Emma Boor, the founder of Wild Boor Ideas, has been creating characters and puppets since a very early age. She said, “Playing is really important for all of us – it’s how we experience the world and learn” and since her childhood, has been hand-making puppets out of obscure items to show her creativity on another level.
Wild Boor Ideas is a theatre company, which performs shows involving puppets for young children, including sensory shows for children with special needs. Emma said, “I really love to see the kids engage with the magic. And when the parents join in its really great too as it takes them back to a time when they were little and when playing was okay! Nowadays, playing is seen as something frivolous and not important, but to me it’s how we explore our ideas and playing about and opening our mind is definitely a creative way to find solutions to problems.”
Many of her shows also include shadow puppetry where there are “audible gasps” from the audience as she makes images from random objects, such as birds from kitchen implements. Emma said, “I really love making people laugh and there is something so magical about shadow puppetry.”
All of the shows performed have had inspiration from Emma’s life. For example, “Cinderella Green the Recycling Queen” shows her passion for recycling and reusing; all the objects used are recycled including the prince which was created out of an old hoover! Emma said, “I like to base all my shows on something that I love which I want to celebrate about the world.”
“All these shows are fully interactive with children singing along, ridiculous puppets to have a laugh at and objects to play with and pass around.” She has regular sessions at venues like the Story Museum and Pegasus Theatre where she performs shows such as “Play the World” where there are fun and exciting themes including a Circus based show. She also performs “Suitcase Stories” once a month with short and interactive tales; the upcoming session is “The Three Little Pigs”. In February, Emma is performing in a particularly magical show called “Hey Little Bird” where she sparkles in a full body sequin suit.
