Photos: Morph Festival brings puppets alive in Kerikeri

Three-year-old Lyra Devenie Keene makes friends with a moa during a performance of Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The inaugural Morph Puppet Festival wrapped up in Kerikeri on Sunday after five days of youth theatre, Matariki-themed shadow puppets, a concert by funk band the Hipstamatics with puppet guests, workshops and more.

The event was the brainchild of Kylie Penn, who has worked in puppet-based theatre and film for the past 25 years.

Only the weather failed to play its part with heavy rain forcing the main street shop-window shadow puppet event to be shifted indoors to the Turner Centre.

Other performances included Saturday's Poetry by Monsters by Company of Giants, a group based at Oneonesix performance space in Whangārei.

Characters in the environmentally-themed children's show are based on illustrations by Whangārei's Evan Heasman aka Soju Shots.

Penn hopes to make Morph a regular event.

Georgia-May Russ and Dylan Taylor operate the central character in Poetry by Monsters, an ever-hungry and slightly melancholy bear tasked with looking after the natural world. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Fifteen-year-old Finn Gilbert Keene, 15, with a caterpillar hand puppet that transforms into a butterfly. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Lutz Hamm, of Whangarei's Company of Giants, operates a life-size moa searching the audience for food. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Finn Gilbert Keene, 15, gets some extra height on the shoulders of Dylan Taylor as they play the part of a cloud creature in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Tomasin Fisher-Johnson, of Whangarei's Company of Giants, as a salamander. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Lutz Hamm, of Whangarei, performs with a human-sized crow in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Actors' hands form a fire lily emerging from the ashes of a wildfire in Poetry by Monsters. Photo / Peter de Graaf