Pulling their strings

By Dan Hilborn
Published Dec. 10, 2003



When a visitor walks into the basement of Hugh and Elizabeth Elwood's spacious east Burnaby home, it's not difficult to imagine that they have accidentally discovered Santa's North Pole workshop.

From one room to the next, the walls are decorated with fanciful puppets, all in various stages of completion. The 'sewing room' is in fact the storeroom, where more than 100 tiny wooden puppets hang by fine fishing-line strings.

Some of the puppets are historical collector's pieces, such as the six Hazelle's marionettes that were given to Elizabeth as presents from her parents almost 40 years ago.

Others, such as sturdy little Max the Ho-Hum Husky, are the handmade creations of Hugh, who spends countless hours toiling away in the garage, cutting wood and shaping the pieces into the intricate workings of a marionette.

Elizabeth and Hugh are the creators and operators of one of Burnaby's true holiday pleasures - Elwoodettes Marionettes - a travelling troupe of puppets that comes complete with its own stage and original shows.

This season, they will present The Christmas Spirit, an original hour-long puppet show written, scored and produced by Elizabeth and featuring the handmade puppets of Hugh, at the Bernie Legge Theatre in New Westminster's Queen's Park.

And if it's anything like their five previous Christmas performances, this is a puppet show that should not be missed.

The plot is simple, but it takes a few very interesting turns, says the story's author.

"Lord Rodney Dimsey hates Christmas," Elizabeth says. "He won't allow anyone to celebrate and everyone is miserable. And that's when Sir Cedric creates a time machine and Max accidentally sends everyone back to the year 1645."

Of course, Dimsey Manor, the scene of the play, is haunted. And when the time travellers accidentally bring back the real-life version of the manor's most famous ghost, chaos reigns supreme until the puppets find a way to restore the proper order of things, including the true Christmas spirit.

Now imagine all this done with foot-tall puppets that are operated by strings dangling from the top of the stage, and you have a real holiday treat. This year's show promises to be spectacular.

The newest members of the Elwoodettes Marionettes cast are the four 'ghost puppets' - Mary Fairfax, Vibrating Van, Flapper Fran and Dynamite Dan - each of which comes with its own 'surprise' feature.

"This show has an abundance of trick puppets," says Hugh, who can spend up to 20 hours carving, working on his lathe and then adding the final touches with paint, decorations and, in some cases, even electronics to adorn the puppets.

While building the puppets is intricate work, Hugh has no doubt about which task is hardest.

"I hate stringing," he admits.

Besides the puppets, the Elwoods have also built their own portable stage, which barely fits into their in-house garage. (The separate garage in the backyard has been turned into Hugh's woodworking shop.)

The idea of starting their own marionette company first arose about 10 years ago, when the couple's two children were still attending elementary school.

"The first theatre we made was a gift for the kids from Santa Claus," says Hugh.

"We used to sneak out to the garage at night to do the painting," Elizabeth adds. "When it was finished, we led the kids downstairs in blindfolds on Christmas Day and surprised them."

The idea caught on. Soon, the kids were inviting friends over to enjoy the shows, and then the kids convinced mom and dad to take the show on the road as a treat for the students at nearby Second Street community school.

Their first big production was Babes in the Woods, an hour-long show that took months to write, create the puppets for and, finally, rehearse.

"We even wrote our own lyrics to tunes that everyone knew," says Elizabeth, who now has an eight-track studio in her home. After that, the family did a show as a fundraiser for the Canuck Place children's hospice.

Before long, they were taking their shows to the George Derby veterans' hospital and St. Alban's church, and then finally Elizabeth stated the obvious - the Elwoods needed to turn their puppet shows into a family business.

"Hugh was going on about having a family business, and I said if I had to do all that boring administrative stuff, let's make our business the puppets so I can indulge in my singing and writing," she says.

After almost 10 years of building puppets, writing shows and staging productions, Elwoodettes Marionettes can now produce half a dozen different shows including a Halloween adventure and birthday show for kids aged three to six.

The Christmas Spirit runs from Dec. 17 to 31 at the Bernie Legge Theatre in New Westminster's Queen's Park, enter from First Street and Third Avenue or look for the park entrance off McBride Boulevard. Show times are 7 p.m. on weeknights, and 2 p.m. on weekends and tickets are $6 children and $9 adults.

For exact times, please call the Vagabond Players at 604-521- 0412.