, she founded her company Riverstone Creating, cultivating space for conversations about social change with care, curiosity, and creativity.

In this hands -on workshop we will be reflecting on ourselves through the creation of a fun rod puppet, using a tsikuri, ojo de dios, or ‘Gods eye’ weaving component. Participants will be guided through thoughtful practices that will be expressed through their puppet. Connecting with ourselves creatively, we can then connect with those around us to foster deeper understanding and empathy.
This workshop is in person.

Option 4: ERIC BASS - Vermont, USA

Sandglass theatre’s action-packed, high-energy production, Babylon: Journey of Refugees, is a response to the worldwide refugee crisis and its impact on communities in the United States. Working with the USCRI Vermont (US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants), Sandglass seeks to understand the challenges that face refugees and asylum seekers.

Sandglass conducted research and interviews with new residents who immigrated to the US in order to gain insight into their plight and the challenges of resettlement. Babylon looks at the relationship of refugees to their homelands, lost and new, and the conflicts that exist within the countries to which they flee.

Using puppets and moving panoramic scrolls, five actor/singer/puppeteers tell refugees’ stories in original four-part choral songs. For ages 14 and up.

Following the screening Eric Bass, Founder of Sandglass Theatre, will discuss the creative process and impact of Babylon and host Qand A. 
This workshop is hosted at Centre for Newcomers with Eric live-streaming in from Vermont.

Tickets: $35.00 per person

Refunds: No refunds within 7 days of the event but a charitable receipt will be issued.