Mayor Jim Watson takes some pride in insisting he’s no one’s puppet in his day job at the helm of city affairs.
But he’s only too happy to be rendered as a marionette for award-winning puppeteer and puppet builder Noreen Young, artistic director of Almonte’s Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival.
Young presented Watson with his animated likeness Wednesday morning.
Young is best known as creator of Under the Umbrella Tree, a popular children’s television series and has also contributed her skills as the puppeteer for “Dodi”, a main character on CBC’s Sesame Park, and created several caricature puppets of famous Canadians such as Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Peter Mansbridge and Don Cherry.
A collection of Young’s caricature puppets of Canadian PMs now resides at the Canadian Museum of History.
Almonte’s outdoor festival runs from Aug. 8-10, features performers, workshops and a parade.
For more information about the festival, please visit PuppetsUp.ca. Tickets are on sale now.
