Spin a Yarn
Spin a Yarn is a collaborative community story-telling project, matching puppetry artists with community groups and individuals to create visually compelling puppetry videos from the communities’ stories. The concept began as a response to the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. Across Victoria, we could no longer gather to share our stories, real or imagined, with family and friends. As pandemic restrictions have eased, Spin a Yarn has grown to work with communities in the City of Monash, City of Yarra, and soon City of Moonee Valley. We look forward to offering Spin a Yarn to other communities, developing new stories, creating more videos, and celebrating the creative potential in our diverse society!
City of Yarra
After two years of Zooming, remote learning for the younger population is fading into the past (we hope)! Now that we can engage face to face, Black Hole, in collaboration with Yarra Libraries and Yarra City Arts, has launched its latest iteration of Spin a Yarn. Over the next few months we’re developing three separate projects with Yarra Libraries – each reflecting diverse richly creative communities. One has already been completed: “The Mountain Goat and the Cheetah” and “Surreal Man” are two short funny videos written and performed by participants at Richmond Youth Hub during February and March. What a buzz! As well as online, these videos were shared with family, friends and community at a special screening at the Moon Lantern Festival on April 10. Please enjoy their films below! More will come as we complete the remaining two projects!
Supported by Yarra City Arts, Yarra Libraries, Yarra Youth Services and Black Hole Theatre.
“The Mountain Goat & The Cheetah” – and – “Surreal Man”
City of Monash
Spin a Yarn began with the City of Monash in 2020 and 2021. Black Hole Theatre had an idea – reach out to the Monash community (by internet if necessary), invite them to come forward with their stories, and we would help them turn those stories into a video puppet piece that could be shared far and wide via the net. What a wonderful experience creating those videos has been! Black Hole thanks all the participants for their sparkling imaginations, their commitment, generosity, and willingness to explore something new. We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them.
A Day in the Life of a Running Shoe
Writer: Virginia Verrelli
Puppets, Visuals, Performance and Collaborator: Tamara Rewse
Dramaturge: Nancy Black
Cinematography & Editor: Alex Sibbison
Reining in the Beast
Story: Vicki Galante
Puppetry: Jeany Lee
Dramaturge: Nancy Black
Cinematography & Editor: Jeany Lee
Stories from a Lockdown Quilt
Writers and Collaborators: Heather Woods, Ella McSkimming and Lyall Morris
Puppets and Visuals: Lyall Morris
Dramaturge: Nancy Black
Cinematography and Editor: Alex Sibbison
Supported by City of Monash and Creative Victoria.
Graphic Design Material: Hours After
