Melbourne-based puppeteers and directors Sarah Kriegler and Jacob Williams, co-artistic directors of Lemony S Puppet Theatre, have been named the 2025 recipients of the Frank Van Straten Fellowship.

Apples and Ladders (Lemony S Puppet Theatre) Photo © Jeff Busby

Awarded through the Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne, the Fellowship will support their project Things Have a Life of Their Own, a new work for family audiences inspired by the puppets and puppetry objects held in the national collection.

“There is a mixture of puppetry styles for theatre and television with some dating back to the early 1900s,” said Kreigler. “This is an extraordinarily exciting collection for a puppet company such as Lemony S Puppet Theatre; what sits in the Collection has underpinned our own practice as we are nothing without those artists who carved the way for us to do what we do.”

Puppets from Handspan Theatre Company’s Gulliver’s Travels (1992). © Australian Performing Arts Collection

The company will begin their Fellowship by researching the many puppetry styles represented in the collection, from early 20th-century stage puppets to...