The powerful tale of Anne Frank with puppets

It is quite extraordinary what a powerful role the puppet can play in telling a difficult story, even a well-read piece of history like Anne Frank. During the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands in 1942 to 1944, the Frank family were in hiding in a secret loft in Amsterdam, which is now one of the most frequently visited places in the world. Frank became the eyes of the Holocaust, witnessed by this young Jewish child.

The Centre for Puppetry Arts has produced a powerful piece of theatre. But Bobby Box, the creator of "Anne Frank: Within & Without" believed that puppets could bring new depth and perspective to the wartime memoir. Theatergoers apparently agree. Mr. Box's new version, which opened last week at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, USA, has been playing to sold-out crowds. The show has been so successful that the center is considering touring the production. Check it out here!

My Puppet Master - Honza Dvorak

The sad news is the passing of our dear puppet master and friend - puppeteer, director and honorary member of UNIMA, Jan Dvořák , in the Czech Republic on 16 January. I recently wrote an article, Tribute to a Czech Puppet Master, on the occassion of Honza's 80th birthday.

Dvořák can also be found at the roots of many famous theatre productions in the field of modern Czech puppetry. When Josef Skupa was still alive, Dvořák was one of the members of the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre and was one of the initiators of the young group, Salamandr in this theatre. He later became director of the legendary DRAK Theatre, where he worked for many years, producing incredible puppet theatre, throughout Europe and around the world.

For several years, Dvořák was an excellent pedagogue at the puppet theatre academy in Prague, and worked as one of the first pedagogues in the International Puppetry Institute in Charleville Mézieres. He realised his first exhibit at the Museum of Puppet Culture in Chrudim, and was an indispensable lector of a series of seminars for amateur puppeteers. He is a superb technician, artist, author, designer and director, and has educated many of the Czech Republic’s finest puppeteers, as well as instructed pupils from countries such as Germany, Bulgaria, Norway, Canada and South Africa. All his students, friends and co-workers remember him as the initiator of several significant puppet theatre projects, such as the first international project after 1945 “Janošík”, where he united puppet theatres from Czechoslovakia and Poland. Honza will be sadly missed by his family, friends and the entire world of puppetry!

The Travellers bound for Australia

It felt like the meeting between Fellini, Beckett and Puppetry School in Charleville-Mezieres, The Travellers is a visual theatre production which presents the darker underbelly of the Circus World, a view not always seen outside the intimate circus family. Using cartoon-like dialogue, the manipulative alcoholic MC-mother character, played by Toni Morkel, presents her twin 'off-spring' - Irving, masterfully played by Daniel Buckland and Iris, by Shelley Meskin, live on stage in her Frost Family Theatricals.

When not performing, the twins are constantly prized apart from each other's grip and told 'it's not natural' by their 'mother', but we soon realise that there's more to this relationship than meets the eye. The use of puppetry, visual theatre, mime and music give this production a naive charm which makes its appeal wide and the MC's own words "I can smell an audience" should keep the audience flocking to see this production in South Africa, Australia and wherever The Travellers might roam.

The Travellers opened this week at The Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. It all began at the South African Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July 2005, followed by a run at the Wits Theatre in Johannesburg. The director, Jacques Lecoq Theatre School graduate, Sylvaine Strike, is the recent winner of the Standard Bank 2006 Young Artist Award for Drama. Her latest play, The Travellers, is a miniature journey of astounding theatrical magnitude. Strike is an award-winning actress, producer, director and creator of such gems as Baobabs Don’t Grow Here and Black and Blue. The Travellers was the hit of the fringe at the 2005 National Arts Festival, where it was promptly invited to the Adelaide Fringe in Australia. The Cape Times called it "a little masterpiece,” while the Cape Argus said it was “a tour de force of image and minimalism,” and The Star described it as “stunningly inventive.” For information of their international schedule, contact the director, Sylvaine Strike.

Single White Farmer

A short film "Single White Farmer", starring Australian actor, Barry Otto, is a charming film about an eccentric farmer who is looking for love. It is to be shot at the end of January on location in Windsor in Sydney, Australia. It will be using actors, puppets and some CG. Although there is no fee for the production, it will be completely professional . They are looking for puppeteers who have had experience or training in Film and Television. Interested puppeteers should contact Fiona Gentle as soon as possible!

Tribute to Jacques Felix, Puppet Master and Friend

Word has just been received that a dear friend of world puppetry, long serving UNIMA general-secretary, Jacques Felix, passed away on 6 January in Charleville-Mezieres, France. Born in 1924, Jacques Felix started the French puppetry group ' Les Petite Comediens de Chifons' in 1945, in which he was involved for most of his life.

"Charleville is Mecque of the marionettists, a place of saint pilgrimage" wrote the artist Alvaro Apolcalypse in the book published in 1991 to celebrate the thirty years of the World Festival of the Puppet Theatre in Charleville-Mezieres. This is all due to Jacques Felix. It was he, who started what was to become the world's greatest and most popular Puppet Theatre Festival, in Charleville-Mezieres in 1961.

My first contact with Jacques was in 1981, when I studied at the 'Institute International de la Marionnettes'. I arrived in France, not being able to speak a word of French, (at that time), and was immediately taken under the wing of Jacques Felix for the next six years, of what became my professional puppetry studies in France.

My most vivid memory of Jacques was an incident in 1984, long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, when we flew together from France to Germany. We had to pass through the infamous Checkpoint Charlie (that divide between east and west Berlin) on our way to the World UNIMA Puppetry Congress in Dresden. Having just arrived from South Africa, I had no visa or permission as a South African to enter East Germany. This was during Apartheid when there was no relationship between Apartheid South Africa and the 'so-called Eastern Block'. It was a rather disturning experience for me, but Jacques helped to facilitate an official invitation and all the difficulties surrounding my visit were soon forgotton.

Jacques Felix lived puppetry all his life and was encompassed by this art. "It is my passion to create something out of nothing. From a piece of rag or wood, one creates a history. It is an art of the street, a complete art which brings together the théatre, the dance and the visual arts." It is difficult to live by it, "but it is like all the trades, there are the rich and the poor". Courier International

The modern puppetry world owes much to Jacques Felix, which through his dedicated work as General Secretary of UNIMA, his international festivals and writings, has made huge progress towards the internationalisation of our popular art.

A memorial ceremony will be held for Jacques Felix on Tuesday 10 January at the Institute International de la Marionnettes in Charleville-Mezieres, France. For further information, contact Compangnie Arketal in France!

Puppetry for Good Governance in Africa

In the early nineties, I was invited to set up an educational puppetry program in Kenya to train local puppeteers in putting together East African 'Puppets Against Aids' teams. Over a period of eight years, our organisation held workshops reinforcing the programme, which soon numbered over 400 puppeteers, spread throughout the region.

The Family Planning Private Sector (FPPS) programme Community Health Awareness Puppeteers (CHAPS) insists that the puppeteers it trains are community-based. Over 480 puppeteers have been trained since 1994. More than 48 CHAPS puppet troupes have been based in urban and rural communities all over Kenya. Their original and community-tailored scripts reflect local custom, belief and rumour and are performed in the local language. Soul Beat Africa published the story today. See here!
It has just been confirmed that the next Internatonal Puppet Theatre Ferstival in Kenya will take place in Nairobi from 14 to 21 October 2006.

New Year in Cape Town...

Life will never be the same, spending New Year in Cape Town, skinny dipping in an indoor pool, at a party high up in the hills above the city. And 2006 has only just begun! It feels like another action packed year full of travel and puppetry events is about to take place, not only in Australia, but once again across the globe. There's just so much happening out there. Let's see what lies in store for us in 2006 - there's the 2nd National Puppet Summit in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) from 9 -12 June, followed closely by the PSI#12 Conference in London, UK from 15 - 18 June. The conference, dedicated to Performing Rights will gather artists, activists and academics for a festival of creative and critical dialogues investigating the relationships between human rights and performance. They are linking human rights and performance because of the significance of human rights in a time of war and globalisation, and because of the bold claims made for performance as a way of understanding the world.

There's, of course, the big 14th World Festival in Charleville-Mezieres, once again in September focusing on the Mediterranean; there's also a scheduled festival in Kenya in October, although it hasn't officially yet been confirmed, and a lot more, so keep checking for regular events and updates in this brand new year! Happy New Year...