For those who might not know, Terrapin Puppet Theatre was founded in 1981 by the late Jennifer Davidson. Today, the Jennifer Davidson Creative Endowment, established by Jennifer’s sons Andrew and Neil, supports an emerging creative professional through a 12-month hands-on traineeship. In 2023, the selected creative was Mads Hillam who through the last 12 months has worked in the workshop alongside master puppet-maker Bryony Anderson.   As the traineeship comes to a close — though not marking the end of her time at Terrapin — we’ve asked Mads to reflect on the experience.   What did ..read more

Dear Terrapin community,   As we approach the end of another action-packed year, I’m pleased to reflect on the greatest hits and significant moments that have shaped Terrapin in 2023, and share our plans for 2024.   Our community impact was again quite significant in 2023, as we reached over 100,000 audience members: in theatres, schools, aged care settings, festivals and special events. Meeting our audience in over 200 performances both nationally and internationally from Japan to the Dover District School and everywhere in between.   In February we were delighted to host UK ..read more

Dear Terrapin community,   As we approach the end of another action-packed year, I’m pleased to reflect on the greatest hits and significant moments that have shaped Terrapin in 2023, and share our plans for 2024.   Our community impact was again quite significant in 2023, as we reached over 100,000 audience members: in theatres, schools, aged care settings, festivals and special events. Meeting our audience in over 200 performances both nationally and internationally from Japan to the Dover District School and everywhere in between.   In February we were delighted to host UK ..read more

      Hey, I’m Danny, I’ve worked at Terrapin for a few months now as a full-time puppet builder and up until now the workshop team and I have been working collaboratively on our 2024 school touring show Feathers.    But I’ve also been set the task of an extra solo build. We’re talking dragons!!!         The Story of Chi is a theatre work that follows a young girl, Chi, whose family has been faced with a sudden tragedy resulting in intergenerational tension between contemporary living and traditional practices. But Chi is not alone: she is s ..read more

Dear Reader, I am Sam Toll, the touring stage manager for The Riddle of Washpool Gully, and I’ve been on the road with the team since June touring Tasmanian schools with the stunning cast that is Mel King playing Mum, Guy Hooper as the Narrator and Bella Young/Noah Casey playing the Kid.  This is the week in my life…   Monday 16 Oct  Today started with a few hours of re-rehearsal for Bella to familiarise herself with the show. Ordinarily we’d rehearse in the Terrapin office, in Salamanca, but with a cumbersome set we’ve made some space at the workshop. Rehearsal went for ..read more

An insight into performing The Paper Escaper with Noah Casey   Hi! My name is Noah Casey. I’m a nipaluna/Hobart based actor, writer, musician, and puppeteer. I’ve been working with Terrapin on various projects for the last three years, as well as many other theatre works around the state, and I was a part of the team that brought Scaredy Cat to Tasmanian theatres this time last year.   In The Paper Escaper I play The Maker: an eccentric author who meticulously crafts pop-up books in his perfectly organised studio.He starts the show as a bumbling (somewhat neurotic) old man happily ..read more

Bringing The Paper Escaper to Tasmanian theatres with Artistic Director Sam Routledge   Term 3 means two things in the Terrapin office. First, our school touring production sets off in the monster van to visit close to 100 Tasmanian primary schools. Second, we start gearing up for our season in Tasmanian theatres, which occupies the October school holidays each year. This year, it’s your chance to see new production The Paper Escaper (which was our school touring show last year – it all starts to link up!).   The Paper Escaper is the second production generated from our writing for ..read more

Speculative worlds and speculative ideas with artistic director Sam Routledge   In February during Mona Foma, we hosted UK artist Tim Spooner for a second stage creative development of a new durational performance installation, Matter Era. Tim is a performer, maker and designer who works a lot with raw materials and objects, finding inspiration in their unique qualities and working with them onstage. He is an artist I would describe as working on the edge of puppetry. The work we are making together leans into a common pursuit, which is to disappear onstage, bringing focus to the materi ..read more

Reflecting on 17 years at Terrapin with Kevin O’Loghlin   After more than 17 years at Terrapin, my journey is coming to an end. I joined the company as General Manager in January 2006, and in early 2018 decided that it was time to get more balance into the work/life thing and move to part time, aiming to provide bookkeeping services to arts and other not-for-profit organisations. I was fortunate that Terrapin decided to restructure at that point and I was happily able to keep working for the company as its Finance Officer.   I moved to Queensland in late 2021 and continued working ..read more

Reflections from Greta Jean, Terrapin’s inaugural Creative Trainee supported by the Jennifer Davidson Creative Endowment   Puppet making training of any depth beyond a day or two is extremely rare in Australia. It’s also something I had been seeking for a while, so I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to learn from the brilliant Bryony Anderson as her assistant on a number of projects. So far this year I’ve made hand and body puppets and props for the current school touring show The Paper Escaper, tiny intricate shadow puppets for the new aged care show Forever Young and this coming s ..read more