From the Village
Twenty-four chairs at the table
Eight puppets have moved into WychBourne. That is already enough to crowd a table, interrupt one another politely and begin several conversations at once. But sixteen chairs are still waiting.
The first table belongs to First Threads: Jules, Dev, Sam, Maren, Nia, Tavi, Rowan and Kai. Their family stories are Indigenous or reach back through at least three generations in Canada. Second Weave brings Priya, Noor, Suri, Theo, Ari, Milo, Zuri and Wren to the Village, with newcomer and Indigenous stories among them. Third Braid is Remy, Toby, Robin, Quinn, Sage, Cole, Reese and Micah, mixing the threads together.
The first eight cost about $10,000 to make. Another $10,000 could bring the whole cast home.
There is a longer hope tucked inside that practical figure. Imagine a new cast arriving for a new season while the earlier puppets pack their small, improbable bags and travel on to help another troupe begin. In time, one Village might become two, then several: nearby, across British Columbia and perhaps one day across Western Canada.
The puppets would have plenty of company. A centre for storytelling can hold more than a stage. It might also hold a microphone, a family photograph, a carefully asked question or a podcast recorded at the kitchen table. If WychBourne became known as a place where stories are welcomed and tended, what would you bring through the door?
The Study Table
A voice from the shelf
Some books wait quietly. Jean Houston’s does not seem inclined to.
Our first Communication Runes listening selection is The Storied Life of Jean Houston, written and narrated by Jean Houston. Somewhere along the way Charlie McCarthy finds himself in an existential mood, which seems a reasonable hazard for a wooden celebrity. Around that story is a larger question: what might it look like to live as our better selves?
Company Puppeteers will include the Communication Runes in their path. Community Puppeteers may join them by choice. When the group is ready, the listening conversations will begin on the Monday after an intensive weekend. For now, the useful little task is simply to arrange access and begin listening.
Forming the first troupe
A charter, a supper and the start of a troupe
Soon the first troupe will sit down together and decide what it is setting out to do. The Troupe Charter will hold that promise, along with a timeframe for the Community Debut and, where it fits the troupe’s path, a Company Debut.
Those debuts are more than dates in a calendar. The Community Debut completes the Community Puppeteer Rune Path. The Company Debut completes the Company Puppeteer path.
I keep picturing the supper scene in The Hobbit: dishes in motion, plans tumbling over one another and a company somehow taking shape before the table has quite recovered. Our commencement ceremony may keep more of its crockery on the table. The spirit of beginning, I hope, will be just as lively.
From the rehearsal room
Three tables in an Alberta diner
My own “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is not in New York. It is a diner in Alberta, where Maren has come to meet a friend for coffee.
Behind them, Jules and Tavi have claimed one table. Sam and Rowan sit at another. They do not need to carry the main conversation. A turned head, a hand around a cup or a glance held half a second too long can make the room feel occupied by lives beyond the centre of the frame.
That is one of the pleasures of having eight puppets. A scene can have a background that breathes.
Animating eight characters separately in one frame would call for Lucus’s studio equipment. We can still approach the effect with careful staging, separate camera passes, partial animation and a troupe willing to try something clever. The practice question is wonderfully small: what is the least movement needed to make the whole diner feel alive?
Around the Village
Room for one more
Next Saturday, October 3, the puppets will be at Movement Dance Studio, 3253 Happy Valley Road, from 10 a.m. to noon. Come and meet the cast, try a puppet and bring someone whose curiosity might enjoy an outing.
See the gathering and reserve a place →
The first charter, commencement ceremony and debut dates belong to the troupe that forms. We will share them after its members have chosen their goal and timeframe together.
A question for your table
What story would you bring through the door?
If WychBourne became known as a centre for storytelling, what would you hope to make or hear there: puppet scenes, podcasts, interviews, family histories, audio walks or something nobody has named yet?
Reply to the Weekly or carry the question into Freyja’s Pub. One good idea is quite enough to open a door.