UNIMA 2008 Festival Website goes live!

Finally the UNIMA 2008 Festival website goes live today! The festival features some fabulous international productions such as Sofie Krog Teatre in the photo (Denmark) who's production of Diva was one of the highlights when I caught it at a festival in Denmark last year; Polyglot Puppet Theatre & Ilbijerri Theatre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, an Australia production of Headhunter, which is a new Indigenous tale set firmly in the present but one that honours the importance of the past. For all the news and events, keep posted to the new website up here!

Puppet Festival in South Africa

Out of the Box Puppet Festival is once again happening in Cape Town, South Africa. Opening on 10 September, the Out the Box Festival will feature mostly South African talent with groups like Sogo Visual Theatre's Violet rose Bite and The Paper Body Collective's international success La Lobo. For more information check out the website or contact the Festival Director, Janni Younge. If you plan to be in South Africa in September, you shouldn't miss it!

Back to Australia mate...

So it's finally farewell to Hawaii, the American tropical paradise and hello again to Australia, mate! Yesterday we had a hurricane scare. Tropical Hurricane Flossy is headed right this way, but it now looks like the hurricane is slowly breaking up and won't be hitting us with the full force 4 which first threatened yesterday. So it looks like we should make that flight back to Sydney tomorrow morning after all. After six months on the road with our workshops and 'Looking for a Monster' production meetings throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, settling down back in Sydney will be a welcome break from living out of a suitcase!

Traditional Dancing in Honolulu

Aloha from Hawaii. We arrived here on Sunday to be greeted by a festival of traditional Hula dance in Honolulu. It was the 67th ANNUAL NA HULA FESTIVAL. Here we saw the most exquisite traditional dance performed by small children and adults alike. The movement of the dancer's body in rhythm to the slow melody of the Hawaiian steel guitar creates a visual treat, especially to people not used to this art form.

Ballard Museum of Puppetry

On our way up to Boston from New York City, we recently visited the University of Conne-
cticut, where master puppeteer Bart Roccoberton (photo left) is the professor of Puppetry Arts at UCONN. It's become a great centre of puppetry over the years. Another friend of mine from Boston, John Bell (photo centre) has recently been appointed as director of the Frank Ballard Museum of Puppetry and will work with Bart to establish a puppet museum at UCONN on the east coast of the United States.

Los Angeles 1980

It was in 1980 that I performed in a theatrical restaurant called Poppy's Star in Encino in the San Fernando Valley, here in Los Angeles. All the waiters used to perform cabaret, sing and entertain. I was a ventriloquist, seen here with Oscar, all those years ago in LA. Well, yesterday, twenty-seven years later, we drove up from Santa Monica, through Topanga Canyon into the Valley. Up Ventura Boulevard we rode looking for the remnants or building that housed Poppy's Star all those years ago. We found all the landmarks I once knew had been replaced by huge shopping malls and large office blocks. What a different beast Encino is now and it's all happened in the last 27 years. Am I too that different?

Tribute to Russian puppeteer, Igor Fokin

The little statue of a puppet in tribute to beloved Russian puppeteer, Igor Fokin (1960 - 1996) stands in Harvard Square in Cambridge in the heart of downtown Boston. I originally learned about Fokin and his work, when I was given a DVD of a documentary film 'The Puppeteer' by film makers Chris Schmidt and Gary Henoch in Boston two years ago. The story is of the life of a 36 year-old puppeteer, who entertained the crowds nightly on the streets of Boston and one night he suddenly dies of a heart attack. It was truely a moving dedication to a man that touched the lives of all the people on the streets around him! You can even order the DVD here!

Avenue Q opens in San Francisco

As you can see on the poster, Avenue Q finally opens in San Francisco today! Originally conceived as a television series, the show was seen by a producer, who went on to guide it to the theater. It landed on Broadway, and won the theater’s biggest prizes — best musical, best original score and best book for a musical — in 2004.

It had a successful stint in Las Vegas and enjoyed success in London, where audiences, Lopez says, “found it a lot less risque than they thought it would be.” Yes, these are puppets who swear, have sex and deal with messy issues such as racism and unemployment. If you are in the Bay Area and haven't caught Avenue Q yet, it's certainly worth checking out!