I just received and email from some amazingly talented performers in Toronto.  Rob and Soli Joy are truly exceptional and I was very happy to see that they have launched their new website (which looks great by the way).  My family was also invited to their CD launch party for their newest CD called “Happy Birthday, Alistair Ant!” .  We will be there, and being that it is almost my son’s birthday I am sure it will be all the more special for him.

 Date and Time:  Sunday, November 11th, 2007 @ 11:00 am and 3:00 pm (This Sunday!!!)

Location:  The Berkeley Heritage Event Venue (315 Queen Street East)

 Cost:  $18 in advance and $19 at the door

If you are in Toronto this Sunday, I highly encourage you to drop by to see their show.  If you have young children then it is not to be missed.  For more information visit their website here.

This is your last chance to enter your puppet in The Once Upon a Puppet Contest!  The dealine is tomorrow, so finish those noses, arms and eyes.  Get those puppets in you guys (and gals)!  Hey, I’m a poet!  Don’t be late.  I am looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

After coming back from the Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte, Ontario, I have been rejuvinated in my puppet passion and I have decided to write about some of the acts (and people) that I have enjoyed.  When the festival first started (three years ago) I was asked to help out doing puppetry improv from the balcony.  I agreed and did some puppetry on the balcony for maybe two or three 20 minute stints.  I can tell you it is hard work. 

 Talking for 20 minutes is challenging enough, but in the direct sun too, now that was hard.  But that is nothing compared to the other people who helped out.  One of those people is Jamie Douglas.  The truth is that he along with Will Richardson and Allan Martin, ended up being in the hot sun a lot longer than me. 

There is a great video interview of Jamie Douglas talking about The Balcony Puppeteers on the MuppetCast website here. The acts were a hit and before you knew it, they became their own puppetry team.  The are called “The Balcony Puppeteers“, and what is great is that the passion that these individuals have becomes infectious.  They are all super entertainers and have the ability to do it in the hot sun for rediculous amounts of time.  After my short stint on that balcony I have a huge amount of respect for the stamina it takes and for them as performers. 

I am happy that I was able to meet these guys and I encourage anyone visiting the Puppets Up! Festival to pull up a chair and watch them in action.

Many of the puppeteers that are part of the online community are involved in Christian ministries. For those who fall under this category, the Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers is hosting their annual conference at Winthrop University in South Carolina on July 23-27. Anyone in the area may find this an educational opportunity to refine your puppetry skills, learn new skills or perhaps gain encouragement and inspiration for your ministry as you use this powerful medium. Information and registration is available here.

A funny thing happend to me at work today.  Sitting at a table was a very nice woman with a set up for a shadow puppet performance and a selection of puppets.  After speaking to her for a short time I was surprised to find out that she was Anne Barber of Shadowland Theatre here in Toronto.

We spoke a bit and I mentioned something that she is involved in.  As a result it reminded me to post about it.  It is called Fresh Ideas In Puppetry and it is being hosted by Puppetmongers’ Toronto School of Puppetry.  It is a one day conference and includes some pretty great puppeteers, including Ronnie Burkett and Trish Leeper among others.  If you are interested in going, space is limited so sign up soon.  You can read more about the event here.

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”.

April 2008 will mark UNIMA’s 20th Congress and World Puppetry Festival. The folks at SpareParts Puppets in Australia have posted the promotional video. The festival will be held in Perth and showcase acts from all over the world. If you are interested…they are still searching for Performers. Check out the video HERE!

There has long been the debate as to whether stop motion animation is puppetry. I will not get into that here. No, I have no time for that debate because I am fixated on this unbelievably wonderful stop motion “puppet”.

The creation of artist Mark Ho from the Netherlands. I have a strong admiration for the design and creation of puppets with a strong focus on detail and precision. It is not hard to understand why I would love this puppet.

Even the contrasting colours of the puppet sculpture has an amazing beauty to it. I hope that others can find inspiration from Mark Ho and continue to challenge themselves to make their puppets, more that just glue, foam and fabric.

I remember while in university that my art teacher once said, “Art is not just execution, but it is also intention.”

If you build your puppets as works of art, putting a bit of yourself into them, focusing your energy, if you have something inside you that you want to get out……..it will show in your final product.

Happy building everyone.

When I first started looking into puppetry seriously about six years ago, I came across a local organization called the OPA (Ontario Puppetry Association). They are an organization that supports puppetry and people involved in puppetry throughout the province of Ontario (Canada). It is a great way for any aspiring puppeteer, puppet builder or puppet enthusiast to make connections with reputable puppet people in Ontario.

For anyone interested, they are having their annual general meeting this November.