Amy Harder over at PuppetryLab.com is doing some great work. Puppetry Lab focuses on puppet performance, and to my knowledge, is really the only site out there that has approached the subject full force. There are a few puppetry blogs and static web pages that have briefly discussed performance or puppetry for television and so forth, but none with the resolute determination of actually providing instruction for solid puppeteering technique and performance skills. Puppetry Lab is slowly but surely doing just that.

Personally, I was excited to read in one of Amy’s recent posts, and I quote,

To date, PuppetryLab has primarily focused on puppetry theory and specific movement techniques. But there is so much more to creating a lifelike, believable character than simply the movement of the puppet. If you have excellent puppetry technique but ignore simple acting basics and neglect character development, your audience will not fully engage in your performance and will quickly lose interest.

Puppetry Lab plans to visit and revisit the two subjects - acting basics and character development - as an ongoing project. Both are very important pieces to a memorable performance, whether you are working with a script or improvising.

One thing that I really appreciate about Puppetry Lab is that the tone of the instruction and the site makes it very clear that when you put a puppet on your hand, you become a performer, an actor. Just as a stage or screen actor perfects their performance skills, studies for a particular part, meditates on how to convey certain emotions in certain scenes, develops his character, etc., so should the puppeteer. It’s a process, and the more work that goes into that process, the better the final result or, in this case, performance.

So, bottom line, check out PuppetryLabs.com! You’ll be glad you did.

I have been debating over the last little while about if I should or should not be posting about the things that our own contibutors to Puppet Buzz are doing in the puppetry world. I have come to the realization that some of the stuff they are doing is too great to not post about so I have decided to do it as often as I feel the need to.

Now, I am a huge fan of Project Puppet and the amazing patterns they sell. Well Puppet Buzz’s very own Pasha Romanowski (owner and operator of Project Puppet) has decided to offer his amazing Glorified Sock Puppet Pattern to people who want to sell them. They are now being offered on CD and you can buy them at a “wholesale price” (essentially lower than the rest of the public) and sell them for the commercial price. The result is that you cannot only make some extra cash but you can compliment any number of puppet related activities that you are doing.

For example, I finished doing a puppetry workshop with students a while back and I have toyed with the idea of offering a workshop for adults. This is a great way to offer the participants a truly great pattern and I could walk them through the building process. I would probably include the CD in the price of the workshop, but you have a lot of options with how you are able to offer these CDs.

I think Pasha has done a great service for many puppet builders with his offerings at Project Puppet and this CD is no exception. Great job Pasha, and the design work on the packaging is super incredible!

To find out more, you can visit Pasha’s site or contact him by going here. By the way if you have a chance, check out the new design of his blog.

Enjoy!

Have a seat Kermit. What I’m about to tell you might come as a big shock…

XD

Seen on tumblr©o

It’s a bit crazy, even scary, to imagine a million puppets of all sorts in one place, but that’s the objective of the Million Puppet Project which was launched yesterday (on World Puppetry Day) by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Western Australia. Under the project, people from around the world are invited to make and send a puppet to Perth, WA, to participate in a new Guinness World Record: The World’s Largest Puppet Display! This will be part of the UNIMA 2008: 20th UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival, which is being held in the southern hemisphere for the first time.

If you need a jump-start to make a puppet, there are various simple puppet design templates ready to dowload, or you can strike out on a design all your own. Let your imagination run free! Puppets will not be able to be returned to you, but they will be donated to charities afterwards. And when the display is being finalized in April 2008, you will be able to see the installation in progress via a web cam linked to the site.

Image from: MShades

March 21st is the world puppetry day and as usual some representative from the puppetry world sends an international message through UNIMA…

The nostalgic and the new

Sennosuke Takeda
Born in Iida city in 1930. Worked extensively in marionette theatre on television, in films and on the stage. Ex-member of executive committee of UNIMA , Honorary President of UNIMA JAPAN, Director of the Takeda Memorial International Marionette Museum.

I like to think that Iida City, which has passed on long traditions to subsequent generations and brought them into the modern age, has already become renowned throughout the world. New performing arts, particularly from Europe and America, engulfed Japan, and the unique culture that this island nation had nurtured over the years became like a little boat drifting through a vast storm, and eventually disappearing. Around that time, a large household with exceptional puppeteering skills flourished and developed on Awaji Island, and travelled around the country giving performances. Local landowners gave the puppeteers somewhere to live, and they in turn taught the local people about their craft, leading to the founding of a puppet theatre which still survives today.

In recent years, many of the towns and villages around Iida have been incorporated into that castle city. Theatres for the Kuroda and Imada puppet companies, where they can put on performances whatever the weather, were completed using Japanese architectural techniques, with the help of the city. In the style of the Edo Era, the new Kuroda theatre has a covered stage for the puppet performances, and maintains the tradition of the audience watching from an outdoor amphitheatre. The outstanding feature of the Kuroda puppets is their hair, which is apparently re-tied before every single performance. Personally I think that the hair of the Kuroda puppets is the most beautiful amongst all the varieties of three-puppeteer puppet heads, including bunraku and awaji, and I am filled with admiration every time I see it. I sincerely hope that, whatever else may happen, this hair is protected for ever.

Fifteen years ago I was invited to Iida City, which built the Sennosuke Takeda International Marionette and Puppet Museum in Zakoji, surrounded by the Southern and Central Alps, in a place of natural beauty now rare in Japan.

About forty years ago, a child who I suppose must have been an elementary school student was giving me a concerned look as I watched a performance at the Comadie-Francaise in Paris. Though I was laughing just at the gestures of the performers, the child wanted me to enjoy the dialogue too, and I was deeply touched at this child’s act of kindness. Rather than waiting until they are adults, it is at an early age that we should expose our children to beauty and culture. I continue with my work at the museum in the hope that one day there will be little boys and girls like this in all the puppet theatre cities of the world.

From UNIMA-USA

For those of you who are both puppet and socially minded, there is an upcoming bi-annual puppetry event in Calgary, Alberta, CANADA  called Puppet Power 2007.  The event looks to “explore the power of puppetry beyond performance”.

The idea is to offer different professionals, who have the opportunity to use puppetry in their respected fields, options and opportunties to see how it could realistically apply to what they are already doing.  Some of the professions that will be focused on are ‘helping professionals’ i.e.:- therapists, social workers, teachers, aritsts and students, activists with various NGO’s, grassroots organizations, consultants, human resources professionals and marketing professionals, librarians and researchers.

This event will run from Friday May 25th - Sunday May 27th at the Rozsa Centre - University of Calgary.  The event is being put on by Wendy Passmore and the W.P. Puppet Theatre.  For more information please feel free to contact W.P. Puppet Theatre or go to their webpage for more information here.

If you are in the Calgary area, it is a great opportunity to see how puppetry can be used “beyond entertainment”.

Special Thanks for this article goes to the Spirit Dancing blog.  Ronnie Burkette’s new show: “10 Days on Earth” follows Darrel a middle-aged mentally challenged man who lives with his mother. When she dies in her sleep, Darrel does not realise she is gone, and so, for 10 days, he lives alone. Tandem to Darrel’s day to day routine is the adventures of his favourite children’s book characters, Honeydog and Little Burp. Their search for a home leads the dog and duck to an understanding of family, while Darrel’s ease in the world illustrates just how his mother has paved the path for him to be without her. Spirit Dancing covers their personal account of the show.

Further coverage of this interesting show can be found at TorontoLife.com, which includes a guided “behind the scenes” tour by Ronnie himself.

Check out this show’s remaining schedule HERE
Don’t miss it!

The truth is that I like this song more than I should probably admit. I found it surfing the Internet a little while back. The puppets are built and performed by Michelee Puppets as a part of their “Extreme Health Challange” show. Now, I have never seen their shows and I have just discovered them for the first time, but if their shows are as entertaining as this song I would love to see one. Enjoy. Oh, and don’t try to get the song out of your head for the next few days. The effort is futile.

Want to see a puppet show with great music amazing puppetry and all around quality family entertainment?  Look no further than “Happy Birthday Alistair Ant!” by Alistair Ant Productions here in Toronto, Ontario, CANADA.  This show is performed by husband and wife team Rob and Soli Joy. 

Their shows are amazing. Children 2 - 6 (dare I even say 7?) years old can’t get enough of them. And truth be told, I’ve gone with my wife and my mom without any children and we all had an amazingly fun time.
The special “March Break” show is running from the 11th - 17th at 11 am and 2 pm (at the Solar Stage Childrens Theatre in North York).  For more information or to order tickets you can go here.  Do something fun this March Break, go see the show.

Update: To everyone I am so sorry- I’ve been getting feedback that when you sign the petition that the site then asks for a donation towards their site. When I heard this I immediately emailed the website and stated that I want the account taken off and that it cheapens what I was trying to accomplish- I also deleted all the signatures from those who had signed the petition, but will write a personal apology to you. I really had good intentions when starting this petition and felt that it probably wouldn’t make an impact but there is no harm in trying. If you know of a legitimate petition site, I would be glad to post it once more. Sorry again.

Tom Stewart

Whilst watching Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back and listening to the commentary; George Lucas stated he tried to get Frank Oz recognized for his role as Yoda as Best Supporting Actor in the Academy Awards that year but was denied. My question is if puppeteers are not classified as actors, then why are they required to join the actors unions to perform? I will start a petition to submit to the Academy. I know that it maybe a long shot, but there’s no harm in trying. Please sign (and ask your friends to sign) the petition so puppeteers can be recognized in the Oscars.