Recently, at Puppet Central, I spoke with Tim Gosley, instigator of Puppets for Peace festival, which he called a 鈥渕ini Fringe Festival for聽puppets.鈥�
Gosley is a thorough-going puppet person, a child of his father鈥檚 Victoria legend, the Smile Show.
鈥淎 puppet isn鈥檛 like an actor, coming out from behind a curtain, boxed in a theatre,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a piece of art that kind of vibrates within you, and goes beyond art into spirit and psychic stuff. Somewhere in there I seek that 鈥� as well as doing my dad鈥檚 music hall.鈥�
What on earth is 鈥淧uppet Central鈥�? It鈥檚 on the third floor of the Bay Centre (just to the right as you get off the elevator) in a lovely big storefront provided by the Bay Centre (through the good offices of the Community Arts Council).
Gosley and his merry band have installed a museum鈥檚 worth of little purpose-built stages of many sorts, each hung about with the accompanying cast of puppets. Amid this are tables with glue guns and bric-a-brac from which you can cobble together some character from your imagination.
Watching over it all are huge parade puppets: larger-than-life people or animals or impossible flights of fancy. You鈥檒l meet a giant Amor de Cosmos, Will Shakespeare and a chiffon elephant that takes three people to manipulate.
So Puppet Central is part museum, part make-it space, and also the necessary collaborative backstage and launch pad for bigger, more public events. Gosley and I sat down amid the puppetry and he told me about the P4P Festival.
Puppets for Peace was proposed to Gosley a few years back by the Puppeteers of America, who suggested Victoria was the right sort of place to host a regional festival. Last year, he spent eight months bringing together the first version, with a parade that ended at Government House, where the lieutenant-governor hosted 鈥� and sponsored 鈥� shows and performances amid much fun and frolic.
Buoyed by this success, Gosley again worked through the year and, in keeping with a 鈥渘eighbourhood-building鈥� orientation, this year has moved the festival to Fernwood. There, the P4P festival will be partnered with the annual Vining Street Party, and it鈥檚 going to make one memorable weekend in Fernwood.
(The Vining Street Party on the Plaza, with its own dynamic, will take flight immediately after the puppetry).
On Saturday and Sunday, Sept.聽12-13, there will be puppet performances at the Paul Phillips Hall, 1923 Fernwood Ave. Saturday morning there will be puppet shows for young children at 10聽and 11 a.m. 鈥� even better than cartoons on TV! Then at noon you can catch a shadow magic show by University of Victoria visual art educator David Gifford, 鈥渞enowned for his musically accompanied magic performances.鈥�
This is followed at 1 p.m. by something from Moth Orbit Object Theatre of Vancouver. Their advertisement explains: 鈥淓ach act of puppetry holds a mirror to the existential condition and suggests a solution: It is possible to remain enchanted despite an awareness of the mechanisms at play.鈥�
Later in the day, two artists, one Canadian and the other Japanese, bring Debris, a tale of the incredible journey of some of the flotsam of the 2011 tsunami. And finally, at 8 p.m., The Little Orange Man by Snafu Dance Theatre: 鈥淜itt fires up homemade technology to enact the audience鈥檚 dreams,鈥� we are advised. Puppets, it seems, are much less restricted than their human counterparts. (Note: there is an admission cost for each of these performances.)
Sunday, Sept. 13, is the big day. Registration for the parade and a general look-around begins at noon. At 1 p.m., things really get going with the lion dance by Hung Fut Kung Fu of Victoria. At 1:30, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps will make a peace proclamation, for this parade is aligned with the UN Day of Peace (Sept. 21).
By then you might find it irresistible, so join in and make this puppet parade bigger than ever. In an area centring on Victoria High School, you鈥檒l find throngs of happy, boisterous people in outrageous homemade parade gear, including the Raging Grannies, a three-metre-high African drummer and a Mother Earth with hands big enough to hold the whole world.
This is not one of those parades sitting on the back of a truck, waving. It鈥檚 going to be noisy and colourful and free to all ages for participation in any way.
The parade culminates in Rick Scott鈥檚 presentation. Scott is a well-known entertainer and a grandparent 鈥� did I mention this is also Grandparents鈥� Day? He鈥檒l be hosting a talent review and fast-paced show. Theatre Inconnu鈥檚 Youth Programs will present Punch for Peace in which Mother Earth disarms Punch and turns his club into a bouquet of flowers.
Enough already. For details, I suggest you look it up online, at puppetsforpeace.org or, failing that, call 250-598-7488. With no paid staff, they might be too busy to answer the phone, following the dictates of their imaginations down at Puppet Central.
