The People Reimagining ‘Spirited Away’ With Puppets

“Everyone Who Made This Happen” takes a look at the outsize teams of artists and creative types it often takes to produce a single work.

Number of people involved: Around 70, including 30 performers.

Time from conception to opening night: Four years and three months.

There was never any doubt as to whether the director John Caird’s stage adaptation of “Spirited Away” would incorporate puppets. They were part of his original pitch to Hayao Miyazaki, the writer and director of the beloved 2001 animated film, in which the heroine, Chihiro, and her parents are transported to another world populated by a colorful cast of Japanese spirits and gods. The questions were, which characters should be puppets, and how would they look and work? Toby Olié, 39, the show’s puppetry designer and director, sketched some initial ideas. Then, in 2021, he and Caird; Caird’s co-adapter and wife, Maoko Imai; the set designer Jon Bausor; and six performer-puppeteers held a two-week workshop in a church hall in East London, during which they explored staging with foam and cardboard prototypes.