The Girl of Ink and Stars cast turn their hands to Puppetry

4 March 2022

In the same week that we had our stage combat workshop, as described by Heidi Bird in our previous blog post, we had an exciting puppetry session.

To help our two young puppeteers learn the skills and techniques of how to bring a puppet to life, the brilliant Scarlet Wilderink (who is currently performing as the head of the 3-person tiger puppet, and is the puppetry and movement associate, in The Life of Pi) came to work with us at The Watermill.

Our story features two animal characters full of personality and are already stealing our hearts (and focus!) in rehearsals: Pep, the sleepy cat left to fend for himself and Miss La, a chicken with an awful lot of attitude who is accidentally brought on an adventure.

Our puppeteers learned how to inhabit the breath of their puppet, move as one, where to look, how to stand, and more. Their emotions, intentions and movements in their scenes are all unpacked as with any other character!

The prototype puppets you can see in these photographs were brought to life enough already, and the beautiful completed ones are all being created in house by our DSM, Izzy Moore.

We are so excited to share with you these wonderful characters and performances when you come to see The Girl of Ink and Stars, opening in just 4 weeks!

By Matty Green, Assistant Director

The Girl of Ink and Stars

Friday 31 March to Saturday 2 April

Book Tickets at watermill.org.uk