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Exhibitionists·Video

This B.C. theatre company's puppets are made of sticks and stones

Exhibitionists correspondent Ulla Laidlaw asks how environment influences artistic inspiration. For the answer, she takes viewers through a forest on the Sunshine Coast where The Only Animal production company stages its latest show, creating puppets out of sticks and stones.
Stephanie Matteis · CBC Arts ·

This B.C. theatre company's puppet show is rooted in the forest — literally

9 years ago
Duration 4:54
A puppet show made of sticks, stones and other items from the forest gives Exhibitionists correspondent Ulla Laidlaw the chance to investigate how environment influences artistic inspiration.

When Exhibitionists correspondent Ulla Laidlaw moved from Toronto to Vancouver a couple of years ago, it changed the way the theatre director thought about her craft.

"I've seen shows high in the trees in Stanley Park, in the rain next to the water surrounding Granville Island. Now, I find that the art that soothes my soul most profoundly is art that connects me to this place, that helps give me a home here — in Vancouver, and on this planet," she said.

In this short documentary, she takes viewers with her through an enchanted forest where the spells are cast by a theatre company, The Only Animal. The company, which is based just outside Vancouver, presents in this short documentary a puppet show called Sticks and Stones that they staged in Sechelt territory, Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park. And as Laidlaw discovers, the show's name is quite literal — the puppets in Sticks and Stones are built with those very same natural materials.

The Only Animal's next production, Creeker is slated for March 21st.

Watch Exhibitionists Sunday at 4:30pm (5pm NT) on CBC Television.

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