Mississauga theatre company hosting unique online festival

We might not be able to enjoy in-person festivals just yet, but a Mississauga theatre company is doing its part to keep people entertained amid the ongoing lockdown. 

Crane Creations, which launched the first-ever puppetry-focused Bridges Festival right as COVID shut down the world in 2020, is hosting its second annual festival this year.

The festival, which will run from March 13-15, is an international puppetry and animation festival that takes place in Mississauga. Each year, Crane Creations Theatre Company selects shows and activities for families to enjoy and brings well-known artists right to theatres in Mississauga.

This year, the festival is taking place online and all activities are free. 

The program this year has:

• Live Puppet Shows: Checkout 606, by La Fille du Laitier (Monday, March 15 at 1:30 pm) which will be live-streamed from Montreal. Applefun Puppetry will also present daily interactive puppetry activities for kids during the festival.
• Pre-recorded videos: Including The Old Man and the River (By Wee Festival productions) and award-winning animated shorts (Freeze Frame by Soetkin Verstegen, Serial Parallels by Max Hattler, Minimal Minute by Colin St-Cyr Duhamel and more). 
• Industry events: There are industry events for puppeteers and animators, including a panel of industry-leading professional animators from Jamaica, England and Canada (Monday, March 15 at 11 am), an Ontario Puppetry Presenters Round Table (Saturday, March 13 at 2 pm), an industry exploration for emerging Canadian theatre artists (Saturday, March 13 at 10 am), and a puppeteers meet up for (March 15 at 2:30).

To learn more or watch, click here.