Family Fun in the Park!
Hosted by PuppetWorks & Volunteers
This year PuppetWorks is making use of the beautiful outdoor space in Veterans Drive Park. With multiple fun and creative activities, PuppetWorks allows families to explore and create their own world of puppets. All activities are FREE and for all ages.
In accordance with the health and safety guidelines set by The Government of Ontario, Puppetworks encourages patrons to space themselves as well as wearing a mask if it makes patrons feel more comfortable.
Please scroll through our index of activities below!
The Conveyable Cryptid Compendium
Join Curator Kira as they crack open one of the Conveyable Cryptid Compendium's carefully-coded cases, and contemplate its charming cryptozoological contents! A snack-sized puppet show ideal for armchair obscure-species enthusiasts of all ages.
Bio
Kira Hall (they/them) is a Yellowknife-born, Toronto-based puppeteer, voice artist, actor, and et cetera. A Jim Henson Company-trained puppeteer, they recently provided puppetry and voices on Apple TV+'s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock and CBC Kids' Gary's Magic Fort, and they play pink kittycat Cottonball as part of the Kidscreen Award-winning Studio K host team on CBC Kids. Notable stage work includes The Little Prince: Reimagined by Puzzle Piece, for which their performance as the Prince received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination; Theatre Direct's Old Man and the River; and Kira's solo show with puppets Paleoncology which toured across Canada-- including to SpringWorks!-- to rave reviews and accolades. Kira can also be heard as a bevy of voices on podcasts The Story Store (CBC Kids) and Kwantum (Highly Scientific Productions, also co-written/co-produced by Kira). kirahall.com
Make a Sock Puppet
With Robin Polfus
Not your usual sock puppet! Make your own puppet! It’s an easy to create stick puppet using socks and a variety of colourful materials! Younger people might need some help, but this is a fun workshop for any age; grown ups are allowed to play, too! Your puppet can be a person or an animal, and very simple or fabulously fancy!
D.I.Y Face Painting
Welcome to D.I.Y Face Painting! PuppetWorks will provide materials and all you have to bring is your artistry! Create your own original character or use one of the prompts provided by our volunteers. Drop by the face painting station to make sure you are dressed accordingly for your next PuppetWorks show.
* Face Paint tools are swapped out and sanitized after each use*
Puppet Tea Party
Summers are great for making new friends over a spot of tea. We are hosting a tea party just for our guests! If you stop by our tea party in the park feel free to introduce yourselves to the puppet guests attending with you. You are also most welcome to bring your own puppet friend along with you too!
Puppet Theatre
Join the rest of our wonderful festival venues and create your own show! The PuppetWorks Puppet Theatre is free to use to create your own masterpiece. Use several of our hand puppets to create a show with some friends or families can participate together to create a bit of puppet magic in the park! We can't wait to see what you create.
Bubbles! Bubbles!
It's not summer without bubbles, and boy do we have bubbles! Join us for some old fashioned fun in the sun at our bubbles station. Create the largest bubble PuppetWorks has ever seen. Become the bubble master you were always meant to be.
Chalk Zone
Move over Picasso, we have chalk artists. Make sure to bring your biggest idea's and most colourful pallets to our chalk zone this season. Decorate the streets of Stratford with your own designs and partake in the festival spirit of fun and creativity.