This is the fabulous Phoebe Sparkles, a giant aerial puppet made for the show Highly Strung, which was performed from the silos at Natimuk over the weekend at the Nati Frinj (Natimuk Fringe Festival). I’ve been enjoying Dave Jones‘s blogging of the build over the last couple of months, so it’s great to see the puppet come to life. The daytime rehearsal photos give better perspective on her size and the task of puppeteering her. Phoebe was named by the kids at the local school, and the plan was to project talking animations drawn by the kids onto her face. I wonder if that was possible in the very windy conditions on the night.
Dave also makes lovely puppets from wire and other rusty farm-type bits and pieces of metal. These and the amazing bird below are characters in a long term work-in-progress stop motion film of his, The Rhyme of the Ancient Merino.
At sail on a sea of wheat, the Ancient Merino and his aging theatre troupe struggle to eke out an existence in a hostile environment. When a the threat of modern technology looms they must adapt or fade into obscurity.
The animation is an allegory for the story of ‘the 50 year history of the Arapiles Community Theatre, and the recent influx of new arrivals and the changes that has brought about’ in the small regional town of Natimuk, Victoria. Traditionally a service hub for the surrounding farming country, Natimuk is also the closest town to Mount Arapiles, a mecca for rock climbers, so it is an interesting mix of farming people, climbers and an arts community. In October it will again be the centre for the Nati Frinj.
I love the puppets in this; they’re life size and made from bits of old farm machinery. And I like the little details like the snails.
A few months ago I posted about the giant aerial puppet, Phoebe Sparkles, made by David Jones and friends for the show Highly Strung, which was performed from silos at the Nati Frinj (Natimuk Fringe Festival). Dave has followed up with this great video of sequences edited together from rehearsals and the performance. The animations really add another dimension, and as he comments, it’s amazing to see the puppeteers in action.
Links and brief notes about the puppetry community in Australia.
This is an idiosyncratic list, and I’m just compiling it as I get time, noting some I need to get back to by now by now (the end of 2020) completely out of date! The info in brackets is where the people or companies are based, and roughly when companies started. Some companies tend to use puppetry when it suits, rather than being wholly focused on puppetry. In the sidebar I’m experimenting with tracking Australian puppetry news on Twittter. Do let me know if I’ve got things wrong or if you are listed but don’t want to be.
Australasian Drama Studies Vol 51, Oct 2007 Edited by Geoffrey Milne. Issue dedicated to puppetry in Australia, see contents and ordering back copies.
ArtPlay (2004, Melbourne) Australia’s only creative arts centre for children up to the age of 13 and their families. ArtPlay follows in the tradition of the Ark in Dublin Ireland, and is owned and operated by the City of Melbourne, and located at Birrarung Marr, behind Federation Square. ArtPlay fosters puppetry through PuppetLab and other ventures, and offers grants to artists working in varying artforms to become involved.
Anna Parry (Melbourne) Shadow puppet maker. Working with Stories from the Ground and Splitpin Limbs.
Adam Elliot (Melbourne) Stop motion animator best known for his Academy Award winning short Harvie Krumpet and his feature film Mary & Max.
Al Martinez Studios (2001 – 2010, Melbourne) Maker extraordinaire Al Martinez and friends. Al headed up the making of the 2000 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as those for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Aphids (1994, Melbourne) Artist-led, project-driven and not-for-profit, Aphids undertakes cross-artform projects usually involving contemporary music, international cross-cultural exchanges and collaborations.
Anita Sinclair (Victoria) Anita’s book The Puppetry Handbook is a useful basic resource for makers and teachers.
Arena Theatre Company (1966, Melbourne) Artistic director Chris Kohn. Creating inspiring live performances that have a genuine dialogue with young audiences.
Asphyxia (Melbourne) independent puppeteer and maker known especially for her marionette show The Grimstones.
Alex Axelrad (Victoria) Retired puppet designer and maker, and puppeteer. (Lamont Puppets). Maker of Ossie (Ozzie?) Ostrich.
Bananas in Pyjamas One of the most popular and enduring children’s TV programs with pre-schoolers in Australia. Made by the ABC, exported to 70 or more countries. Originally full body puppets, replaced by CGI.
Barking Spider Theatre (2006, Melbourne) An independent original visual theatre company, Barking Spider aims to challenge and enrich audiences of all ages through a combination of visual and performing art forms, such as puppetry, music and live performance. They draw in numerous freelance artists.
Beverley Campbell-Jackson. Puppet designer and maker, one of the founders of Spare Parts. Designed and knitted the puppets for the 1980’s ABC TV series Blinky Bill.
Big West Festival (1997, Melbourne) Cutting edge multiform art festival held biennially for 10 days in November.
Black Hole Theatre (1993, Melbourne) Black Hole is committed to cutting edge visual, object and puppet theatre. The company aims to engage, extend and disrupt imagination, and it’s adult productions are bold, often comic, dark, and always surprising. Rod Primrose, Nancy Black
Book Nook (Toowoomba, QL) Specialist performing arts bookshop run by Mary and Joe Sutherland. Mary worked with Handspan, and was a prolific puppet maker in the 90’s.
Born in a Taxi (1989, Melbourne) Original work for art festivals, street theatre festivals, performance seasons, organisations and corporate events.
Boy Reporter (Sydney) Animation company creating unique and irreverent stories and characters, specializing in stop-motion. Founded by producer/animator Mick Elliott.
Bryan Woltjen (WA) Multi art-form designer and theatrical consultant.
Bryony Anderson (NSW) Puppet designer and maker
Camp Quality Puppets Using puppets to help and teach children to become more aware of the need to be caring and supportive of children who have cancer.
Carouselle Theatre Company (1985 – 1997, Adelaide) SA’s major puppetry company at the time. Polish founders; Wojciech Pisarek director.
Carrousel Theatre (1994, Melbourne) Encouraging the study of French, Italian and German language through puppetry
Catherine Roach (NSW/ACT) Puppet director and puppeteer.
Cecile Williams (WA) Visual artist, including theatre, costume and puppet design and making
Chantale Delrue (Tasmania) Artist and maker. Makes giant puppets for performance and festivals.
Company Gongoma (Melbourne) West African music, puppets and dance. Shadow puppets. Artistic director Jenny Ellis
Community Rites (Qld – Noosa region) Multi-media art events, installations and performances synthesised through interaction between artists and the communities. Leisa Gillham, Tamara Kirby and Ali Bates.
Corporate Creatures (2009, Sydney) Gary Friedman takes puppetry into the corporate world, using muppets for innovative communication, entertainment and marketing in business.
Creature Technology Company (2005?, Melbourne) Large animatronic workshop making puppetry on a massive scale: cutting edge animatronics, new standards of realism and fluid movement, huge arena spectaculars. Known for Walking with Dinosaurs Live! Sonny Tilders, Philip Millar
Dave Jones (Natimuk, Victoria) Puppetmaker, puppeteer, sculptor, animator.
David Morgan (NSW) Puppet maker and puppeteer
Dead Puppet Society (Brisbane) Australian gothic theatre. Their productions incorporate puppetry, shadow work and live performance to create immersive worlds where the mythic sits alongside the macabre. @FB
Dream Puppets (Melbourne) Puppet theatre company presenting brilliantly visual productions to audiences of all ages. Dream Puppets is know for their whimsical Dreamer Trilogy and black light theatre. Richard Hart and Julia Davis.
Enemies of Reality (Canberra) Film and video production company, specialising in music videos, short films and animation. Presently working on the stop motion production Tegan the Vegan. Marissa Martin.
erth Visual and Physical (1990’s, Sydney) Produces original live theatre and eye popping visual experiences including giant puppetry, stilt-walkers, inflatable environments, aerial and flying creatures; festivals, communities and cultural institutions like museums. Scott Wright, Steve Howarth, Sharon Kerr.
Festive Factory (Woodend, Victoria) Specializes in roaming entertainment acts, family shows, and workshops.
Finegan Kruckemeyer (Tas) Playwright, works with Slingsby Theatre Company; wrote The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy.
Fleur Elise Noble (Adelaide?) Director/creator of visual-based theatre experiences which include drawing, animation, puppetry. @YouTube
Gary Friedman (Melbourne) Puppeteer, performer, director and producer for live theatre, educational theatre and television. Gary trained with Jim Henson and runs regular workshops in puppetry for TV and film which include learning how to make and puppeteer muppet-style puppets. His other projects include Corporate Creatures, a documentary feature film calledLooking for a Monster, (based on an original puppet play written by a young boy in a concentration camp in 1943), and his blog.
Gabrielle Griffin (Adelaide) Puppeteer
Gilly McInnes (Melbourne) Writer, director, performer and dramaturge
Graeme Davis Puppet designer and maker. Does the wonderfully ghastly Mr Texta spoof of Mr Squiggle.
Handspan Theatre (1977 – 2002, Melbourne) Australia’s most influential and widely regarded puppet company during its time. See also their Archival Website – Handspan Theatre 1977 – 2002. Founded by Ken Evans, Andrew Hansen, Helen Rickards, Maeve Vella, Peter J. Wilson and Christine Woodcock.
Jennifer Pfeiffer (Melbourne) Freelance dramaturge and writer with interests in cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural puppetry work.
Jessica Wilson Freelance puppetry director; conceives, produces and directs theatre events including large-scale spectacle, community cultural development projects, and in-theatre works.
Jiri Zmitko (WA) Designer and puppet maker with Spare Parts. Expert maker of carved wooden puppets.
John Cox Creature Workshop (Brisbane) Internationally acclaimed leader in the design and manufacture of fantasy creatures, monsters and realistic animals. John received the 1995 Academy Award for Visual Effects for the movie Babe. His student information tips pdf is worth reading.
Jonathon Oxlade (Brisbane) Theater designer and illustrator, also designs and makes puppets. Performs with The Escapists.
Lana Schwarcz Grandpa Sol and Grandma Rose. @MySpace
Larissa Deak (Brisbane) Puppeteer; shadow puppets
Lemony S (Melbourne) Sarah Kriegler and Jacob Williams. Puppetry to disarm the audience and go deep to the core of what it is to be human – to attach meaning to symbols and signs, to empathize and to access the innate human ability to “suspend one’s disbelief”.
Mal Heap (Berowra, NSW) Puppeteer. Modigliani the Cat in The Ferals and Creature Features, Ollie (first Australian Sesame Street muppet), Waffle for Christian ministry. Retrospective
Mana Puppets
Matthew McCoy (Sydney) Puppetry director and puppeteer. Walking with Dinosaurs Live, Farscape
Matt McVeigh (WA) Visual artist, designer – stage productions and community arts programs
Men of Steel (Melbourne) Anarchic object theatre and comedy in the kitchen, workplace and now icecream van. New show is called Mr. Freezy (with Arena Theatre Company). Puppeteers Hamish Fletcher, Tamara Rewse, Stephen Noonan, and sound designer Jared Lewis.
Monkey Baa Theatre (1997, Sydney) Started by Tim McGarry, Sandie Eldridge and Eva Di Cesare. Outstanding theatre for young people. @FB
Mothers Art (1983, Melbourne) Unique design and construction facility servicing the diverse requirements of zoos, tourism attractions, public art, theatre arts and the architectural industry.
Murphy’s Puppets (Sydney) Wide repertoire of comedy, including Allenby’s Famous Flea Circus; educational programs and Commedia dell’Arte puppetry. Dennis Murphy.
Murray Raine Puppets (Sydney) Puppet cabaret with spectacular and outrageous marionettes, rod and glove puppets. Murray Raine.
My Darling Patricia (2003, Melbourne – Sydney) My Darling Patricia creates arresting, intimate, visual theatre, drawing inspiration from the epic visuals of Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci and the animation of Jan Svankmajer. Clare Britton, Bridget Dolan, Katrina Gill, Halcyon Macleod and Sam Routledge.
Nati Frinj (Natimuk, Victoria) Puppetry on the wheat silos!
Noriko Nishimoto (Japan-Australia; WA) Distinguished puppetry teacher, puppeteer, director, designer and writer. Associated with Spare Parts until 2002.
Nick Hilligoss (Melbourne) Stop motion animator and director
Nigel Triffit Director, designer, writer. ‘Of the many outstanding individual contributors to the development of puppetry and visual theatre in Australia over the past thirty years, none stands out more than Nigel Triffit’ – Peter J. Wilson in The Space Between (see below). Created Momma’s Little Horror Show, Secrets, the Tap Dogs, the Eternity tap section of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and others. Died July 20, 2012.
One Van International Puppet Festival (Blackheath, NSW) In 2010 One Van will be on the weekend beginning 1 May.
Passion Pictures (Melbourne) Presently working on a short CGI film of Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing
Patch Theatre Company (1972, Adelaide) Artistic director Dave Brown. Distinctive and accessible performance for children four to eight years.
Peepshow Inc (early 2000’s, Melbourne) Image based theatre that blurs the line between imagination and magic, puppets and possibility. Core group plus collaboration with others. Artistic director Melinda Hetzel. FaceBook fan page.
Philip Millar (Melbourne) Puppeteer, puppet maker and designer, head of fabrication at Creature Technology Company.
Pocketfool Productions Intimate, exciting, age-specific works for children, celebrating the power of play.
Polyglot Puppets (Melbourne) Sue Giles artistic director.
Pooka Puppet Company (Adelaide) contemporary theatre based puppetry works, with an emphasis on exploring the boundaries of the medium. Lachlan Haig, Ninian Donald
Purple Capsicum Puppets (2008, Melbourne) Puppet shows and workshops for children of all ages; festivals and events. An offshoot of The indirect Object.
Rachael Wenona Guy (Melbourne) Puppeteer, maker, visual artist, singer, writer, theatre maker. Blog
Raymond Crowe Self-described unusualist, hand shadow puppetry
Reckless Moments (Shanghai) Barry Plews and Hu He. International multi-artform collaborations and coproductions. In 2009-10 collaborating with Terrapin Puppet Theatre on digital puppetry for When the Pictures Came.
Richard Mueck Sculptor and puppeteer in the film industry
Rob Matson (Melbourne?) Puppet maker and designer
Rod Hull and Emu Rod Hull developed his emu act in Australia in the 1960’s before returning to his native England. Emu was mute and anarchic, famous for his attack on Michael Parkinson and others.
Ron Mueck (London) Hyperrealist sculptor, began as a model maker and puppeteer in TV and film
Ross Hill (d. 1991) Master puppeteer and maker. Worked widely in Australia then at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in the 1980s, including on The Labyrinth. There is a Ross Hill puppet collection in Mildura.
Rubbery FiguresAustralian political satire from 1984-1990, created for TV by cartoonist and sculptor Peter Nicholson. Highlight videos. Australia’s version of Splitting Image.
Slingsby Theatre Company (Adelaide) Crafting sophisticated, emotionally complex and original theatre productions for audiences aged ten through adulthood. Andy Packer (Artistic Director) and Jodi Glass (Executive Producer) and three key creative collaborators, Finegan Kruckemeyer (playwright), Quincy Grant (composer) and Geoff Cobham (designer). @FB
Snuff Puppets (1992, Melbourne) Giant puppet company, creating visceral and accessible theatrical experiences for their audiences. Trademark elements: a blackly dangerous humour, an incisive political satire, shamelessly handmade visual aesthetic; populist, free, joyous conflagration of art, audience and artist. @Flickr, @FB. Andy Freer, Pauline Cady
Splitpins Limbs (Melbourne) An offshoot of Stories from the Ground, now its own entity. Shadow puppets. Stephen Mushin, Sarita Ryan, Emily Smith, Anna Nilsson, Raku Pitt and others
Sydney Puppet Theatre (1984, Sydney) Sue Wallace and Steve Coupe. Theatre of delight for family audiences: shadow, hand and rod and marionettes. From 1998 – 2005 they directed the One Van International Puppetry Festival in the Blue Mountains.
Terrapin Theatre Company (1981, Hobart, after Tasmanian Puppet and Marionette Theatre which was founded in 1970). Creating contemporary puppet theatre by using digital technologies in the animation of characters and the theatrical space .
The Escapists (Brisbane) Performance collective offering a highly stylised and hybridised form of populist entertainment, drawing on an anarchic attitude to bring a startling and adventurous approach to theatre making. Jonathon Oxlade, Matthew Ryan, Lucas Stibbard and Neridah Waters and guests. The Attack of the Attacking Attackers.
Theatre of Image (1988, Sydney) TOI is an advocate for young people and their families. Through the vision of the Artistic Director, Kim Carpenter, Theatre of Image tells Australian and universal stories to our young people as much through visual and musical images as through words.
The Indirect Object (Melbourne) ‘We believe puppetry and object theatre are sophisticated artforms for adult and youth audiences alike. Through collaboration, we develop new work, assist other companies to integrate puppetry or object theatre into their performance projects, fabricate puppets for our work, and on commission, and provide workshops in puppet fabrication and manipulation’.
Tipsy Teacup Productions creates mesmerising installation theatre that is like all remembered conversations over a cuppa: insightful, poignant, resonating and special. @FB
Upatree Arts (Qld) Collective producing community celebrations through puppetry, arts events, giant parade and lantern puppetry. @FB
Vanessa Ellis (Melbourne) Puppet maker and performer/puppeteer
Victorian College of the Arts Post Graduate Diploma and Masters in Puppetry This course, the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, produced a swag of innovative puppetry practitioners from 2004 – 2009, when sadly it was closed in the merger of the VCA with Melbourne University. Save the VCA.
Weeping Spoon Productions (Perth, WA) Theatre company formed by a group of young artists who found a common ground in creating exciting, vibrant, and relevant performances. In particular Tim Watts’s The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer. @FB
Wes Champion (NSW) Puppet maker/designer. Specializing in carved wooden puppets.
Wojciech Pisarek (Adelaide) Puppet theatre director and digital artist. One of the founders of Carouselle Theatre Company, now teaches and researches real time performance with digital puppetry at Flinders Drama Centre.
Radio National’s Bush Telegraph has audio of their April 23rd interview with Jillian Pearce (fast forward to the 36 minute mark). Jillian is a performance artist living in Natimuk, the small town at the foot of rock-climbing mecca, Mt Arapiles, in rural Victoria. Jillian and her performing arts company, Y Space, have for some years been doing exciting work with rock-climbers, dancers, animation and puppetry in ‘unusual and high places’, such as the Natimuk wheat silos, exploring images, stories and relationships with the space and land. Check out their past and present projects, and some of their video.
