Students at Portobello High School have over the last few months been working with visiting artist and puppet maker, Gretchen Maynard-Hahn, to create a collection of large-scale parade puppets inspired by Portobello’s rich seaside and showground heritage.
Across a series of hands-on workshops, students explored character design, simple mechanisms, and sculptural making techniques using lightweight materials such as cane, tissue paper and recycled cardboard. Drawing inspiration from the history of seaside entertainment including variety theatre, circus acts and promenade culture, the group developed a playful “surreal seaside circus” where marine creatures and carnival performers merge into imaginative new forms.
As well as building the puppets, students have begun shaping a short performance structure for the parade, experimenting with movement, atmosphere and storytelling to bring their creations to life.
The project will culminate in a live parade performance on Fri 13 March at Portobello Promenade, celebrating creativity, collaboration and Portobello’s longstanding tradition of seaside spectacle:
The Portobello Moonlight Revue! featuring Big Stew’s Tidal Circus and Marine Marvels Fri 13 March 1215h-1300h starting from Portobello High School (as part of our Spring Cluster events).
Gretchen Maynard-Hahn is a visual theatre designer and maker with a background in puppetry, costume, and prop construction. She has worked across a wide range of creative environments, from large-scale West End productions to intimate and experimental projects. She has led puppet departments on productions such as War Horse and My Neighbour Totoro and worked as a puppet technician on The Lion King and Life of Pi. Her practice is rooted in visual storytelling and the emotional language of materials, with a hands-on approach that bridges fine art, performance, and craft.
Alongside her theatre work, Gretchen’s broader artistic practice explores themes of folk culture, post-human storytelling, and outsiderness – drawing on her American heritage to examine myth, ritual, and the blurred boundaries between human and non-human worlds. She creates work that blends the poetic and the uncanny, often through puppetry, analogue effects, and performative objects.
Gretchen is also developing research into sustainable theatre design and construction. She has contributed to the Theatre Green Book and the Society of British Theatre Designers’ Sustainable Materials Guidebook, and recently spoke at a Climate Crisis Theatre Action event. Her current focus is on exploring low-impact materials and processes that reimagine how theatre can be both creative and environmentally responsible.
This project is supported by funding from City of Edinburgh Council, Portobello High School and Creative Scotland.