Shadow Puppetry Workshop: Playing With Light

Watch as your drawings leap to life, off the page and onto the stage! 

Come along and explore the world of shadow puppetry with an experienced puppeteer, Jenny Ellis. 

This hands-on workshop will give children a range of skills to make their own shows as well as a puppet they can take home. 

Participants will imagine and design their own unique puppet characters, then they’re guided through the process of making their puppets and bringing them to life.

Children will work together in small groups to create their own shows. With a few tricks of the trade, they will finish with a performance of their own stories on a real shadow puppet stage.

Recommended for children aged 4 to 12 years old. Children must be accompanied by a supervising adult.

Supervising adult do not need to book for themselves.

ARTIST BIO: 
Jenny Ellis, the Artistic Director, Performer, Designer & Maker of Little Wing Puppets, has been a performer and maker of puppets for over 20 years. 

Bunjil Place audiences may remember her shows A Little Bit of Blue (2024), The Fish That Wanted To Fly (2023) and Spike The Echidna (2021).  

She has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Puppetry from the Victorian College of the Arts, a Bachelor's degree in Social Ecology, and was a Researcher for the NSW Minister for Education from 2003-2005. In 2011, 

Jenny was mentored by master shadow puppeteer Richard Bradshaw, as part of the national Jump Mentoring program. In 2012, she was awarded a major fellowship by the Mike Walsh Foundation to research contemporary puppetry in Europe. 

Jenny completed the one-year program at the Helikos School for International Theatre Creation in Italy in 2014. In 2013, The Australian Children’s Theatre Foundation commissioned her to develop the show Spike, The Echidna. The Mermaid's Daughter won the Melbourne Fringe Festival Award for The Best School Holiday Program 2008.