A little bit of cardboard. A splash of cellophane. Flick of a light. That’s all it took for about 60 children across Casey to fall in love with the art of shadow puppetry.
Renowned puppeteer Jenny Ellis led three fully booked workshops at Bunjil Place on Friday 11 July, where young participants created their own characters and brought them to life behind the screen.
“Each session had 20 kids in it. It was completely packed out,” Ellis said.
Children were encouraged to design any character they could imagine — animals, mythical beasts like unicorns or dragons, or wild hybrids like a lion-serpent.
After sketching their designs on cardboard, they cut them out, added coloured cellophane to bring vibrancy to the shadows, and mounted them on sticks.
A few detailed cuts, like eyes, were handled with the help of the facilitators.
“They all had a chance to go up to the shadow screen and just do a quick little show that they improvised, which is really fun,” Ellis said.
“They brought their characters to life, often gave them voices, and just explored movement on the shadow screen.”
Ellis said the shadow puppetry continues to resonate with today’s children because it’s so quick that they could create characters and bring them to life within an hour of the workshop.
“The idea of creating something original and bringing it to life, I think, those two ingredients make it really attractive,” she said.
“But also, I think that shadow puppetry is very much related to animation. It’s very two-dimensional. They understand it from watching animation themselves. It’s kind of like they can create almost like a cartoon very quickly.”
Ellis speaks from nearly two decades of experience in the field. She made her first shadow puppet show in 2006 under the mentorship of Australian puppetry legend Richard Bradshaw and has continued to evolve her practice ever since.
“It’s a very visual form of storytelling,” Ellis said.
“There’s something a bit magical about it. As soon as you introduce light and shadow, it becomes a little bit otherworldly, and the kids really get into it.”
Shadow Puppetry workshop is part of the Casey Winter Arts Festival.
