Puppetry is a skill that has evolved from a desire to extend and explore, to play, dance and interact with others.
I have large-scale parade puppets made with communities in Australia and new Zealand, had the honor of manipulating lanterns that move and dance, and toured internationally with roving characters.
I have run workshops creating newspaper puppets in Japan, plastic drink bottle birds in New Zealand and kitchen utensil puppets from New South Wales, across the Nullabour to Perth.
Puppetry has taken me on a number of exciting journey’s………..
I am a member of the Polyglot team at Polyglot Theatre. In 2010 i was a part of a trio that went to Minima Sanruki to perform at a tsunami relief market and run a puppet workshop with a group of school children. This was an amazing and powerful experience . For more detail click on the above link.
In 2008 i was apart of a collaboration between Krinkl Theater and LighnUp that created an illuminated puppets show based on Leunig’s cartoons.
“…before a duck” then joined the Puppet Caravan that travelled from Lismore NSW across the Nullabour to Perth in time for the UNIMA International Pupperty Festival and conference. 9 puppeteers, 3 cars and lots of miles. We performed in many small rural towns, made puppets for the million Puppets project as a part of UNIMA and took many photos of wide open landscape.
As apart of the Puppet Caravan Kathy McCormick created The Queen. A sultry shadow body and puppet show based on a poem by Christine Strealn. The Queen was performed as apart of our cabaret evenings on the caravan and at the Lounge at UNIMA Festival.
Stefanie Robinson 
Very evocative stuff. I wish I had made the effort to get to the UNIMA conference, but Perth is a foreign country for a Ballina boy.
Congratulations on the excellent 2012 Lismore Lantern Parade. It was just covered very well on the local Prime TV news. Though they didn’t mention the market stalls or the music, all of which were great. I even got a free glowing yoyo from the folks helping people to get ready for the analog TV shutdown, and I bought a “Sea Shepherd” beanie to keep my head warm. A great night.
Was “The Queen” written by Christine Strelan, rather than Christine Strealn? Searching for “Strealn” got me only one hit, on the whole interweb thingy.
strelan…. she’s a poet from the Lismore area…Nimbin i think…..