‘I empower children through puppetry, to give them a voice’

I’m a puppeteer, a puppet-maker and I teach people how to make puppets.

Since I was a child, I was always interested in characters, in stories and creating environments. My background is as a visual artist, and puppets are very visual. They are basically moving sculptures. When I was 21 I went to Prague, and puppetry is a really big part of the culture there – that’s where I really fell in love with puppets.

The movement, the engineering side of puppetry – I find that really interesting. Puppets can make gestures in such a subtle way. You can really dramatise an idea with such slow-moving gestures, whereas humans work much faster. You can really get into what a puppet is expressing.

I find time gets suspended while you are watching puppets.

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There is a magic that happens between children and puppets that I can’t explain. When children encounter a puppet, they just have this connection that brings the puppet to life.

“Maggie” would be my main personality. She has met thousands of children and she is a really big character. I have “Granny” puppet, Mrs O’Keeffe is her name. She is a bit disrespectful, she has a mind of her own. Maggie is very sweet and she is all about the heart, but Mrs O’Keeffe is all about herself.

Then I have “Wolf” puppet who is a little bit edgy because he symbolises the more dangerous side of life. I have a dinosaur called Rexy who is not aware of his own potential.

Puppets are really excellent communicators with children. They really listen to them, and they are excellent at delivering a message

—  Carmel Balfe, puppeteer

The most important thing is how you move the puppet. So you can subtly change the angle of the head, and the person who is watching will interpret what could be shyness, sadness or it could be joy. You are moving the puppet to express a particular emotion.

The audience projects what’s in their imagination on to the puppet too, so a lot of it comes from them.

[ 20 Christmas days out for all the family, from ice-skating to Santa trains ]

Sometimes the audience is totally silent when everyone is really focused and listening – I’m wondering where has everybody gone because I can’t see them. Sometimes, I have a moment of panic that they have disappeared, but they are just listening. There are lovely times when they are responding to a puppet and I hear the sound of pure joy coming from the children.

In my shows, there is often a lot of giving out to the bad puppet, or shouting encouragement to the puppets, or coming up with ideas. Children will often come up with really brilliant solutions to the puppet’s problems.

If there is a character who is being mean to another, they might want to go and physically take down that puppet themselves. That hasn’t happened yet, but only because I bring what I call “security” with me.

The really young children are just curious; they want to come in and have a look at what you are doing.

The odd time, the children will come up with something that is just so bizarre or so well-timed that I really have to work at not laughing so I can keep the character going.

Different audiences have different responses. Sometimes, you will have them telling the character to believe in themselves, that they can do it, that they are really good. Sometimes, I will hide a puppet and I’ll have a character looking for them, and the audience will tell the character where the puppet is because they want to see it being chased.

I typically have six or seven characters with different voices. I’m totally focused on getting the right character out at the right time. I have to switch puppets behind the scenes quite fast, so I’m really concentrating. When you are performing for children, you can’t stop the performance even for a second or you will lose them.

Puppets are really excellent communicators with children. They really listen to them, and they are excellent at delivering a message. Children naturally see puppets as their friends, so it’s more like a peer-to-peer conversation.

I love the sound of pure joy that children direct at a puppet during a show. I love the ideas and solutions that children formulate

—  Carmel Balfe

Puppetry is a lovely opportunity to tell stories through Irish for me, too.

Making puppets takes a significant amount of time and that costs money, so you have to find a way to pay yourself for the time you put into it. Definitely, it’s hard to make a living from the arts. It’s taken me years to build up my practice in order to make a living.

Puppetry is not traditional to Ireland, so you have to work at getting people to understand it. It needs to be recognised by the Arts Council.

I love the magic of bringing a puppet to life. I love expressing myself through movement. I love the challenge of trying to figure out how to make the moving parts of a puppet. I love the sound of pure joy that children direct at a puppet during a show. I love the ideas and solutions that children formulate.

[ Christmas entertainment for all the family: Festive markets, shows, parties and more ]

I love the sound of children arriving at the show, when you hear all of their footsteps and all of the chatter. I love working with other artists and brainstorming ideas for a new show and seeing that new show come to life.

I aim to empower children through puppetry, to give them a voice, to say something they want to say or to make something they want to make. I think puppetry gives us a release and a licence to explore a world that we want to live in. littlegempuppets.com

– In conversation with Joanne Hunt