Three-year-old Lyra Devenie Keene makes friends with a moa during a performance of Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The inaugural Morph Puppet Festival wrapped up in Kerikeri on Sunday after five days of youth theatre, Matariki-themed shadow puppets, a concert by funk band the Hipstamatics with puppet guests, workshops and more.
The event was the brainchild of Kylie Penn, who has worked in puppet-based theatre and film for the past 25 years.
Only the weather failed to play its part with heavy rain forcing the main street shop-window shadow puppet event to be shifted indoors to the Turner Centre.
Other performances included Saturday’s Poetry by Monsters by Company of Giants, a group based at Oneonesix performance space in Whangārei.
Characters in the environmentally-themed children’s show are based on illustrations by Whangārei’s Evan Heasman aka Soju Shots.
Penn hopes to make Morph a regular event.
Georgia-May Russ and Dylan Taylor operate the central character in Poetry by Monsters, an ever-hungry and slightly melancholy bear tasked with looking after the natural world. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Fifteen-year-old Finn Gilbert Keene, 15, with a caterpillar hand puppet that transforms into a butterfly. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Lutz Hamm, of Whangarei’s Company of Giants, operates a life-size moa searching the audience for food. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Finn Gilbert Keene, 15, gets some extra height on the shoulders of Dylan Taylor as they play the part of a cloud creature in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Tomasin Fisher-Johnson, of Whangarei’s Company of Giants, as a salamander. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Lutz Hamm, of Whangarei, performs with a human-sized crow in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Actors’ hands form a fire lily emerging from the ashes of a wildfire in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf
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