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.

I was fortunate enough to run across this very cool puppet project that proposes to teach kids a variety of educational concepts using puppets and rap music called The Kids Block.  Now I have seen many show ideas that have tried to use this approach and have failed.  One of the biggest strikes against other show concepts is that the rap music has clearly been a secondary consideration and is often written and produced by artists that are trying to use a very unappealing style of rap (let’s call it “bubblegum rap“) to appeal to children.  Now the truth as I see it is that children who like rap know the difference between good rap and poor rap.  Up until now it has been the latter.  The Kids Block has made sure that the rap music is well produced and appealing by having the songs created by Poke and Tone of Track Masters.  If you don’t know who they are you probably know one of the amazing artists they have helped make successful.

I think that the potential of this project is quite high and the production quality of the pilot (specifically the 3D graphics) are nothing short of awesome:  the website is fantastic too.  I do have my personal opinions on some of the things that I hope they focus on in the future.  One thing is that a unique property like The Kids Block should have unique puppets.  They have opted to go with cookie cutter puppets from Puppet Productions called Innova puppets.  Don’t get me wrong the puppets are basically fine (and I am sure they chose to do this based on costs, seeing as how each puppet costs under $200) but I hope that if/when the show gets picked up that they decided to make each character more original.  With a wealth of puppet building talent in New York (in North America even) there are tons of builders to choose from.

My second observation is on the puppeteering (you can see the promo video on You Tube here).  I don’t have anything bad to say about it, but there are a few things that I would like to see addressed.  The first is the puppet’s eyelines are usually off and this makes the characters less believeable in my opinion.  The second is the lifting of the puppet’s heads when they are talking.  This is a basic puppeteering no-no and I would like to see that be corrected to add to the believeablity of the puppets.  And finally, I wanted to address the use/over use of the puppet’s arms when they talk and sing.  I am sure that it might seem more animated and lively to move the puppet’s arms around to a wonderful lively rap song, but the impression I am left with is that this character is not as beliveable as it could be. I feel that one of the reasons that Sesame Street (among other shows) were so successful, was that the puppets were beliveable as characters.  They were not pieces of fabric that were shaken at the screen, but rather seemingly real people.  With some minor tweeking, in my opinion this property has a very good chance of making it to television screens.

You can read more about the project here and here.

Look for the DVD to come out in February of 2007 and the plan is to get it on television from there.

Great job to all involved!

Last friday, the 18th of February, Avenue Q had it’s Scandinavian premiere in Stockholm. I haven’t seen it myself yet but I am really looking forward to it.  The puppets were created by Effektstudion, a company that specialized in special effects, puppets, animatronix etc.  For those of you that are curious about the puppets, please check this interview with Jacob Stadell, one of the lead actors. It’s in Swedish, so you might not understand it all, but I think it may be fun to see anyway. The hostess introduces the show with the wrong title, Avenue X, but Princeton corrects her later.

To see pictures of the puppets visit this site.

I actually knew about this show when it was being filmed last summer, but I only had a chance to see a few episodes last weekend.  Wilbur is the newest puppet show that has been added to the CBC lineup.

The series is intended to teach 2- to 4- year-olds about reading and uses a combination of puppetry, 3D backgrounds and 2D animation.  The show actually uses “Shadowmation” the same technique that is used for “It’s A Big Big World“.

The puppets are really cool Bunraku style puppets that are performed by three puppeteers (per puppet) in blue outfits in front of blue screens.  The blue is later erased and a 3D environment is put in during post production.

I really liked the animation for this show.  Each episode has at least one story that is read and children have an opportunity to retell the story in their own words.  If you would like to see the show check out CBC’s current show schedule.

 

Carmelo Hernando has posted a new video trailer entitled “Isn’t All Play” on YouTube. We’ve mentioned Carmelo and El Gran Teatro de Maese Travieso before in this previous post.

Check out Carmelo’s website at www.hernandoshideaway.es.

Thanks for using the buzzline to keep us updated, Carmelo!

I was looking at the local newspaper the other day and I found an ad for a wonderful adult oriented puppetry show.  It is called Cabaret U-Mano and from some of the clips I have seen it looks amazing.  I don’t have much time to go out and do fun things these days, but I am going to try to make it a point to see this show.  The show runs from January 16th to February 18th, 2007. 

For ticket information go to Diesel Playhouse or call 416-971-5656.

Mike Harding (Chief Puppeteer) at Applefun Puppetry has listed his new schedule. If you are in the Toronto area, I recommend bringing the kids and checking out one of his shows.

Check out Applefun Puppetry Schedule HERE

I know this is very last minute but for anyone in the Greater Toronto Ontario Area (Canada), the Puppetmongers will be showing Cinderella In muddy York at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space in Toronto. Here is the information I received from them.

“Monday the First of January 2007 is tomorrow (or today already) and the last chance to see Cinderella in Muddy York at the Tarragon Theatre.

30 Bridgman Ave., (on Howland, 1 block north of Dupont)

And Monday at 2:30 p.m. is our Annual New Year’s Day Gala Performance, which means you get the wonderful show plus a tea party afterwards, on a day when there’s really nothing else to do…

All tickets are $25, and you receive a charitable tax receipt for $10!

Contact the Tarragon Box Office at 416-531-1827 to reserve now”

Anyone who has visited Prague will probably have seen these puppets on the Charles Bridge. The Boretcheque Marionette Theatre consists of Josef Borek, his wife Jana and their son Petr. At least one them can be seen performing on the Bridge most days during the tourist season.

The marionettes play along to classical music by Bach, Mozart, Gershwin and more. My favourite character is the guitar playing clown pictured above.

Until you make it to prague you can see short video clips of their performances on their website -
http://www.boreczech.com/en/index.htm

Ontario, Canada’s Applefun Puppetry has been around since 1997. Mike Harding- Chief Puppeteer, has been building puppets since the 1980’s. Applefun Puppetry has posted schedules for it’s first 2007 dates. If you’re in the area, bring your kids and check out a fabulous show.

Some of the following shows may require the purchase of tickets. For more information please contact the venue.

Monday, December 4, 2006 at 7:30 PM as part of Thistletown Community Centre’s Tree Lighting Ceremony, 925 Albion Road, Etobicoke.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 10:00 AM at Tansley Woods Public Library, 1996 Itabashi Way, Burlington. Show: Robin Hood.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 2:00 PM at Burlington Central Public Library, 2331 New Street, Burlington. Show: Robin Hood.

Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 10:30 AM at Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk Street, Guelph. Show: Little Red Rocket Ship.