Four years ago, Emma Boor landed here in Oxford with a bump.

Both literally – she was heavily pregnant and would give birth to her son Mo a couple of months later – but it was also a bumpy landing in a different world.

One moment she was up in Newcastle bouncing around in an orange jumpsuit (a children’s show she had dreamed up called Matilda’s Lunchbox), and the next she was here, having fallen in love with a composer (her now husband Martyn) after taking a punt at internet dating. “Motherhood and the move here were both big life changes and a mad shock” laughs Emma, 39. “You lose your sense of identity a bit when you have a child, don’t you, and I had my performing business which had taken off in the north east and I loved it to bits.

“But amazing things have happened since I came to Oxford and I feel very lucky.”

Amazing things have indeed happened. Thanks to her puppetry performing arts business – Wild Boor Ideas – Emma is kept very busy entertaining children and their parents around the county. She has won rave reviews for her family-friendly shows at Pegasus Theatre in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, including Play the World, Cinderella Green The Recycling Queen and Funky Monkey and the Juicy Fruits, which lands at Pegasus next Sunday, October 5. Emma, who once worked as a clown doctor on children’s cancer wards in the north east, was commissioned to write Funky Monkey by the primary care trust with funding from Arts Council England.

“This one is all about gunky food – kids always love messy stuff – and the funkiest monkey in the jungle who loses his funk, maybe because of what he’s eating,” explains Emma.

“Like all my shows, it’s about trying to bring a bit of joy to life – learning does not have to be boring! “Other theatre companies certainly deal with the deep and dark stuff, and that’s great if you want that. But I definitely feel there’s a place for joy, for magic and for finding the beauty in life.

“Moments of joy are easy to miss if you’re up to your eyeballs in paying the mortgage, cooking and cleaning.”

Unexpected levels of drudgery and chaos are something all mothers will be familiar with, as will the struggle to make ends meet in a world where toy adverts seem to be thrust at you and yours from all angles.

It was the ordinary, random household objects around her that inspired Emma to craft some of her puppets – such as J-Cloth and Mopella – the ugly sisters who came to life for Cinderella Green. This eco-themed show was a hit, and also sparked an offer from Oxford University Press for Emma to write her own book, Bin Goblins, which has just been published this month and is for sale on Amazon.

Always passionate about the environment – Emma’s first job when she moved back south was as Welcome to Wildlife officer for Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust – the Oxford Reading Tree book Bin Goblins shows families how to make characters by recycling everyday objects.

“As with my shows and all I do, the book is about making the ordinary extraordinary,” says Emma, beside a giant Garlic Nan puppet, all bubbly, doughy smiles, she has crafted.

“Sometimes, people will say to me: ‘oooh, I’m not the least bit creative’, to which I say: labelling anyone – or yourself – as uncreative is a load of pants!

“Playing with young children is something people sometimes feel they don’t know how to do. The only ingredient you need is imagination and the rest is easy. If I can help with that at all, that makes me very happy.”

Oxford Mail:
Emma making a Bin Goblin puppet with her son Mo Harry

Right now, amid the puppet factory that is the trio’s family home in Divinity Road, Emma is also busy fundraising for her next show – Traction Man – based on the book by local author Mini Grey. Emma has secured Arts Council Funding but is busy dealing with the paperchain that needs shuffling as well as dreaming up new shows, characters and ideas for a whole range of educational books now that her first has been published.

Not a bad level of output for the girl who left school with one E and three D grades at GCSE – as well as the C in maths she earned after retaking the exam four times. Emma always wanted to work with children – originally she had wanted to become a teacher before academia put paid to the plan – and ended up studying interactive and broadcast media at Manchester Met University, not knowing where it would lead. “Ah yes, my experience at school has given me a different outlook on life and learning,” says Emma.

“Sometimes, the way learning is structured at school is all about the product and not the process. Actually, life should be about the experience, that joy of play along the way.

“In my shows, I try to be as reactive as I can and there is no right or wrong answer. Recently at Chippy, for example, during Under The Sea, I called out: what shall we fish for? ‘Carrots!’ was the reply.

“Why not?! Why not fish for carrots! One minute, we’re making a shoe farm, the next it’s a bucket badger or a feather duster fairy. There are no limits to little imaginations, so why constrain it?”

Chipping Norton Theatre has recruited Emma to offer a new season of activity sessions for the very young – from six months to five years. Here, her Stories Alive sensory shows take on a different theme every time, from magic woods to a tickling bear.

“I often find that the more ridiculous I look, the less inhibited I can be and the more everyone else enjoys it,” adds Emma. “This is why you’ll tend to find me dressed up as a chicken or a fairy, or whatever. And I always make sure there are some quality tunes for the kids and the parents to enjoy – whether it’s The Worzels or some ’70s and ’80s classics.

“Why not cram as much joy as you can in?”

EMMA IN ACTION
* Funky Monkey and the Juicy Fruits takes place on Sunday, October 5, 11am and 2pm, The Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RE. 01865 812150/ pegasustheatre.org.uk
* Stories Alive, Tuesdays until  October 21, The Theatre, Chipping Norton 9.30am,  10.30am and 11.30am. 01608 642350
* Bin Goblins by Emma Boor, published by OUP, is for sale now on Amazon, £5.80

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