Joland and the Mountains
Westbury Theatre (10330 84 avenue) August 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22

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An interview with Joel Kafka

Describe your show in five words. 

Puppet Artistry and rich storyline

Okay, now that we’re intrigued… what’s the longer description?

The young goat, Jolanda has everything, lush green pastures, and a kind goat herder, however Jolanda yearns for more. Jolanda yearns for the mountains.

Using life size puppets, live music, and rich story line, audience of all ages will be easily whisked away with the young goat Jolanda as she ventures into the Mountains facing adventure and danger and returning changed. The theme is growth and the virtue of living life to the fullest, with plenty of laughter to go around.

Wow – you’ve done over 1200 puppet programs! What do you enjoy so much about this form of storytelling?

What I enjoy most about puppetry is that puppetry is a medium children easily relate to and the puppets can offer a dimension to storytelling that can be playfully shared by both the audience and the puppeteer.

Your life-size puppets look pretty neat – how do you go about building one of them?

Building the puppets has been quite a creative endeavor. It started by sculpting life-size heads for each of the puppet characters out of clay. Once the shape and personality was just right we added paper mache,  that the puppet heads are made out of.  The bodies are made from pillows and a little foam covered with fabric

Anything else you want audiences to know about the show?

The inspiration for developing this new work Jolanda and the Mountains came from watching my two young daughters live, grow and play. I wanted to develop a rich play that would match their exuberance for living and touch on the theme of growing and learning in the face of challenge

Bonus question: Any names you want to drop who have been involved in your show (Edmonton arts people or otherwise)?

We have a talented cast, and support team however no names to drop.

The 33rd Edmonton International Fringe is August 14 – 24. Get your tickets at tickets.fringetheatre.ca