{"id":70724,"date":"2023-06-20T10:59:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=70724"},"modified":"2023-06-20T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:59:13","slug":"wp-puppet-theatre-from-a-childhood-gift-to-professional-puppeteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/06\/20\/wp-puppet-theatre-from-a-childhood-gift-to-professional-puppeteering\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Puppet Theatre: From a childhood gift to professional puppeteering"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An audience enjoys a puppet show on a Sunday evening at Highland Park Community Centre, Calgary. (Photo by Sumeet Singh\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>P Puppet Theatre put on a show at Highland Park Community Centre on June 4. With a ticket price of $5, people from communities as far as the northeast visited the event with their family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It’s so good and important to get out and to see things in real life,\u201d said Renee, an attendee.<\/p>\n

Puppet shows are produced by the theatre to bring a mix of education and enjoyment to children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a creative way to see the world in a different way,” Renee said.<\/p>\n

The production, Walter the Water Droplet,<\/em> is written around the theme of water preservation. The Highland Park audience included toddlers, who were sitting on the floor after not getting a seat.<\/p>\n

WP Puppet Theatre Society was launched in 1991 by Wendy Passmore-Godfrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started as a little girl, and I would climb into the attic with my best friend, whose name was Pam,” Passmore-Godfrey said. “And we would make puppets because we were both kind of artsy.”<\/p>\n

Passmore-Godfrey still recalls the year she didn’t have any money for a birthday present for her brother Peter, so she hooked up with Pam to make him a homemade puppet show.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day he still remembers that,” Passmore-Godfrey said. “We used sock puppets, and we made a cake with flour and water and so I’m sure it was a great big huge mess.<\/p>\n

“But my mother supported us, so, we carried on.\u201d<\/p>\n

They did their initial shows for other small events, like birthday parties. Later, Pam left and Peter joined the group.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Pam] retired when she was about 12 or 14,” Passmore-Godfrey said. “Then, my brother Peter started to work with me and we carried on with the letter P.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Puppeteer Wendy Passmore-Godfrey performs her first show out of the three she is doing this day at the community centre. (Photo by Sumeet Singh\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recent years, it’s become tough for the theatre to attract audiences, especially in a post-pandemic world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think COVID really put a damper on that like it’s just common theatre,\u201d said Kira Kulicki, marketing manager at WP Puppet Theatre. \u201cWe are offering affordable, family-friendly, fun events that can get people to come back out and enjoy the arts again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theatre is also using online programs and mediums to showcase their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve got Baxter and Bird,<\/em> which is a beautiful 45-minute movie that’s all part of a website that people can access with different puppet projects and conversation-discussion questions,\u201d said Passmore-Godfrey.<\/p>\n

WP Puppet Theatre can be reached for scheduling through their website<\/a>, which also features a schedule of their upcoming events.<\/p>\n

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A father-son duo enjoy a puppet show at Highland Park Community Centre. (Photo by Sumeet Singh\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WP Puppet Theatre put on a show at Highland Park Community Centre on June 4. With a ticket price of $5, people from communities as far as the northeast visited the event with their family [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":70733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"The Puppet Show","footnotes":""},"categories":[1590,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-70724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts","8":"category-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70724"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70872,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70724\/revisions\/70872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}