Sarah Argue is the founder of Rock the Arts Puppets and a Puppets Up! collaborator. Sarah hosted a puppet-making workshop for kids at the National Arts Centre on Sunday, November 23. She was interviewed by Rebecca Zandbergen of CBC Radio’s Ottawa morning the Friday before the sold-out workshop.
Sarah was hugely influenced by our founder Noreen Young, of whom she spoke in the interview, which is captured below.
Rebecca: Good morning.
Sarah: Good morning.
Rebecca: So when you hear that theme song, you were singing along. What goes through your mind?
Sarah: It just makes my heart happy. It’s my childhood, and I never really thought about being a puppeteer in life. And I grew up watching that. And now here Ia am doing it full time as a job.
Rebecca: So how did that happen? You loved the show, but that’s one thing, to then make it into a career…
Sarah: Yeah, so I actually used to work for the city of Ottawa in a cubicle, Monday to Friday with a pension. And I just wasn’t happy doing my job. So I decided to make a choice and do something that would make me happy. I took a workshop from Noreen Young, the creator of “Under the Umbrella Tree” and the International Puppet Festival in Almonte. And she told me that you could be a woman in the industry working full time as an artist. And then I also learned that she was a mom working full time as an artist. And I thought, oh, I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know you could be a puppeteer. So I told my husband, I’m going to quit my job and start a puppet company.
Rebecca: Yeah, I didn’t know you could do that either. What do you do day to day?
Sarah: I know. My life is so normal. My eight-year-old’s like, yeah, this is normal, Mom. So I actually tour across Canada doing shows in schools, in fairs, in festivals, in theaters. I do about 100 a year. I build all of my own puppets. So it’s six original puppet shows. Not only do I write the scripts, but I build all of the puppets. I do all my own bookings for my tours. And my favorite part, I actually get to do the puppet shows.
Rebecca: Right. So you must have people that come along with you to be the puppeteers for the other ones?
Sarah: Oh, I have the best group of humans besides my puppets. And they actually tour with me. So there’s two puppeteers on stage. In the schools, we are hidden behind our puppet stages, and then in theaters and some of the festivals. We’re actually on stage with our puppets. So it’s two humans. And then in each show, there’s about 15 different puppets.
Rebecca: You did bring in a couple of puppets, and I want to get to them in a moment. But I want to know first about Creatureville. What is that?
Sarah: That’s where we all live. So all my puppets live in Creatureville. Creatureville is my idea. The reason for Creatureville is I believe that all humans have a story. We all have things going on in our day– good, bad, the ugly, maybe even awesome. But I do want to give people a break from their story and come into Creatureville. And I want adults and kids to laugh and be themselves and be positive.
Rebecca: Where is it? When you come into Creatureville, what are you entering?
Sarah: My imagination! You are. It’s like the way that I want the world to look. That’s what Creatureville is. So I want people to choose to look at the positive over the negative. I want people to stop and do the little things in life. I want us to remember we are all human.
Rebecca: OK, introduce me to who you’ve got here. Then you’ve got two puppets.
Sarah: I do.
Rebecca: OK, who are they?
Sarah: I brought Sophie from Creatureville. She is the best. She is a strong, powerful drummer in a band in Creatureville, of course.
Rebecca: And she has purple hair.
Sarah: Purple hair, which is actually a bath mat. You know those long, shaggy bath mats? They’re very in style right now. Some people put them in their bathroom. I put them on my puppet head.
Rebecca: And what else is she made of? What are her arms made of?
Sarah: Yeah, so this is all actually fleece and foam. And then I have no sewing capabilities. So a solution to that problem is my hot glue gun. And then she’s actually wearing my daughter’s hand-me-down baby clothes. And yeah, that’s about it.
Rebecca: That’s excellent. And so who is she in your imagination? Who– what kind of girl is she? Just a rock and roll drummer?
Sarah: Yeah, she’s the lead in the band. She’s got three bandmates. And she makes things happen. She’s determined. She’s fierce. And she’s a leader.
Rebecca: OK, and the other one, this little guy?
Sarah: Yeah, these are the ones that we’re making this weekend, the workshop at the National Arts Center in collaboration with Puppets Up. And this is great for kids. So we’re doing seven-year-olds to 12-year-olds. I truly believe in open creativity. So we kind of start our workshop off by telling kids that failing leads to something good.
Rebecca: And this is what? A snake with wings or a dragon or what is he?
Sarah: He’s a Creatureville mosquito.
Rebecca: Oh my goodness. Of course he is.
Sarah: he’s actually just made out of a sock. And then he’s got a nice movable cardboard mouth. And then we give them long noses, wings, kind of whatever material the kids want to use and whatever they create. And then our eyes are just some lightweight ping-pong balls.
Rebecca: And why do you love puppets so much? You talk about the imagination and focusing on the good. Is that really what it’s about here?
Sarah: you know what else it’s about for me? It’s the 45-year-old dad that comes in on a Saturday to my puppet shows and is like, seriously, this is what I’m doing with my Saturday. Like, I just came from hockey and I’m tired and I need to do my groceries. And so they kind of sit in the front row with their kid because they’re there for their kid. And then I see them chuckle and I see them chuckle a little bit more. And then there’s this moment that the adult and the kid are laughing together. And then we do these puppet meet and greets after the show. And the dad comes up and will hug the puppet and go like, oh, that was awesome, buddy. And he’s like, oh, I just talked to the puppet. And I think, oh, I did my job. You got lost. You had a break from your story. And you fell in love with the art of puppetry. I love that.
Rebecca: Sarah, thank you so much and have the best time at the workshop this weekend.
Sarah: I’m so excited. Thanks for having me.
