Puppets on Show

By Marion Matthews

Bring together:

• Four rural towns (and their agricultural shows)
• A community arts festival
• Five local community artists
• An arts company that challenges the limitations of puppetry and performance

To get 24 extraordinary large-scale farmyard puppets, that toured and performed at the four agricultural shows with a grand finale at Horsham's Art is…festival in March 2008.

The Art is…festival in Horsham commissioned Melbourne-based puppet company Snuff Puppets to work with the rural communities of Dimboola, Hopetoun, St Arnaud and Horsham and their agricultural shows. The festival used the idea of the agricultural show parade, a practice that has mostly died out in rural towns, to help revitalise community interest in the shows and build community connection following a prolonged period of stress as a result of the ongoing drought.

Equipped with a box of tools, bundles of cane and bamboo, rolls of fabric and glue guns, four local artists worked with over 100 volunteers to build the oversized puppets over a six-week period. Snuff Puppets visited each town to work with the community and artists fine tuning the building processes and teaching people how to perform in their puppets.

People from throughout the community joined in. In Horsham, a newly-arrived Turkish family got involved in the making - father and daughter performing in the animal puppets and mother managing safety issues for the whole parade. In Dimboola it was the men, the stalwarts of the agricultural show committees, who became involved in the puppet creation - particularly the fine tuning of the moving internal mechanisms of the puppets. In Hopetoun, a 62-year-old farmer performed in Wal the Rooster, and in Horsham a show committee member stepped forward at the last minute dressing up and entertaining the crowd as Dolores the Cake Lady with vibrant red hair and voluptuous cleavage.

They all came together in the end. The giant rooster and six chickens from Hopetoun. The farmer and three goats from Dimboola. The turkey from St Arnaud and the inimitable Dolores the cake lady, ducks and pigs from Horsham. Puppets on Show was a project that dreamed big.

Please visit Regional Arts Victoria for more information about this project and other great arts stories.