BLACKBERRY WINTER

At New Repertory Theatre, Watertown, through April 17.

Tickets $40-$55. 617-923-8487, www.newrep.org.

WATERTOWN — Director Bridget Kathleen O’Leary hesitantly demonstrates a colorful shadow puppet — a mole digging its way through bits of golden dust — that is part of the storytelling in “Blackberry Winter.’’

“I’m not really a puppet person,’’ she says during a rehearsal break for the play, which is being presented at New Repertory Theatre as part of the National New Play Network’s rolling world premiere. “But when I read ‘Blackberry Winter,’ I found playwright Steve Yockey’s blend of the everyday with magical elements fascinating and was eager to make it work.’’

In the play, which takes its title from the Southern and Midwestern term for a cold snap that occurs in late spring, a woman named Vivienne is coming to terms with her mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease. As she struggles to get a handle on how to stay in control of a situation for which she is unprepared, Vivienne escapes from the pressure by imagining a fable, acted out onstage with the help of shadow puppets.

“I think what I love about Yockey’s writing is that he challenges us to look at things differently,’’ says O’Leary. “Alzheimer’s disease is the red herring. The play is really about care-giving and learning to allow the space for things to change.’’

On New Rep’s rehearsal stage, actress Adrianne Krstansky, who plays Vivienne, moves around an area punctuated by pedestals, each holding one ordinary household object. As she selects an item — a red marker, an iron, a trowel — and builds a story around it, these ordinary objects provide a kind of comfort and reassurance, Krstansky says.

“Vivienne is very meticulous,’’ says Krstansky. “She likes the precision of tasks like baking, of knowing the role each ingredient must play to make a successful cake.’’

In fact, she says, “Each object feels like an idea. They become the motor that moves the story forward.’’

But when the facts and details start to overwhelm her, Vivienne develops her “origin myth’’ to try to understand what’s happening.

“I think this myth becomes the heart and soul of the story,’’ says O’Leary. “It allows her to say things that she can’t say in her practical, responsible world.’’

In Vivienne’s tale, two narrators recount the story of a White Egret (Paula Langton) who tries to preserve the memories of all the animals in the forest by burying them in a box in the ground, while a Gray Mole (Ken Cheeseman), digging as he always does, releases the memories so they are lost. As the narrators speak, the movement of the animals is represented by colorful overhead-projector shadow puppets.

O’Leary and her production team spent time at the Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline to learn about different styles of puppetry, finally choosing this style to illustrate Vivienne’s tale. O’Leary says the script doesn’t specify if the action should be portrayed by puppets or animation, but she felt the mechanics needed to be seen.

“The puppeteers and the actors are in the scene together,’’ she says. “It’s important that they listen to each other, even if they don’t exactly interact. It’s been a great opportunity to stretch myself as a director and learn how to integrate these puppets into Vivienne’s storytelling.’’

While Krstansky dominates the stage, she says the other main character is the audience.

“They are my scene partners,’’ she says. “Part of my job is to engage them in this world I am living and creating it. There’s a wonderful vulnerability Vivienne lets us see when she shares this myth,’’ says Krstansky.

“I think the transitions from Vivienne and her realistic, everyday objects to the magical forest setting allow her a moment to breathe,’’ says O’Leary. “It allows her to admit that it’s OK to have this be about herself. It’s OK to breathe.’’

BLACKBERRY WINTER

At New Repertory Theatre, Watertown, through April 17. Tickets $40-$55. 617-923-8487, www.newrep.org.

Terry Byrne can be reached at trbyrne@aol.com.