Following on from an introductory showcase held at the Buxton Community School on the 28^th March last, a 4-day Easter workshop run by the Buxton-based puppetry company has just taken place, and was a resounding success.

The first three days were for young people, and with the guidance from Japanese puppet master Nori Sawa who visits the group regularly. The group developed ideas for their summer production of ‘A Year and a Day’ which is based on the adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat during their year and a day away at sea.

The group produced some beautiful imagery and now have a sound footing for the upcoming production. The fourth day offered adults the chance to work with Nori to develop their puppetry skills starting from a basic level, working with paper as a raw material to start then going on to use projection and physical puppets, and thus produced very animate and emotive puppetry from it.

All this is leading up to the production of ‘A Year and a Day’, which will be performed at the Buxton Opera House as part of the Buxton Puppet Festival on Friday 31^st July.

As well as Funny Wonders’ production, young people and artists will travel to Buxton all the way from Sapporo, Japan to join them on the stage of Buxton Opera House for an evening of International Youth Theatre. (more information about these shows can be found in the Buxton Opera House’s brochure).

Funny Wonders have built a solid relationship with the Yamabiko-Za Children’s Theatre in Sapporo, Japan, after the Buxton company took a working trip there in the summer of 07 to experience Japanese puppetry. This year Buxton is to host a substantial group of artists and young people from Sapporo, and Funny Wonders are currently looking for host families for the young people.

In preparation for the summer, Funny Wonders will be holding workshops every week starting on the 29^th April at Buxton Community School Drama Studio from 6pm-8pm, and will also be providing Japanese lessons at a small cost.

If you would like to act as a host or would like to be involved in the summer’s youth production, then e-mail us at fw@funnywonders.org.uk or send us a message via the website at www.funnywonders.org.uk/contact.