Barking Spider launches new show

Opening in Melbourne, Australia tomorrow is a brand new production by Barking Spider.

“Dispatch” is about a puppet character 'Sorrel' a little girl who has died and is unable to realise it.
“Dispatch” is ethereal and timeless in feel. A single narrative line is peppered with weaving mini-narratives that are born of each suitcase as Sorrel discovers them. “Dispatch” runs for approximately one hour and is suitable for teen and adult audiences.

This contemporary and ethereal puppet theatre work, written and directed by Penelope Bartlau, is performed by Bartlau and Justine Warner. The production runs from tomorrow, Tuesday to Sunday 7 February at 8pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 4pm.
The Venue: 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Bookings: (03) 9662 9966 or www.fortyfivedownstairs.com.au

Puppetry for Television Course films

Last week saw the completion our January 2010 'Puppetry for Television and Web Course' at the Wesley Institute in Sydney. Our talented participants ended their course by completing two short films, My Fur Lady and Baby-Faced Thugs. (Click on them to view)

The films were made and edited as the culmination of a intensive two-week course, during which nine newcomers to the industry were introduced to all aspects of puppetry for TV and the Web, including puppet building, improvisation, performance for the camera, story-boarding and producing a short film in a team.

I also put together a short piece on Behind the Scenes at the course, which shows the making of the two short films. You can take a look at this short film here.

Puppetry Course - Day Five

New Year launch of International Puppetry Course in Sydney

Welcome to 2010. I trust this will be our best puppetry year ever! We have started our year on a very positive note with the inauguration of our two-week International Puppetry for TV and Web Course in Sydney today. We have ten new students from both Europe and Australia and today began with some warm-up yoga, naked hand and ball exercises in the mirror to develop eye focus and lip-sync and foam puppet building techniques.

Keep posted for the films from our brilliant new students which will be posted here on 15 January, after the completion of the course .

Xmas in Africa

Hello again from Africa, where we are hiding out until after Xmas. We will be visiting friends in Cape Town next week. I'm planning to be back in Australia in late-December to make the final preparations for our 2010 International Puppetry for TV and the Web Course starting in Sydney on 4 January.

We are, once again, planning a European and Middle East Workshop Tour in April till June next year. We already have many bookings for our 'World of Paper' and 'Object Workshops' throughout Europe and it looks like another exciting journey ahead, except this time we have our young passenger, Idan, in-tow.

May we take this opportunity of wishing you all a peaceful and safe holiday season. We look forward to having you on-board for an action-packed 2010.

Away..

My dear friends and puppetry fans,

It's been a really difficult week for us. My wife's beloved brother, Daniel died suddenly in a Scuba Diving accident outside Johannesburg. We are flying off to be with the family in South Africa tomorrow. So if you don't hear any news from Puppetry News for the next few weeks, please hang in there and I'll be back in Sydney to prepare for the International Puppetry for TV and the Web Course in late-December. We will be in touch again as soon as possible. Our love and seasons greetings to you all! Gary

New Bohemian Muppet Clip

The Muppets have come a long way since the show's inception in 1976. Could Jim Henson have imagined that a new Muppet viral 'Bohemian Rhapsody' would have had twelve thousand hits in two days? Even though we expect the violence order to be taken out against Animal in this poetic rendition of Queen, it never happens and the audience are not even disappointed. There are even rumours today that The Muppets will be appearing on the US TV show 'Dancing with The Stars' next Tuesday, so keep tuned!
The Muppets Studio channel can be found on You Tube here!

Sesame Street turns 40

Over the past week, Sesame Street has been congratulated all over the net for it's 40th anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been forty years, since that day in 1969, when its founder Joan Cooney introduced Sesame Street to the world. In 1998, Joan Cooney conducted a fascinating 9-part interview series about Sesame Street, which is now hosted on You Tube. Check it out here!
Big Bird featured in a US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. You can catch it here!
You can even find the Sesame Street characters embedded all over the Google search engine logo over the past week. Even US First Lady Michelle Obama took Elmo on a walk through Sesame Street recently - here! Happy 40th Birthday Sesame Street!

Short residence available for puppeteer in Montreal

An opportunity is on offer for a foreign puppeteer to become artist-in-residence and create a new childrens' puppetry production in Montreal, Canada from 25 April to 15 May 2010. The scholarship will favour a puppeteer, having had more than five years professional experience, wishing to work in collaboration with artists in Quebec. They must have a working knowledge of French. The closing date for entries in 1 November 2009. If you are interested, you should contact Myriane Demers at the Petits Bonheurs Festival here or download the information from their website here!

Where the Wild Ones are built

Why was I the last person to find out that newly released adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic 1963 children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are was filmed in the beautiful, rugged landscape of southern Australia.

What I also didn't know was that the Jim Henson Creature Shop created elaborate full-body Wild-Things suits of otherworldly, grotesque beauty. Computer imagery was only brought in as a final veneer, to animate the creatures’ faces. But to see Henson’s monsters romp around with Max on screen is to feel the heft of their bodies and the heat of their breath.

However you feel about Spike Jonze’s treatment of Where the Wild Things Are, you can’t be anything but dazzled by the way he and his team brought Maurice Sendak’s beasts to life. Often choosing the path of most resistance—the film took six years to make, after all—director Spike Jonze opted not to rely solely on computer graphics to render the Wild Things. However advanced C.G.I. technology has become, it simply wouldn’t have looked substantial enough to recreate those terrible teeth and those terrible claws. Spike Jonze directed his first movie, Being John Malkovich, in 1999. I can't wait to see it!
You can read the full article here!