In this project, a group of 10 students (ages eight to 16 years old) will be invited to participate in several parts of a puppetry design and workshopping process. Students will learn puppet-building techniques and be introduced to part of a theatre creation process conducted by a collective of theatre professionals. Theatre students will gain first-hand experience of the process of creating a work of puppetry, including theatre-making, writing and performance workshopping. They will also get hands-on experience in the design and creation of large puppets. Their contributions to the creative process will help make the show a hit with young audiences.

Murdoch Schon is a theatre maker, director, and puppeteer who graduated from the NTS Directing program in 2020. Winnipeg-born, they have been involved in the Montreal English theatre scene for almost a decade. Murdoch is fascinated by provocation, vulnerability and the role of risk and failure in art-making. Murdoch believes that theatre rises to its true power through the practices of ritual liminality, community and imagination. Murdoch is enamoured with scale, the breadth and sweep of history. They insist on the wondrous nature of theatre as a transformative space where rulers can fail, heroes can rise, and monsters seem more familiar than angels. 

Mentors at NTS: Jackie Maxwell, Tanja Jacobs, Lezlie Wade, Michael Wheeler, Sarah Garton Stanley, Clea Minaker, Dean Fleming, Seana McKenna, Jean Asselin, Eda Holmes, and Rose Plotek. 

Their directing credits include it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now by Lucy Kirkwood, The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, Celestial Serendipity by Russell Wiitala, The Woods Witch by Murdoch Schon, and Little One by Hannah Moscovitch. Murdoch also has a BFA specialization in theatre and development from Concordia University.