A passion for puppets: Maritime Marionettes have the world by a string

Heather and Daryll Taylor of Maritime Marionettes have delighted audiences around the world with their handmade marionette puppets, telling original and classic tales, and this Sunday they're coming to Summerside, P.E.I.

Marionettes are puppets worked from above by strings attached to the puppets' limbs.

"My interest in marionettes began at a very young age," shared Heather Taylor from her Truro, Nova Scotia home in an interview recently with Mainstreet P.E.I.

"By the time I was in Grade 5 and 6, there was a group of friends and I, we did shows together and marionettes, we just loved them!"

'Exciting career'

Her passion for puppets even dictated her choice of life partner, she said.

After studying theatre at Dalhousie University and attending the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she met a blacksmith but her "dream man" had always been a fellow pupeteer.

"But he worked with his hands and was very creative in the work he did, and I just said 'Do you want to try this?'" He did, and the two apprenticed with the National Marionette Theatre in the U.S. before forming Maritime Marionettes in 1986.

"It's been a very exciting career," she enthused. "It's taken us to many, many places."

'An intimate process'

The two build the marionettes from wood, and they last a very long time, she said.

"You bond with a marionette as you build it," she shared. "It's such an intimate process they begin to move."

"You feel the energy, you actually feel them coming to life," Taylor said.

"It's a process of discovery, really," as a puppet's personality is slowly revealed, she explained.

'Charming show'

The company is presenting the favourite folk tale, The Bremen Town Musicians, this Sunday, December 11 at 2 p.m. at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside.

"It's such a charming show the story of a donkey, dog, cat and rooster who meet on the road," she said. The animals, who are at the end of their useful life to their human owners, strike up a wild plan to become musicians and go to the town of Bremen. The story is of their journey andhelping one another along the way.

"It's a very light show, and a happy feeling," Taylor said.

'More adults in the audience'

Marionettes appeal to all ages, she said. "We've been noticing lately we get more adults in the audience, than children."

The company currently has a touring repertoire of five shows in English or French.

Tickets are for the Bremen Town Musicians are $15 for adults and $10 for children, and can be purchased at the Harbourfront Theatre or online.

Not able to get there, or want to know more? Maritime Marionettes has a YouTubechannel where you can watch entire shows.

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