What, Adult Puppetry on the BBC?

Animal puppet sex on a British adult TV sitcom? I was quite tickled today to discover 'Mongrels' about a metrosexual urban fox called Nelson. It's a new BBC adult puppet television series that began in the past week. Andy Miller, director and creator of the 'Mongrels' has written a blog about his adventures in creating this innovative puppet series here. You can also view some of the 'Mongrels' episodes on Andy's blog post too!

You can find the series details on the BBC Three website here. Unfortunately due to international copyright restrictions, the webcasts are limited to the UK.

Interplanetary Puppetry from Connecticut

Some of the America's leading puppeteers gathered in Connecticut in the United States over the past week. The group gathered at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford on a large estate with four theaters and participants ate and slept there, generally working twenty-four hours a day.

Some of the best-known American puppeteers attended, like Alissa Hunnicutt, Heather Henson, Fred Thompson, Pam Arciero,  Miguel Romero, Bart Roccoberton Jr and Muppet master, Marty Robinson.
You can join the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference Facebook Page here!
NPR Radio broadcast a great report on the puppetry conference, which you can listen to here!

World Cup Soccer Final Puppets

Throughout our recent International Tour, I've briefly followed the news and heard many reports on the current World Cup Soccer in South Africa. As reported in Puppetry News on 14 June and now on CNN, the World Cup Soccer puppets (click here) have taken South Africa by storm. The giant puppets are a Franco-South-African project presented by the Gauteng Provincial Government, and the French Institute of South Africa together with the group 'Les Grandes Personnes' from Burkina Faso. They have announced that they will make a guest appearance at the World Cup Final at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg on 11 July.

Giant Puppet in Old City of Jerusalem

The Old City of Jerusalem is a fascinating place with its mixture of cultures, foods, religions and languages all bound by its ancient walls. What you wouldn't expect to find is a wondering giant puppet. Last night while taking in a visual display of sounds and lights in the Old City, I stumbled upon Meir the Giant. Created by young Israeli artists, Michal Ben-Anat and Oded Davidovitch, Meir has emotional perception and his heart beat and blushing is controlled by the main puppeteer, who manipulates the head. It was quite fascinating to watch the Giant interacting with the crowds and seeing his emotions through the coloured lights inside his body. You can watch a video clip of Meir the Giant here!

Muppet Workshops in Atlanta

It only came to my attention today, thanks to a great post by Puppatoons in the States, that renowned Mupeteer Steve Whitmire held two fascinating workshops at the Centre for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta in January. Whitmire took over performing Kermit the Frog when Jim Henson passed away in 1990. (For those of you who've already seen the post, apologies for the repeat). The notes by Puppatoons seem extremely interesting to anyone involved in puppetry for the screen.

In Steve Swanson's weekly podcast MuppetCast, both Part One and Part Two the workshops were wonderfully covered, together with an interview with Steve Whitmire in Part Two.

Puppetry and the World Cup.. at last!

How on earth could the Soccer World Cup relate to African puppetry? In the past few days, the world has become obsessed with soccer. I am in Israel this week, on the last leg of our European Workshop Tour for 2010, before returning to Australia and I was waiting to find a puppetry group who would relate to the major events taking place right now in South Africa!

Finally the email came through from South African photographer Gisele Wulfsohn and the article was there!  The Giant Match is a bigger-than-life show played outdoor by 28 four-metre high puppets and dozens of masks and objects complete with storytellers and musicians.

Involving over 100 South African actors, musicians, dancers, puppeteers, visual artists and craftsmen from various communities around Johannesburg, as well as international artists from France, Burkina Faso, Italy and Chile, this new and unique show was initiated in the context of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.  It's a Franco-South-African project presented by the Gauteng Provincial Government, and the French Institute of South Africa together with the group 'Les Grandes Personnes' from Burkina Faso.

You can watch a clip of their work here!

New Puppetry Commercial rips off Royal de Luxe

It was a strange surprise to see the new commercial for Mayflower Transit made in the United States this month. It copies exactly the extraordinary giant puppetry produced by the well-known French puppet company Royal de Luxe. The commercial, produced for the Grey Agency in New York was done by The Character Shop in California. The gigantic puppet of the young girl is well made and manipulated by master puppeteer, Rick Lazzarini.  Lazzarini, together with The Character Shop created the commercials for Orbitz, which ripped-off the BBC television series in the sixties Thunderbirds. Check out the commercial and you be the judge.
On the Mayflower site, you can view a few different versions of this commercial.