We are excited to welcome Emma Fisher (Ireland) and Ivan Owen (USA) as presenters to our upcoming Puppet Power 2018 Conference.

Emma Fisher is currently in the final stages of her PhD in Puppetry at the University of Limerick.  Her research explores unconventionally constructed puppets that reflect the disabled body and looks at the history of puppetry to see how it has been applied in ways that transcend oppression of the body.  She founded Beyond the Bark, an inclusive puppet and installation theatre in 2007, which has toured Europe.  Ivan Owen is an interdisciplinary artist and co-inventor of the first open-source 3D printable hand prosthesis.  His most recent project has been working with Emma to create a functional, wearable mechanical creation and is exploring ways in to use digital fabrication in puppetry.

Emma and Ivan will be presenting a 3 hour talk/workshop entitled Constructing Fragmented Puppets to Explore Personal Constructs of the Disabled Body.  Learn about Fisher’s auto-ethnopuppetry play Pupa and the exo-skeleton she designed with Ivan Owen to puppeteer her own disabled limb.  Inspired by fairytales, Pupa creates a fantastical world where the narratives of six disabled artists find expression through a range of characters. Then create your own rod puppet to explore how we perceive illness and disability in our own bodies.  Learn more about Emma, Ivan, and this workshop!

Puppet Power 2018: Story is a Conference on Applied Puppetry, June 1-3, 2018, in Calgary, AB, Canada.  Explore the transformative power that puppetry has to tell stories, inspire dialogue and make meaning of our world today.  Learn, play, and galvanize with hands-on workshops, talks, panels, and more!

Find out more about the conference or register at the early bird rate today!