A Happy Puppetry New Year...

Trust that you all had an excellent Xmas. We are ready to get into an exciting and curious 2011. We are all asking what will the new year bring? I am optimistic. Before we discuss the new year, we do have one more short workshop this year. In fact we are running our end-of-the year workshop, for those that will be in Australia, at Pete's Ridge on 30 December. What's Pete's Ridge I hear you asking?  It's a great music festival in New South Wales and we are performing in a venue called Boudoir de la Fox on 30 December at 11am to 1pm.

But what are your plans for 2011? If you have anything exciting planned, please let us know and we will be happy to share this with everyone. We have another Asian Tour coming up soon and many other exciting tours planned for later in the year too, but one step at a time. As usual, we in Australia will be leading the world in bringing in the new year, as we are still way ahead of everyone else. Wishing you all a wonderful 2011...

Improbable 'Panic' comes to Sydney Opera House

After provoking Sydney audiences in 2006 with The Hanging Man, UK-based Improbable Theatre returns to Australia with their latest production Panic. You can catch a preview of the show here!

Drawn from personal stories and current obsessions, this tale of love is Improbable with puppetry, pratfalls, aerial feats and the longest list of self-help books ever announced on stage. Suggested for mature audiences, Panic embodies a childlike imagination blended with an adult’s wistful meditation on love, sex, life and death. Conceived as an improvisatory vaudeville, the production represents a return to intimate scale by the freewheeling troupe whose talents helped collaborate on the international hit Shockheaded Peter and Philip Glass’ opera Satyagraha.

PuppetryNews subscribers can buy tickets for the special price of $20 + booking fee. (Use the promo codes FRINGE when booking online or call the Sydney Opera House Box Office on 02-9250 7777).

Last chance to participate in October Creativity Workshop in Sydney

Click on the poster for all the workshop details or check out my previous post here!
Book now, only a few places left.

New Schools Puppetry Programme in Australia

A new Puppetry Partnership Programme was launched this month in three Sydney schools. This short film provides images taken during the first week of the eleven week puppetry programme taking place in February and March 2010. The partnership between Gary Friedman Productions and the North Sydney Demonstration School, in collaboration with the University of Sydney Education Faculty is designed to expose the students and their teachers to the language of metaphor and symbolism. It is aimed at enriching their creative expression and literacy outcomes. The programme will culminate in a mini-school's puppet festival and evaluation of the work.

We have still some openings for workshops in Europe during our 2010 International Workshop Tour from April to June. If you are interested in this work, please contact us. Enjoy the film clip!

Barking Spider launches new show

Opening in Melbourne, Australia tomorrow is a brand new production by Barking Spider.

“Dispatch” is about a puppet character 'Sorrel' a little girl who has died and is unable to realise it.
“Dispatch” is ethereal and timeless in feel. A single narrative line is peppered with weaving mini-narratives that are born of each suitcase as Sorrel discovers them. “Dispatch” runs for approximately one hour and is suitable for teen and adult audiences.

This contemporary and ethereal puppet theatre work, written and directed by Penelope Bartlau, is performed by Bartlau and Justine Warner. The production runs from tomorrow, Tuesday to Sunday 7 February at 8pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 4pm.
The Venue: 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Bookings: (03) 9662 9966 or www.fortyfivedownstairs.com.au

Puppetry for Television Course films

Last week saw the completion our January 2010 'Puppetry for Television and Web Course' at the Wesley Institute in Sydney. Our talented participants ended their course by completing two short films, My Fur Lady and Baby-Faced Thugs. (Click on them to view)

The films were made and edited as the culmination of a intensive two-week course, during which nine newcomers to the industry were introduced to all aspects of puppetry for TV and the Web, including puppet building, improvisation, performance for the camera, story-boarding and producing a short film in a team.

I also put together a short piece on Behind the Scenes at the course, which shows the making of the two short films. You can take a look at this short film here.

40,000 visits and still going strong..

This morning I noticed that our visitor counter, below, has hit the 40,000 mark. This means the interest in the puppetry arts is still growing across the globe. Thank you to all who have supported me over the past few years and sorry I can't update the blog daily, due to lack of time. I do enjoy hearing from you, so if you have any ideas or news to share here, please do share your thoughts!

For those of you watching our Puppetry Films, listed on the right, I will continue adding stuff as often as I can and will start including new topics soon, so keep your eyes open for impressive new works.

Our international 'Puppetry for TV and Web Course' scheduled to take place in January at the Wesley Institute in Sydney will go ahead, although a few minor details might change, like we might shorten the course slightly to assist participants internationally who are working and can't take much time off work. Final details will be posted here soon, so keep your eyes open!

Con Quest to appear at Australian Business Events Expo in Sydney

This week sees the Australian Business Events Expo at Darling Harbour in Sydney on 22 and 23 July. Renowned British presenter of Quest Business News, Con Quest, will be hosting a booth at the Expo as well as covering the event for the web. Many of the characters from Corporate Creatures will also be roving round the expo and causing controversy. So if you are planning to be in Sydney on Wednesday or Thursday, do come down to the Exhibition Centre and check them out! Corporate Creatures will be at stand F13, so come down and visit!

Con Quest introduces Limmud-Oz Festival

I discovered this short film today in which CCBN presenter, Con Quest, introduces Limmud-Oz 2009 - a festival of Jewish Learning and Culture, taking place at the University of New South Wales in Sydney from 6-8 June 2009. It looked like a good commercial, so I thought I'd share it with you. If you want to know more information, check out their website here!
Corporate Creatures Business News presenter, Con Quest, can be seen here!

Corporate Creatures™ Full Promo launched

The full seven-minute version of the Corporate Creatures™ Promo has finally been released for all those interested in this exciting new project. It can also be viewed on Vimeo, but because this is a large video file, it might take a while to download, unless you have a fast internet connection. So please be patient! There is also an interesting short film on the making of Corporate Creatures™, 'The Humans behind the Creatures' which can be viewed here and the entire collection of the Creatures short films to date can be viewed here! The Creatures are also now on Face Book and the Corporate Creatures Business News (CCBN) presenter, Con Quest, can also be followed on Twitter! So the gang are finally ready to go... keep posted for updates!

Puppetry, Physical and Object Theatre Master Class in Australia

Polygram Soluble is a five-day intensive workshop in Adelaide, South Australia will provide students with the physical, emotional and theoretical principles behind Puppetry, Physical, & Object Theatre.

Ninian Donald, Pooka's Movement Director, will guide students through extensive body movement exercises concentrating on physical isolation, co-ordination, expression and communication, setting each student up with the foundation skills underlining all forms of Puppetry & Physical Theatre.

Lachlan Haig, Artistic Director of Pooka, will explore in depth how this bodywork translates to the art form of puppetry and object theatre using carefully selected exercises drawn from the masterclass of French Director Philippe Genty in object manipulation.

Through these exercises and performance techniques the participant will explore their unique relationship to objects, their manipulation, and the art of breathing life, emotion and soul into the inanimate, whether it be brown paper or a carefully crafted puppet.

The course will mainly focus on the use of simple everyday materials with a view to exploring the infinite possibilities of the ordinary when combined with inspiration, technique and the imagination. The workshop will run from 27 April to 1 May 2009 in Adelaide. For more details, contact Leanne Cotter here!

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!