Casting Shadows, Bridging Oceans, Finding Light | Harley Walker | Eve at Gilded Balloon Appleton Tower

Learn more about Harley Walker here | Follow Harley on Instagram

Some stories are too delicate for blunt delivery. They need to be told in a way that slips between the seams of memory, time, and love. At this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, I met Harley Walker — a theatre-maker whose latest work, Not My Grandmother’s Daughter, does exactly that.

Through the momentary magic of shadow puppetry, Harley traces the threads connecting three generations of women in her family. Their performance is a love letter to their grandmother, drawn from collected stories and stitched together with sound, light, and movement. It’s also a personal excavation — a way to explore their own relationship with their mother by first understanding the woman who came before them both.

In our conversation, Harley shared not only how the shadows became a bridge between past and present, but also how they made the leap from America to Edinburgh to bring this intimate story to life. In searching for their grandmother’s voice, they found their own — and a place for it on the Fringe stage.

TRANSCRIPT

(0:00 - 0:14)

Hello, I am here with Harley from Not My Grandmother's Daughter, and we're going to be asking you a couple of questions about your show. Sounds good. So firstly, as briefly as possible, tell us exactly what your show is about and what made you write it.

(0:14 - 0:31)

Yes, my show is a one-person shadow puppetry show about my grandmother. It's a love letter through time. When I applied for the MFA programme in puppetry arts at the University of Connecticut, I was required to, during the audition, do five minutes of any sort of puppetry I wanted to do.

(0:31 - 0:48)

So I did the first five minutes of this show for that audition, got into school with it, and during the audition, the head of the programme was like, you should keep going. And so I did, and now we have the show that we have today. I did my dissertation in puppetry, and I never meet people that went to college and did puppetry.

(0:49 - 0:56)

So I'm here for that. How has the response been so far to your show? It's been pretty good. My show is earnest.

(0:57 - 1:13)

It's not necessarily flashy. We've been described as it doesn't have teeth, but I think that that's what makes it really special, is that it's very heartwarming. So I have people come up to me often, even today, and like, let me tell you about my grandmother, or let me tell you about my experience with my mom.

(1:13 - 1:18)

And it's really a connecting show. It's very cathartic for people. You decided to bring it over to the Edinburgh Fringe.

(1:19 - 1:30)

I came here in high school with the high school version of this programme. So I came, I can't even remember what year it was. It was 18 years old, and I've always wanted to come back.

(1:30 - 1:41)

So it feels really special to get to come back and bring this particular show. Where have you come from today? I have come from Storrs, Connecticut, where the University of Connecticut is. Amazing.

(1:41 - 1:43)

Yeah, just moved here. Perfect. So you've travelled a long way.

(1:44 - 1:50)

And as you said in your show, you lost your suitcase. I did. My suitcase went missing.

(1:50 - 2:00)

So I had a flight out of Philadelphia that got cancelled. I was in Hartford, had to drive all the way to Boston to catch a flight to get here. My luggage got lost.

(2:00 - 2:14)

I rebuilt my show within the 24 hours after tech into my next day. And my first time performing it, it was just like a torch or a flashlight between my knees cast up onto the wall of the theatre. Wow, well done you.

(2:14 - 2:23)

That must have been very stressful. So what do you do for a living? I assume you're an artist. Yes, I'm an artist and a student right now.

(2:23 - 2:35)

And I work on campus at our puppetry museum at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. So if anyone is ever in Storrs, Connecticut, go and visit. That is so awesome.

(2:35 - 2:52)

How do you fund your show and budget your show? Oh man, family has helped me tonnes. Luckily, I have a producer who's done a lot of that for me. You're on here, are they? So I was able to, yeah, I was able to be like, here's some funds.

(2:53 - 3:05)

Help me make this possible because she has a bunch of really wonderful connections. And I just got very lucky. What is the rough budget for the show? How did it cost to get you here? It's quite a lot of money.

(3:05 - 3:11)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereabouts are you staying while you're in Edinburgh? I am staying just across the meadow. Oh, how lovely.

(3:11 - 3:24)

It's really nice. And I'm staying with some other people from the show, from these shows. What's been the hardest part in your preparation? I guess being a student and trying to do all of this all at once.

(3:24 - 3:30)

Yeah, yeah. Because I'm in my final year of my MFA programme. So we're doing our theses alongside all of this.

(3:30 - 3:47)

So it's trying to make sense of both. So you thought, how can I make this way more difficult for myself? It's so easy. What's your daily schedule look like while you're here at the Fringe? Yeah, I wake up, I roll on my massage ball because I found that I get kind of anxious in the morning.

(3:47 - 3:53)

So I do that to feel a little bit better. I have breakfast in my flat with all of the people I'm living with. I walk over here early.

(3:53 - 4:00)

I flyer it if I find that I found some people that are flyerable. Do my show and then I keep flyering. Amazing.

(4:01 - 4:12)

And do you get to see other shows in the venue? I do. So I learned that we get to see any show in whatever venue that we are currently performing in for free. So I have been trying to hit as many shows as possible.

(4:12 - 4:21)

Perfect. Yeah. Do you have any tips for managing burnout and exhaustion while at the Fringe Festival? Oh man, you don't have to be out here all the time.

(4:22 - 4:32)

Go take walks that aren't around the Fringe. Go if you like going for a hike, go for a hike. And I found a bunch of really fun local places to eat too.

(4:32 - 4:37)

So that's been like... Amazing. Away from the hustle and bustle of being over here. Nice.

(4:38 - 4:54)

What do you wish you'd known before you came to Edinburgh? The number of people. I think I just did not... I had no idea what the number of people it was going to feel like once I was here. But really it was all kind of like... It was all new.

(4:54 - 5:18)

So everything was a learning curve, really. What advice would you give to first-timers who are thinking about coming up to the Fringe next year and want to bring a show like you out? Oh man, if you can come with other people, that has been the biggest help to me. I came by myself and met my flatmates and we have all like... Whenever we've had a bad day, we can like plop down with one another and just talk about it.

(5:18 - 5:31)

And being able to have those people to lean on when it's not a place where you're from has been really, really awesome. Can you sum up your Fringe experience in one sentence for me? A wild ride. Amazing.

(5:32 - 5:47)

And finally, where can everyone find you? Social media is your show. Yes, my Instagram is h.b.dubbz. So h.b.dubbz. You can find my show at the Gilded Balloon, Appleton Tower, every day at 1pm. I have no days off, so come and see me.

(5:47 - 5:51)

That is impressive. Amazing, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much.