It’ll leave you speechless
Wordless puppet show explores father-daughter ties
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Having a parent who travels for work is a challenge for any child, but whenever Shizuka Kai’s father left on a voyage to capture elusive footage of white wolves and kodiaks, there was an element of danger that didn’t exist for other children.
“I would say I kind of grew up with my dad telling us that he actually might not come home,” says Kai, a Vancouver-based puppet maker and theatre artist. “A moment I vaguely remember as a kid was when he sat us down and explained the life-insurance process because (he) might actually get attacked and eaten by a bear, and that’s the reality of this project (he was) doing.”
That reality is put through a puppeteer’s lens in Otosan, the closing production of the 2025-2026 season at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Daughter and father communicate without words in Otosan.
Based on Kai’s experiences growing up as the child of a dogged wildlife videographer, combined with memories from a joint trip to Alaska in Kai’s early 20s, Otosan — on to May 17 — is told in a wordless tabletop puppet show featuring lifelike renderings of father, daughter, grizzly bear and snowy owl.
Those puppets — crafted out of Worbla thermoplastic and built through a combination of manual construction and 3D printing — are used to reflect complex father-daughter relationships, with the characters’ non-verbal communication highlighting the sometimes awkward tension that crops up when parents and their children collaborate on creative projects.
In Otosan, the stoic father prefers to operate on his own terms, but little Shizu — who might reasonably have some separation anxiety over her father’s wild career — has other plans: she stows herself away in his suitcase before he embarks on another of his fantastic journeys.
The production — developed by Kai, Jess Amy Shead and Randi Edmundson of Little Onion Puppet Company — is universal in its themes, but highly specific in terms of its inspiration, Kai says.
“I think a lot of Asian cultures resonate with this kind of ‘Asian dad.’ They don’t talk a lot. They grunt. They don’t use many words.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
From left: puppeteers Jess Amy Shead, June Fukumura, Randi Edmundson and Victor Mariano bring characters to life in Otosan.
That personality trait ended up inspiring the show’s approach to dialogue, which emphasizes body language and some audio assistance to tell its story: co-creator Shead is a certified American Sign Language interpreter, which helped the production team steer its approach toward a strong visual sensibility.
That made sense not only for keeping audiences of all hearing capacities engaged, but also when considering Otosan’s blended use of Tetsuaki Kai’s actual wildlife videography, which is projected on a cardboard film-reel canvas throughout the production’s 45-minute runtime.
Though Otosan is the first puppet-centric production of MTYP’s season, the show gives Winnipeg audiences and puppet enthusiasts another opportunity to see the form’s dynamic applications after other local companies (Royal MTC’s Wonderful Joe and Life of Pi, Théâtre Cercle Molière’s Cet été qui chantait) gave the artform the spotlight earlier in the season.
Otosan has its première in MTYP’s Richardson Studio Theatre on Friday night, while the organization’s Musical Theatre Company kicks off a weekend-long stand of The Pirates of Penzance on its mainstage (Tickets: $16 at mtyp.ca). The adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic was written by Winnipeg duo Mycze Cutler and Cora Matheson, putting the next generation of Manitoban musical theatre stars in the spotlight.
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MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Otosan is based on a real experience in the life of Vancouver playwright Shizuka Kai, whose father was a wildlife photographer.
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Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
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MTYP announces 2026-2027 season
Green eggs, ham and fresh carrots are on the menu for the company’s upcoming seven-show season, playfully titled The Places We’ll Go.
Seussical, the beloved musical based on the collected works of Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, will return to the MTYP stage Dec. 4, featuring a cast of 12 performers. Kelly Robinson will serve as musical director, with Jillian Willems choreographing. MTYP’s artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna will direct.
Currently in Stratford, Ont., where he’s directing an adaptation of The Hobbit opening May 30, Felices-Luna calls Seussical “a celebration of creativity, imagination and thinking outside the box.”
“There are moments in this play where people who feel like they’re the only ones to have the thoughts they have find out they’re not alone in the universe,” says Felices-Luna, who was hired by MTYP in 2014.
While Seussical will be the company’s holiday season tentpole, MTYP’s upcoming year will open with a story rooted in our own land.
Written by Yvette Nolan, Jordan is inspired by the story of Jordan River Anderson, the namesake of the Indigenous child-welfare organization Jordan’s Principle. Felices-Luna says he saw the premiere in Montreal and had a profound experience. “Yvette’s created a space that in a beautiful, theatrical way, Jordan actually gets to see what happened in the world because of him.” (Oct. 2-11).
Next, the company will head to the Himalayas for Peg and the Yeti, an adaptation by Monica Dufault of the kid-lit book by Kenneth Oppel. Last programmed by MTYP in 2015, this story of an eight-year-old with a mountainous imagination will be directed by Emma Welham, with design by Denyse Karn, whose set, prop and costume on Tad and Birdy was among the best produced in the city in recent memory (Oct. 30-Nov. 8).
After a January hiatus, the company will return on Feb. 5 with a 10-day run of U.K. performer Toby Thompson’s I Wish I Was a Mountain. It’s the first and probably only time MTYP will go from an adaptation of Dr. Seuss to an adaptation of Herman Hesse. In a five-star review of the spoken-word performance, the Irish Times called the show, “an exquisite escape from modern life.”
From March 5 to 14, Quebec City’s Le Théàtre des Confettis will bring Lou in the Night, a production geared to audiences between four and eight. A story about overcoming fears in even the most familiar of places, Felices-Luna says he loved the play’s design, which allows Lou to “travel through their house without actually moving.”
A few years after MTYP staged Alice in Wonderland, U.K. dance artist Joss Arnott is bringing a spinoff story to the Winnipeg stage. Meet the Hatter was originally commissioned by the Lincoln Centre (April 4-11).
And in next season’s closing slot (May 7-16, 2027) is the world première of MTYP artistic associate Sarah Flynn’s gardening lesson Growing Carrots, which tells the story of the fastidious Oona and her sister Dewa, who learn to work together in their veggie patch. Developed through MTYP’s Sandbox program, the physical comedy production will be directed by Spenser Payne, an accomplished clown as well as MTYP’s school director.
If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism.
BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
Click here to learn more about the project.
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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