Exploring South Africa's natural heritage through the joy of storytelling.

A celebration of South Africa’s unique natural heritage, Puppet Planet uses puppetry, music and dance to tell science-related stories.

Through an exciting collaboration between palaeontologists and local artists & performers in Cape Town, Puppet Planet has created a children’s TV show that is based on live performances using rod puppets with puppeteers shown as part of the storytelling.

Join Thandi and her magical dog Ogies, as they travel back through time to explore South Africa’s amazing past. Meet long extinct animals, investigate ancient environments and learn how life on Earth has changed through time!

MEET THE PUPPETS

There is a wealth of evidence indicating that puppets can have a valuable impact in engaging children, and their use is already well established in many primary schools in areas such as drama and social education. The Jungle Theatre Company (Cape Town) specializes in original theatre that motivates and educates young people to care for nature, community and culture via the use of theatre and physical drama workshops.

Puppet Planet will continue to produce a series of theatrical performances that introduce young learners to often complex topics such as deep time, evolution and the history of life.

We use puppet characters as a vehicle to take learners on exciting adventures! Through the eyes of puppets and puppeteers, learners explore South African palaeontology and archaeology, as well as other topics that connect with issues such as climate change, sustainability, and conservation.

By incorporating the arts, which play a key role in the development of language skills, imagination, and creativity, our project will reach learners who are not innately interested in science.

Our team

Wendy Taylor

Wendy is a palaeontologist and geoscience educator who has been living and working in Cape Town for over 10 years. She is the founder and director of Puppet Planet, a non-profit company that does science storytelling through puppetry and the arts. Based at the Iziko Museums of South Africa, Wendy and her team develop shows and arts-integrated workshops on the history of life, space exploration, marine science, climate change, and sustainability.

Adam Carnegie Illustration

Adam Carnegie, is an award-winning Cape Town illustrator and cartoonist specializing in huge crowd illustrations and vibrant acrylic artworks with whimsical themes.

Mac Fabulous (Primary Puppet Makers)

Angela and Sean Mac Pherson are a mother-daughter artist duo, based in Cape Town, Cape Town. Together they create art of all kinds; puppets, sculptures, public installations, illustrations and concept design. Sean has led the collaboration with Puppet Planet. She started by designing and creating the puppets and set for the Thandi & Ogies adventures. MAC FABULOUS has created over fifteen puppets for the Puppet Planet over the last few years. Consulting, conceptualizing and designing the present and future projects with Wendy Taylor, including immersive storytelling sets and colourful paper masks.

View the video playlist on the making of the puppets for Puppet Planet.

Kukus Puppets (Marelize Viljoen)

Marelize Viljoen is a freelance artist specializing in Theatre Arts, Puppetry and Puppet Design. Her interest in puppetry grew into Kukus Puppets, a company rooted in her love for storytelling. With Kukus, she has been fabricating puppets for Theatre and Film since 2020. In the past year alone, she has designed over 30 puppets and she shows no signs of slowing down.

Iziko South African Museum

The South African museum founded in 1825 and situated in the historic Company’s Gardens has seen millions of visitors all attracted by the vast historical collection the museum has to offer, which ranges from fossils to ancient insects and historical tools.

Jungle Theatre Co.

JTC’s professional artistic team from diverse communities draw on South Africa’s cultural heritage and indigenous languages to find connections to the environment and human nature, creating and performing original accessible African children’s theatre shows that bring together music, dance, masks, puppets, clowning and storytelling.

Meet the puppets!

Thandi

Thandi is a 9-year-old girl who lives on a farm in the Karoo with her dog Ogies. She adores Ogies and takes her on long walks. Thandi takes care of her pet, loves fossils and going on adventures.

Ogies

Ogies loves to sing and go exploring with Thandi. Together they travel through time. Ogies is a magical dog! Once back in time, she can talk with Thandi and the strange animals they meet

Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus is a plant-eater who lived 250 million years ago! He was really good at digging burrows to hide in. His kind lived in herds and roamed the river valleys in search of plants to eat.

Mrs Big Frog

Ms Big Frog is a giant frog who lived during the age of dinosaurs. She looks cute, but watch out! Hiding in the bushes near water, she was a sneaky hunter who ate other animals, even baby dinosaurs!

Meet the puppets!

Thandi meets Mr. Lystrosaurus

Thandi and Ogies travel back in time to the Early Triassic Period, 250 million years ago. They meet Mr. Lystrosaurus, a distant mammal ancestor who lives in a burrow by a lazy river. He loves to snack on juicy plants that grow along the river and when it gets too hot, he sleeps in his burrow where it is nice and cool. Learn more about Lystrosaurus fossils at the link below.

See on Wikipedia

Fearsome Triassic predators

Thandi and Ogies travel back in time to the Early Triassic Period where they run into the hungry predator, Proterosuchus! This fierce meat-eater has sharp curved teeth, bony armor down its back, powerful legs, and a long tail. It can run on land and swim fast in the water! Learn more about Proterosuchus and its family of reptiles at the link below.

See on Wikipedia

Lystrosaurus skull

This is a Lystrosaurus (shovel-nosed reptile) skull found in the rocks near Bethuile in the Free State (250 million years old). Lystrosaurus' survived the great Permian-Triassic mass extinction, and were one of the most common land animals on Earth around 250 million years ago. Eventually, their kind went extinct so today we have only their bones left to study. Learn more at the link below.

See on Wikipedia

Making puppets

It take a lot of skill and hard work to create the puppets that we use in our Puppet Planet stories. They merge both art and science to come up with fun characters that bring the past to life.

Puppets and puppeteers

Our puppets come to life through the guidance of wonderful performers called puppeteers. They become the heart and soul of our puppets. The art of puppetry looks a lot easier than it really is. It takes a lot of practice and dedication to be able to become a puppeteer. Here are our four puppets and puppeteers from our first TV show, Thandi finds a fossil!

Science storytelling

Our stories come from the imagination of both scientists and artists. We work together to create our shows starting with the story idea and then making sketches of the characters. It's a long process, but is loads of fun! Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about how our puppets are made.

See on YouTube

Thandi and her fossil finds

Thandi lives on a farm in the Karoo where she loves to explore with her dog, Ogies. There they find amazing fossils of ancient animals, like this skeleton of a Lystrosaurus. Did you know that scientists from all over the world come to study South Africa's famous fossils? We have some of the most important fossils anywhere on Earth!

Age of dinosaurs

Thandi and Ogies visit the Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago where they meet Mrs. Big Frog and other animals that lived at that time. In the background they see sauropod dinosaurs with their long necks and huge bodies. But no need to fear, they are gentle giants who only eat plants! Visit the link below to learn more about sauropod dinosaurs.

See on Wikipedia

Making puppets with Sean

To make our puppets, we worked with the well-known puppet maker, Sean Mac Pherson of The Cape Town Carnival. Sean and her team worked with us at every step to bring our characters to life!

Thandi meets Mrs. Big Frog

Thandi and Ogies travel back through time and end up in the Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago. There they run into a giant frog, called Mrs. Big Frog. She speaks in rhymes and loves to sing! Today her kind are extinct - no longer living - so all we have are her fossil bones. Learn more about her fossils at the link below.

See on Wikipedia