Filipino puppetry artist who worked in West End brings craft home to Manila

MANILA, Philippines — Storytelling has always been magical, more so if it is done on stage—and with life-sized puppets to help bring stories to life.

Filipino puppet designer-maker and director Kayla Teodoro knows this only too well, as she is the creator of the life-sized Yubaba from the stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. She also brought to life, with the use of puppets, the story of Life of Pi in the stage adaptation by the National Theater of London.

"Life of Pi," the award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel, centers on a 16-year-old boy named Pi, who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat after a cargo ship sinks in the vast Pacific Ocean. Alongside Pi are four other survivors—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger.

“I was fortunate enough to work on the show last year while it was on the West End. I took care of the puppets—the tiger and all of the other big puppets. I also worked very closely with the puppeteers because I also helped run the show," said Teodoro, who served as the puppet assistant stage manager for that particular stage production.

The bulk of her work entailed making sure that all big puppets were in tip-top shape for every show: “I helped make sure that puppets were in the right place at the right time. I made sure that when puppeteers needed help, I was there to help them. All of the puppets really had to be up to par every night before the show.”

Teodoro emphasized that the puppet community is generally small—all the more so in the Philippines, which is the lone Southeast Asian country without an ancient form of puppetry.

“It’s really baby steps, but it’s exciting because it’s so small. Because of that, I formed Puppet Theater Manila, which is now trying to bring puppetry around the Philippines,” said Teodoro, who finished her master’s degree in puppetry in the United Kingdom.

Determined to propel Filipino storytelling through puppetry, she shares how the art form is a rich outlet for Filipino stories rooted in folklore, especially for the benefit of children. 

“Before the Spanish arrived, we were a very pagan culture, and because of that, there is such rich folklore and