Australia's top comedians in TV Puppetry Course

Jon Williams from the Australian improv and sketch comedy team 'Barrel of Monkeys' (left) and Jordan Raskopoulos from the new comedy-rock group 'The Axis of Awesome' (right), two of Australia's top improvisation comedians and winners of Theatre Sports 2008 National Championships are amongst the latest participants in the 'Puppetry for Film and Television' Course in Sydney. Keep tuned and watch their progress here!

Puppetry for TV course opens in Sydney

Our 'Puppetry for Film and TV' courses has been launched at the Wesley Institute for the Arts in Sydney, Australia. Last night our new puppetry students began the design and building of their first foam puppets. The eight-week journey takes the student through the process from the initial concept, through to the design and building of the puppet, conceiving short scenarios and performing and directing for the camera. Our courses are run in the evenings and are specifically designed as an introduction to puppetry for television or people interested in exploring this unique creative medium for video, television or the internet. Keep watching this space and we'll keep you posted on the students' performance work!
Another course is planned in June/July 2008. If anyone is interested in participating or more information, then contact me here!

Eric Bass comes to Oz

An eight-week puppet theatre intensive course by US Master- puppeteer, Eric Bass and his partner, Ines Zeller Bass is running at the VCA Puppetry School in Melbourne, Australia from 29 September to 22 November 2008 . It's called "Puppet Boot Camp" run by one of the world's best! Eric Bass is the co-founder of Sandglass Theatre, an ensemble theatre company combining puppetry and visual imagery, located in Vermont, USA.
Applications close 19 May and to apply contact Gilly McInnes here!

The future of World Puppetry

During the UNIMA 2008 World Festival and Congress, I asked a few prominent international puppeteers and authors about their thoughts both on the festival and future of world puppetry. Here are a few of them discussing the festival and the future of puppetry from their perspective - Eileen Blumenthal, author of the internationally acclaimed author of 'Puppetry - A World History'. - a comprehensive overview of the history and techniques of puppetry, examining the unique nature and abilities of puppets and illustrating the countless roles they have played in societies across the globe for thousands of years. Steve Abrams is one of the representatives of UNIMA USA and John Bell, author and lecturer, from MIT and the Director of the Frank Ballard Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut in the USA and French puppet master, Alain Lecucq, from the Compagnie Papiertheatre and member of the UNIMA Executive Committee all present their views on where we are headed in the world puppetry.

African Puppetry on the rise!

The African delegation of UNIMA were well represented at UNIMA 2008 in Perth. For the first time ever, a delegate from Africa has been appointed to the Executive Committee. He is Mamadou Samake from Mali in West Africa. Mamadou was unanimously elected to give a voice to the puppeteers of Africa. During the congress I interviewed Phylemon Odhiambo of UNIMA Kenya. The Kenyan chapter of UNIMA was formed in 2002 at their first international puppetry festival in Nairobi. We all felt that it was time for Kenyan puppetry, which was fast expanding, to be a part of our world puppetry body. Phylemon was one of my first students in Kenya who started puppetry with us around 1990, when we started training 'Puppets Against Aids' groups to work in East Africa. They formed the Community Health Awareness Puppeteers (CHAPS) who have gone on to train over 500 puppeteers in the region. This is one of our greatest success stories in Africa. You can see a clip of their early work here!

New UNIMA 2008 Executive Committee

I have received an email from Hartmut Topf in Germany today asking me to please post the results for the 2008 UNIMA Executive committee elections, which were voted in this week in Perth. Here's a short film clip of them with a comment from the new president!
The new UNIMA Executive are:
President - Dadi Pudumjee (India)
General Secretary - Jacques Trudeau (Canada)
Vice President - Annette Dabs (Germany) and Stanislav Doubrava (Czech Republic)

Executive Committee Members are:
Knut Alfsen (Norway); Marek Waszkiel (Poland); Nina Monova (Russia); Manual Moran (USA); Tim Keung Wong (China); Alain Lecucq (France); Tamiko Onagi (Japan); Livija Kroflin (Croatia); Ronnie Albrecht (Belgium); Jennie Pfeiffer (Australia); Mamadou Samake (Mali); Pierre-Allain Rolle (Switzerland); Susanita Freire (Brazil) and Angel Casado (Spain). The Auditing Committee are: John Bell (USA); Berni Dardel (Switzerland) and Edmond Debouny (Belgium).
We fly back home to Sydney today, so more to come once we've landed!

Farewell to Perth

The last day of UNIMA 2008 - the world festival of puppetry here in Perth saw the culmination of rushing to try fit in every performance, workshop and lecture, while saying goodbye to friends departing once again to far away lands!

Today we squeezed in a matinée performance of Handspring Puppet Company's Woyzeck on the Highveld, which even after first seeing it 16 years ago, was a festival highlight for me. Woyzeck is an adaptation of German writer Georg Buchner's famous play of jealousy, murder and the struggle of an individual who is destroyed by an uncaring society. The story has been translated into an Apartheid South African setting of the nineteen-fifties, where Woyzeck is represented by a migrant labourer in the gold mines of Johannesburg. The power and poignancy of the puppets, emphasised by William Kentridge's amasing back-projected animation is profound. The company will shortly open at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town after a short season in Brisbane next week.
Video clips of this production and many others from the festival be posted here shortly! Stay tuned...

UNIMA 2008 - Too much to see, too little time!

It's been a whirlwind festival here at UNIMA 2008. Besides the performances, lectures, key note speeches and nine-hour workshop we conducted yesterday, I have captured dozens of interviews and performance extracts, but haven't had any time to post anything in the last few days as it's been rushing from one event to the next. I realise this is the nature of the beast, but it's been a wonderful beast and we still have many productions to see and taste. I will start editing pieces and get them up here as soon as I physically can! So keep posted....

Puppets break Guinness Book of World Records

The Million Puppet Project set a Guinness Book record on Sunday with the largest puppet display on the planet. 18,585 puppets gathered together in one single exhibition at the UNIMA 2008 Puppet Festival here in Perth. The Million Puppet exhibition saw puppets specially constructed and sent from all over the world from schools, institutions, puppet companies and will be exhibited here till Wednesday. More than 10,000 people made up the crowd for the Puppet Carnival Day at the Perth Concert Hall with hundreds of free short performances in dozens of venues for this remarkable day. The highlight for me was seeing a rare performance of the Japanese Chiryu Karakuri's Battle of Ichinotani. I will feature some extracts of this in the days to follow so stay tuned!

John Bell, USA comments on UNIMA bid

Director of the Frank Ballard Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut in the USA and renowned author and lecturer, John Bell, also commented on the UNIMA 2012 China bid.

Comments from UNIMA Exec on China's winning bid to host 2012 Congress

French puppet master, Alain Lecucq, from the Compagnie Papiertheatre and member of the UNIMA Executive Committee comments on China's winning bid, beating Russia in hosting the 2012 UNIMA Congress. I have interviewed many of the international representatives today and found out their comments on puppetry worldwide, the Chinese winning bid and the state of our art... so keep tuned for more!

UNIMA goes to China!

By a reasonably narrow margin of votes, China won the bid yesterday as the next country to host the 21st International UNIMA Congress and Festval in 2012. China was represented here by Wang Zhonglin, the Vice Mayor of the Municipal People's Government of Chengdu, the host city and Bangjun Wang, the deputy director of Chengdu's Bureau of Commerce.

I am most grateful that I am no longer part of the UNIMA council, because this decision can't be an easy one to make in the light of recent human rights abuses that overshadow the bidding from both countries, China and Russia. The remote fantasy island kingdom of Tibet was apparently never mentioned. Will China's one child policy be extended to a one puppet policy? Will censorship be imposed on puppeteers speaking out?

UNIMA's statutes state its objective in using this art to pursue human values such as peace and mutual understanding between peoples regardless of race, political or religious convictions and differences in culture, in accordance with the respect for fundamental human rights as defined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10th 1948.

We as the body of international puppeteers look forward, once again, to use our art in promoting social and political change!

Turkish Karagoz arrives in Perth

Yesterday at UNIMA 2008 festival here in Perth, I talked to the Turkish Shadow Puppet Master and lecturer in puppetry at the University of Ankara, Haluk Yuce. In this interview Yuce explains why he feels that Turkish traditional shadow puppetry is a dying art and what, if anything can be done to preserve this ancient tradition.

Karagöz (meaning blackeye in Turkish) and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. The central theme of the plays are the contrasting interaction between the two main characters: Karagöz represents the illiterate but straightforward public, whereas Hacivat belongs to the educated class, speaking Ottoman Turkish and using a poetical and literary language. Karagöz's native wit always gets the better of Hacivat's learning (but his money-making ventures always fail).

Today a limited number of artists continue the studies related to the art of Karagoz and they're conducted by the Presidency of Turkish National Center of UNIMA. Stay tuned for our daily reports from UNIMA 2008 in Perth!

Secret Performance of "Terra Prenyada"

Last night I saw a secret performance of "Terra Prenyada" by master puppeteer and Spanish artist, Joan Baixas. It took place in a hidden location at the UNIMA 2008 festival. By special invitation this great work was performed for the first time in some years to a crowd of enthusiastic puppeteers and children, who also entertained the crowd with great comments throughout the show.

Baixas' work was inspired years ago during a previous trip through the Australian desert. He talks in image and raising the large sheet, he begins at the back side to make designs that are lit from the rear. Like a join-the- dots design, he makes a funny face appear almost unexpectedly from the mud swirls. A second piece on the same plastic sheet he calls Conversation. A man and woman gradually take shape. Seated in a bar, he attempts to engage the woman, but she decisively rejects him. Increasingly violent verbal exchanges follow until she reveals her inner desire for money and security. Using his brush on a stick, Baixas manages to recount this entire dialogue with vectors coming out of the couple's mouths. Naturally, the universal symbol for money is the familiar dollar sign. Vocal artist Paca Rodrigo is his collaborator in the show. She utilizes repeated syllables and sung vowels to create a varied and interesting sound texture that ideally interacts with Baixas' visuals.

Baixas is best known for his early work with the artist Joan Miro, when in 1978 produced "Mori el Merma" (Death to the Tyrant), which caused great controversy in post-Franco Spain and internationally. He is currently giving a master-class workshop 'The Great Laughing Mutant Project' during UNIMA 2008 in Perth.

"Puppetry is on the move.." says UNIMA President

According to Massimo Schuster, President of the Union International de la Marionnette (UNIMA), "Puppetry is on the move... but it is getting harder and harder to work in this global world". Yesterday saw the opening of the 20th World Puppetry Congress and Festival, here in Perth, Western Australia. UNIMA 2008 is bringing together many artists and puppeteers from most countries of the world, for the first time in the southern hemisphere to share their art and discuss the future of this World Micro-Culture. UNIMA started in Prague in 1928 and its aims were to unite the puppeteers of the world under one family body, affiliated to UNESCO. The world congress is being run simultaneously with the world festival, showcasing puppet theatre from every continent. The bid is also up for the next UNIMA Congress in 2012 and the battle is on between China and Russia as to who will host the next congress. Keep tuned for news on this!

I will be reporting from the festival daily for the days to come and will try interview the key players in world puppetry, so watch this space. Here is the short interview with Massimo Schuster, who has recently returned from an invite to China by the Mayor of Chendu to see for himself one of the bidding countries! (You can read about his experience on his blog here!)