Puppets, Puppetry, and Sound
Puppet legs under construction. Joints working!
Building Puppets
Inspired by Canadian puppeteer Ronny Burkett, and trained through the online Worlds of Puppets Academy bsed in Iceland, Heather has expanded her carving skills to fully jointed marionettes and a variety of wooden rod and hand puppets.
Puppetry
Animating puppets that I build is especially fun. Currently on the bench is a small bison puppet and a Mother Tree puppet named Maple. Puppets are designed with specific purposes in mind and sometimes have specialized features that will serve a purpose within a play. Animating these puppets takes consistent practice with each puppet in order to be able to have their actions understood by the audience as intended, and to hasten that transition to suspension of disbelief required to engage an audience. Focal audiences are adult or young adult.
Frankie, the hairdresser, in action in Bad Hair Day
Sound and Music
As a musician and an ecologist, sound in the environment is important to Heather. The impact of industrial sound on species at risk is of keen interest and Heather has done audio recordings in natural habitats. Heather has also led sound walks for natural sounds within an urban environment, as well more ‘pristine’ sound experiences as “dawn chorus” sound walks in grassland sites.
Recorded walks with Holophon in Regina are accessible below