Meet Artist in Residence Elias Ppiros

April 20th, 2022

Elias Ppiros is an Adelaide-based puppet and prop maker who creates for theatre, TV and festivals. As Patch Theatre Artist in Residence Elias will collaborate with creative teams on our new in-theatre show Home and in-schools work Spark.

Tell us about puppet making!

Creating a puppet is creating a character that can be anything you want it to be, which is a completely inanimate object, until you add a performer to bring each character to life.

What sparked your interest in puppet making?

Spending a childhood watching Sesame Street and the Muppets and visiting a puppet shop in the Adelaide Hills sparked my interest in making puppets. I started puppet making in early high school, so I’ve been working on my skills for a while now. I enjoy making other people happy and puppets are a really good way of getting a smile out of someone.

What excites you about the Patch artist residency? What are you looking forward to?

I’m excited to experiment and make fun things with performers in the same room. Working with different people and being able to prototype an element, trial it and then fine-tune the prototype, before making the final element for the show is quite a fun ride.

This is a piece I created called Dry Bunny Creek. Everything on the diorama is handmade and came from my own imagination. There’s a lot of hidden scenes in the diorama that you have to get right up to, to see. People usually miss a few things the first time they see it, so it makes it exciting for them the second time when they see new things.

Image: Elias’ puppets. Photo by: Jess Zeng

What is a show you wish you had worked on? In what role?

Tricky question – I have a few.

Beetle Juice the Musical, as a prop maker, maybe prop/set designer and maker. The colours and eccentric shapes call for very fun, imaginative and challenging builds.

Warhorse, as a puppet maker. I've never seen the show, so my knowledge of the show is limited. However, the puppets and puppetry are extraordinary. The way the horse is controlled and flows in such a realistic movement is breathtaking.

Patch Theatre’s Artist Residency is generously supported by Adelaide Fringe.