Glass Half Full Theatre’s Climate Connections – Walkabout Puppets features human-sized ambulatory puppets representing normal people displaced by climate change. These puppet characters interact with audience participants to create instant, private theatrical moments, revealing the human stories of climate migration through hidden messages, puppets, pictures, and postcards.
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“The puppet looked so real . . . I felt an invitation to be part of her world … I felt like I was another person in their life. . . Even today I’m still thinking about it. “
Walkabout Puppets was initiated by Caroline Reck and Khristián Mendez Aguirre in 2019.
The lives of Doña Ixk’a, Andrés are amalgamations of the multiple crises faced by many Maya Guatemalans as they make their way towards the United States. Crops are failing, temperatures are rising, cost of life is increasing, and there are fewer and fewer opportunities to make a livelihood. Climate change is only exacerbating those crises. The droughts, rains and the hurricanes that are in apocalyptic science-fiction films like Mad Max or The Day After Tomorrow remain a distant future for some parts of the world, but they are the reality for communities in Guatemala.
With this piece, Glass Half Full makes visible a plight that may feel “distant” and “far away”, but which is actually much closer than we think. Our company also manifests the reality that “helping” these communities is a complex endeavor, but one that we must engage with collectively, and which begins with our ability to see them. We must to reckon with our own feelings about the presence of bodies and communities we can’t easily describe or comprehend and the challenges in communicating with them.
As described by U.S. immigration reform activists: what the media and xenophobic politicians like to label as an “immigrant” crisis is, in reality, an asylum crisis. There is no racial justice without climate justice.
The climate crisis can feel overwhelming and cause people to avert their eyes and ears to search for tranquility elsewhere. We want to create joyful interactions that promote curiosity and intrigue instead of guilt and disconnect.
Featuring Gricelda Silva, Jonathan Collet, Caroline Reck, and Tane Ricardo Ward
Cultural Consultant Khristián Mendez Aguirre
Puppet Design Caroline Reck and Gricelda Silva with build elements by Kelli Bland & Connor Hopkins
Photography Ulises Garcia, Caroline Reck with Videography by Tyler Skot Carpenter, Zac Crofford
Doña Ixk’a is a Guatemalan refugee to the States. On her back is piled everything she needs on her journey- food, blankets, household items, as well as memories, hopes, and fears. The broccoli industry of her hometown has been devastated by rapidly changing climate, and she is hoping to reunite with her son in Texas.
Sixteen-year-old Andrés arrived in Texas during the hottest summer Austin has ever seen. With agricultural jobs affected by this drought, he’s been surviving with only the things in his pack: Guatemalan snacks, his sleeping bag, and rosy dreams of an American future. He’s waiting for the arrival of his mother, Doña Ixk’a.
Chip’ is Andrés’ little sister, and she’s accompanying her Mami, Doña Ixk’a, as they search for Andrés all over Austin, TX. She received a postcard from Andrés with a picture of Austin on the front of it and she’s been carrying it with her ever since. She can’t wait to show her brother in person that she didn’t give up hope. She loves the color blue, bananas, bubbles, and the way it feels when her Mami is braiding her hair.
