The Ottawa Puppetry Club - Celebrate With Soup

by Peggy Artelle

Soft-sculpt vegetables simmered slowly with saucy humour is just a taste of the fibre-filled fare being served up during "Stone Soup", the Ottawa Puppetry Club's 10th Anniversary celebratory show. Cast and crew are very excited to be working on this new puppetry production since it breaks away from the traditional variety show format of past productions. Previous OPC shows presented a collage of puppet styles that included glove puppets, rod manipulation, shadow puppetry, blacklight, masks and life-sized junk puppets packaged into a series of five-to-fifteen-minute vignettes.

What makes "Stone Soup" a challenging project is that OPC puppeteers will be focusing their skills on mounting a full presentation built around a single storyline. Original scripting has always been a key element in Club productions, and our Anniversary show maintains that standard. Although the original script for "Stone Soup" was based on the European folktale, the final version has become a collaborative creation with an expanded storyline, spiked with visits from a hungry dragon, a flirtatious queen bee, and a giant chicken! Performances have been scheduled at the Orleans Theatre, April 14th at 1:30p.m. and at the Glebe Community Centre, April 29th at 1:30p.m. and 3:00p.m.

Since being founded in 1997, the Ottawa Puppetry Club has continued its mandate to teach and promote the art of puppetry. Through workshops, presentations, monthly meetings and annual shows, Club members learn to build their own puppets and are taught manipulation techniques. The annual OPC shows offer an excellent venue for honing performance skills as well as an opportunity for community involvement, especially through our 50/50 Show which offers support to community events, schools and fundraisers through a shared revenue arrangement.

In addition to the upcoming 10th Anniversary show, the OPC milestone was marked by the launch of a new website in January 2007, and the celebration will continue with puppet displays being showcased throughout the year. For show information or to find exhibit locations and a list of special anniversary events, please visit our website: www.magma.ca/~puppet or email: opcpuppets@magma.ca or call (613) 728-7043.