Podcast transcript: Bringing people together, one puppet at a time

This is Fiat Vox, a podcast that gives you an inside look at why people around the world are talking about UC Berkeley. I'm Anne Brice, a reporter for Berkeley News in the Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Today we're talking with Glynn Bartlett, a scenic artist for the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, about the power of puppetry to bring people together.         [Natural sound from a video about the performance : Glynn working in the studio] Carving a giant tortoise head, Glynn Bartlett is in his element. It's 2015 and he's in South Africa, volunteering for Handspring Puppet Company. He first saw the company perform at UC Berkeley through Cal Performances earlier that year and just knew right away that he wanted to work with them. Glynn Bartlett: Handspring tends to do puppetry that requires two to three puppeteers to manipulate a puppet. You have to become one organism to bring this one puppet to life. So, he packed his bags and traveled to Barrydale, a small village in Western Cape Province, where Handspring was building puppets for the village's annual puppet parade and play. It's an event that happens every year on December 16 -  the Day of Reconciliation. [Music: "Rose Ornamental” by Blue Dot Sessions] It's a public holiday that began in 1994 after the end of apartheid to foster reconciliation and national unity.