Out here on Larrikin Puppets’ Outback Tour 2025 – performing in small libraries, community halls, and intimate spaces – I’m reminded of something very close to my heart: how deeply I value being up close with my audiences. There’s something truly special about making eye contact with the kids, seeing their faces light up, sharing little moments of laughter and surprise, and feeling the energy of the grown-ups too. It’s personal. It’s real. It’s what I love most about performing.

In these smaller settings, I feel like I’m part of the audience, and they’re part of the show. Every giggle, every wide-eyed gasp, every whispered comment is part of the experience we’re creating together. It’s not just me performing at them – we’re all in it together.

As I am writing and preparing for Zietta and the Little Larrikins: A Celebration of Culture, Connection, and Creativity, I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Unlike the Larrikin Puppets Kids Comedy Puppet Show or Marina’s Marine Adventure Puppet Show, which often unfold in smaller venues, Zietta is a full-scale stage production under big theatre lights. The audience will be in a darkened auditorium, the stage bright and distant. I know from experience – like when we performed Hijabi Girl: A Musical Puppet Show – that it can feel like there’s a gap between the performers and the audience when you can’t see their faces.

And yet, connection is at the very heart of Zietta and the Little Larrikins. It’s even in the full title! It’s about celebrating the beautiful ways people come together across cultures, through creativity, through shared experiences. So it’s absolutely vital to me that the show feels connected, even on a big stage.

That’s why I’m already planning little ways to bridge the distance. I’ll be asking for a half-light over the audience so I can see them – the smiles, the laughter, the wide eyes. I’m designing the show to pull the audience into our world – to make them feel they’re not just watching from afar but are truly part of the adventure. Some acts will invite children to come up on stage, just as they would in a smaller setting, to make sure that the power of intimacy is still there.

Big stage shows come with their challenges, but they also come with beautiful possibilities – a chance to create a shared story with hundreds of people at once. I know it will be different. But it will also be wonderful! Hopefully! LOL!

And I’m excited to meet it with open arms, knowing that connection isn’t about the size of the room or the brightness of the lights — it’s about the care and the intention we bring to every moment we share together in the theatre and in the world.