Mistelbach Puppet Festival

Greetings from Austria, where I'm here at the 27th International Puppet Festival in Mistelbach. Thus far I haven't seen anything to write home about, although there are a few interesting productions planned for this weekend including One of the UK's leading animators, Stephen Mottram's Organillo and In Suspension, which I'm very much looking forward to seeing! After Mistelbach is the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Vienna, which is running from 28 October to 5 November at the Schauspielhaus in Wien. This festival for adult puppetry is offering some really interesting theatre, including Organillo, as well as a Portugese company Teatro de Marionetas do Porto performing Nada ou o Silencio de Beckett, and a rather bizarre Italian production of Macbeth, which I look forward to imensely. Take a look at the website!

Vienna

After what has been some special family time in London this week, I'm off to Vienna tomorrow. Monday is the first day of my theatre workshops at the Vienna International School, before moving on to the Mistelbach Puppetry Festival on Wednesday, which is somewhere in Austria. Will certainly do some posting about this in the next days, but now seems to be a big rush to get things ready for the continuing journey tomorrow! Keep tuned for more!

That's the way to do it!

On the auspicious ocassion of the first day of Saddam's trial, we discover that a British Punch and Judy man was banned from using Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden puppets in his Kent seaside show this season. Thanet council told Brent Witts to take the characters out of his routine at Viking Bay, Broadstairs, after complaints from members of the public in August. "It was topical - it was a bit of fun, but someone did not care for that," said Mr Witts who cast Saddam and Bin Laden as the show's bogeymen. "We responded to those complaints by asking the puppeteer to remove the puppets," the council said in a statement. A spokeswoman said she was unable to say how many complaints were received. Mr Witts said he put Saddam in the show as the villain who stole Mr Punch's sausages. Osama Bin Laden was cast as the devil. "The devil would come up and say, 'Am I the devil, or do I look a little like Osama Bin Laden?," he said. Mr Punch dispatched the baddies in time-honoured fashion by bashing them with his stick and Mr Witts said most of the audience enjoyed the joke. Punch and Judy has traditionally poked fun at contemporary figures. "They used to have Mussolini in the show - they had Hitler in the show - that is the secret of Punch and Judy, it is topical," said Mr Witts. But Mr Witts said he was keen to get along with the council, which owns his pitch, and got rid of the characters when asked.
Is that the way to do it?

Silkeborg International Puppetry Festival in Denmark

Frankenstein by Australian puppeteer, Neville Tranter of Stuffed Puppet Theatre, in Holland opens the SILKEBORG PUPPET THEATRE FESTIVAL, the leading European puppetry festival this year in Denmark from 10 to 13 November. The programme is a remarkable collection of the best puppetry from Europe. Gioco Vita's Firebird is a dance and shadow puppet theatre performance based on Russian folk tales. The Italian Teatro Gioco Vita is one of the most notable international shadow puppet theatre groups. The theatre has produced many incredible productions with shadow puppets. The Foreman Brothers from Prague are another landmark in European theatre. Their production The Baroque Opera builds upon a classical Czech opera about a controversy between an entrepreneur and the workers during the building of a chimney. Tranter is also presenting a masterclass which focuses on the ultimate consequences in the dramatic dialogue between puppet and the manipulator and between the puppet and the actor. I'll be flying in from Poland and hope to see you there!

Swiss International Puppetry Festival

The Eleventh International Puppetry Week will be held in Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, from 11 to 20 November 2005. This year's festival features both adult and children's productions from as far afield as Iceland, France, the United States, Russia, Peru, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. The quality of productions looks excellent, from the visuals presented. For more information, click here, but beware it's in French, so maybe email: info@festival-marionnettes.ch

Q Update

The post last week about Avenue Q's London opening is confirmed for February 2006. Theatre Royal Stratford East announced via Whatsonstage.com that it would host the hotly anticipated British premiere of Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. The show was due to have an eight-week season at the east London landmark starting in February 2006 ahead of a planned West End transfer care of co-producer Cameron Mackintosh; audition advertisements were placed in the trade press following that schedule. But plans have now changed. According to the Stratford East press office: "Avenue Q, which is being produced by Cameron Mackintosh Ltd in Association with the Theatre Royal Stratford East and The Producing Office in New York, will now open directly in the West End. Due to the high additional cost of producing the show in two separate venues, all the producers have concluded that, in the current climate, this is no longer practical. The Theatre Royal Stratford East will nevertheless continue to play an important role in the creative development of the show."
Avenue Q video clips are once again up and running so you can check these out here!

Another weekend in Stratford

The second bunch of ISTA Workshops in Stratford upon Avon this weekend was incredible. What's so wonderful is the reaction to the workshops by the international students and their teachers, both here in the United Kingdom and in the States before this! I'm here in London for another week, before starting the European leg of my adventure which starts next Sunday in Vienna, then the Mistelbach Puppet Festival, followed by Poland and Denmark thereafter. And that's just for starters... so it's an exiting continuation of the journey!
More news to follow, so stay tuned...

'Puppets and Politics' tonight at The Puppet Centre in London

Tonight (Tuesday) about 7pm, after the British UNIMA AGM at The Puppet Centre, Battersea Arts in Lavender Hill, London, I'm giving a presentation on 'Puppetry and Politics' so if you are in London and can make it, then do pop along... The closest railway station is Clapham Junction, then you walk up the hill to Battersea Arts Centre and it's there!

Hey London! Avenue Q is coming...

Watch out West End! Rumours report that Avenue Q is on its way. Avenue Q is the adult puppet musical satire, based loosely on Sesame Street. Ooops, did I say that? Rumours News Agency, in London, reports that Avenue Q is currently casting for an imminent opening here, after playing two successful years on Broadway and a recent opening in Las Vegas in September. I had the pleasure of seeing the outrageous Avenue Q on Broadway a few weeks ago and was delighted by the introduction of puppetry into the popular culture. It is exactly what we need to get puppetry accepted as popular adult entertainment and its bound to do for adults what Sesame Street has done for children. Sydney, watch out, you could be next!
"Everyone's a little bit racist, sometimes. Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes. Look around and you will find, no one's really color blind. Maybe it's a fact, we all should face, everyone makes judgments.. based on race." (Avenue Q)

Fire destroys Wallace and Gromit in UK

It's just been reported here in London that a massive fire has wiped out the home of cult puppet characters, Wallace and Gromit in Bristol early today. The fire at Aardman Animation warehouse is believed to have destroyed all the company's props, sets and puppet characters. This blow comes at the time when their new feature film 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is topping the US box office charts and is about to open in the UK this week! Aardman director, animator Nick Park is reported to have said that after the terrible earthquake in Pakistan, this fire is "no big deal". More news here!

Stratford Upon Avon

The Bard himself (Mr Shakespeare) wasn't there this weekend, but many others were. From every corner of the globe they came to the small town of Stratford upon Avon, about two hours in the train, north of London. The International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) series of workshops for drama teachers and their students is held each year and attracts a talented bunch of creatives from international schools as far afield as Moroco, Texas and Denmark. The workshops take place over two long-weekends and the first is now over. I introduced puppetry to the groups through Paper Meditation and Object Improvisation workshops, which were really well accepted and also held an introductory lecture on puppetry. (See article on workshops below!) The next weekend session begins on Friday in Stratford.

Paper Meditation Workshops

The Paper Meditation workshops are an effective tool to help participants find their hidden creativity and rid them of their fear of being wrong or not being able to achieve something! We start in the darkness exploring a sheet of brown paper, removing their sense of vision. This serves to both stop the participants from judging each other and especially themselves. The first learn to explore the sence of touch, sound, noise and taste of the paper. They are later divided up into small groups and get to explore the movement and performance possibilities of the paper by creating a short scenario, without words to express a certain emotion, thought or concept. The then create puppets, sets and props, all with the brown paper in which to perform their pieces. The group dynamic is usually strong and feedback positive. You can't ever be wrong when doing such creative work!

So long 'Land of Contrasts'!

After an incredible month in the United States, I fly to the England tomorow night, where I start a series of puppetry workshops in Stratford-uopn-Avon. It's been a full month of lectures, workshops and meetings, where I've got to meet a lot of generous people and wonderful puppeteers. I will miss this land of huge political and social contrasts, but hope to be back here soon!

Animation Big Time!

Aardman Animations' Wallace and Gromit's new movie The Curse of the Were-Rabbit opens in movie theatres on Friday. They have an amaising website with a preview and many other features to check out! The new Henson's film MIRRORMASK has also just hit the streets in the US, but due to the Jewish New Year and flying immediastely afterwards to London for my Stratford-upon-Avon workshops, I won't see it here. I would like to take this opportunity in wishing all Jewish readers a happy, peaceful and healthy new year!

Boston presentation tomorrow

A gorgious autumn day in Boston today and I'm in a creative mood! Tomorow I am giving a presentation on Puppetry for Social Change at the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Boston at 5pm. If you can make it, please pop along. Click here for details!
Adrian Kohler of Handsping Puppet Company just sent through the details of their Tall Horse US tour. They are: BAM, Brooklyn 3 - 8 October at 7.30pm; Pitsburgh Byham Theatre on October 14 & 15 8.00pm; Ann Arbor University of Michigan Musical Society Theatre October 19, 20, 21, 22 8.00pm; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill November 5, at 8.00pm & 6 th at 3.00pm and Kennedy Centre, Washington DC - November 11, 12. For more info see their website!