DATE: Thursday 18 and Friday 19 July
SHOWS: 10:30-11:15am
SHOW TICKETS: $30/$20/Family Pass $90
WORKSHOPS: 11:30-12:30pm
WORKSHOP TICKETS: $25pp
Details
The Fish That Wanted to Fly is about having the courage to pursue something even if it seems likely you will never reach it. In our story we meet a little Fish whose lagoon is drying up. All the other fish have left, and she wants to learn how to fly so she can see them again. Her friend, a hermit crab named Karramoko, sits by a stormwater drain and tells her it will never happen. She meets a Kingfisher who helps her and encourages her to keep trying. It’s not until she meets a Cormorant, who offers to take her up into the sky that she flies for the first time. But will she make it back okay? The tale is set in a mangrove swamp, and is about friendship, resilience and sustainability.
About the Artists
Artistic Director, Co-writer and Performer, Jenny Ellis has been making and performing with puppets for over 20 years. She has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Puppetry from the Victorian College of the Arts. Jenny was a Researcher for the NSW Minister for Education and Aboriginal Affairs and has a Bachelor of Arts (Social Ecology) majoring in environmental education. Her show, The Mermaid’s Daughter with Company Gongoma won the Melbourne Fringe Festival Award for The Best School Holiday Program 2008. In 2011, Jenny was mentored by master shadow puppeteer Richard Bradshaw, as part of the national Jump Mentoring program. She was also awarded a major fellowship by the Mike Walsh Foundation to research contemporary puppetry in Europe in 2012. In 2013, Jenny received the Australian Children’s Theatre Foundation’s Joan and Betty Rayner commission to create Spike. Jenny completed the one-year program at the Helikos School for International Theatre Creation in Florence, Italy in 2014.
Jenny is also a passionate teacher. She has undertaken many teaching residencies as part of the Victorian Government’s Artists-in-Schools program, and has also directed many large-scale festival projects involving over hundreds of people, including the France to Freycinet Festival in Tasmania, 2012, and for two consecutive Upwelling Festivals in Western Victoria, in 2015 and 2016.
Co-writer and Composer, Miriam Lieberman, is a singer song-writer and multi-instrumentalist whose African influences blend seamlessly with blues-infused melodies and soaring vocal harmonies. Her latest album Just Transforming is a finalist for the 2021 album of the year with the Australian Folk Alliance. Miriam and her trio have regularly featured at festivals around Australia including Woodford Folk Festival, The National Folk Festival, (ACT), Fairbridge (WA), Yungaburra Folk Festival (QLD) Cygnet Folk Festival (TAS), Denmark Festival Of Voices (WA) and many more. Internationally, she has featured at The Guinean Jazz Festival, Hakodate World Music Festival (Japan), Voix des Femmes (Mali) and The Bali Spirit Festival.
Co-writer, Anne Brooksbank, has written a number of scripts for children and has won two AWGIE Awards for children’s screenwriting. In 1985 her script entitled On Loan was produced for the Winners television series by the Children’s Film and Television Corporation. The produced film won a Media Peace Award, and she subsequently adapted the script into a novel which was reprinted eleven times by Penguin and is still widely borrowed from school libraries. Since then, she has gone on to write five more books for children and young adults. Her book Mother’s Day was listed as Highly Recommended in the Family Therapists’ Association Awards in 2006. Sir Katherine was listed as a Notable Australian Book in the Children’s Council Book Awards in 2008. Father’s Day was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Children’s Literature in 2012.
Director, Jacob Williams is a multi-award winning graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts from Melbourne, Victoria. Jacob began his career in Tasmania with Terrapin Puppet Theatre and has since gone on to perform and collaborate with some of Australia’s leading theatre companies. He was Head Puppeteer on King Kong-Live on Stage for Global Creatures for which he won both a Helpman and Green Room award. Jacob is the co-artistic director of the award-winning company Lemony S Puppet Theatre, whose work has toured nationally and internationally. Jacob is currently performing in the role of ‘Kong Captain’ for King Kong on Broadway, New York.
Production Manager, Jeremy Lavender, is a photographer, performer and puppet maker, and joined Little Wing Puppets in 2015. He has worked as an artist on many residencies with Little Wing including Birds Without Borders (2015) and The Song of the Eels (2016) major art projects for the Upwelling Festival, involving 18 schools in the Glenelg Region of Western Victoria. He also assisted teaching Bunraku-style puppetry to students at Wonthaggi Secondary and Newhaven Colleges as part of National Youth Week 2016 and mentoring the Wonthaggi Theatrical Group in puppetry for their production A Little Shop of Horrors. Jeremy co-facilitated Creative Learning Partnership Residencies with Jenny making masks with the students of Langley Primary and Redesdale Mia Mia Primary Schools in 2016, and Bunraku-style Puppets with Mother of God Primary in 2018. Jeremy also assisted the development a shadow puppet show Too Much Bats with children at the Wugularr Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory for the Walking with Spirits Festival 2016. Jeremy co-developed and performed Trinket the Robot in 2017 and built puppets and sets for The Fish That Wanted To Fly and has production managed and documented Little Wing Puppets tours around Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
Notes
*The Tuggeranong Arts Centre Theatre is raked steeply. People with mobility issues are advised that the top two and bottom two rows are the most easily accessible. Please advise us if you have mobility issues and we can direct you to your seats.