Puppet Power 2025 - Puppetry Workshops

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

Option 1: NINA VOGEL - Carazinho, 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 Feathers of Hope, 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.

Using the guiding question “How did I get here?”, participants will create a short autobiographical micro-puppet show in this 2.5 hour hands on workshop. The story can reflect a personal journey, an ancestral path, or a creative exploration. Participants will use objects, suitcases, music, special clothing, and various puppetry styles to bring their stories to life. Time permitting, there will be an opportunity to share the pieces with the group—or they may remain works in progress, open to future development.

This workshop is in person.

Option 3: 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.

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