Spirits Dancing

Today I came across this photo of a giant boy marionette, taken in Sydney’s CBD in late January. It’s very much like Royal de Luxe’s little giantess (who has been visiting Santiago, Chile, in the company of a rhinoceros) but I doubt he is theirs. Does anyone know the film company, or what production they were working on?

Update: A couple of people have uploaded videos of the puppet. Apparently it is to be in a Korean clothing commercial of some sort:

Marionette
Giant Puppet in Syndey

I assume this was a practice session, since the articulation has a way to go, but it’s interesting to see how tricky it is after the seemingly faultless performances by Royal de Luxe. The hips look a bit too wobbly as if they might need to go back to the drawing board, but the untidy looseness in the legs and arms lend a bit of boyishness at times. I wonder what it is made out of? I’d guess plastic not wood. I was really surprised that Royal de Luxe uses wood.

Tags: cile, elephant, giant boy, giantess, korea, marionette, puppetry, puppets, rhinoceros, royal de luxe, santiago, street theatre

Two video clips at YouTube of that cool puppet in Berlin that I blogged about in October!

Puppet Run
Titere Andante

Still no clue as to who the performer group is.

Tags: berlin, bunraku, puppetry, puppets, street theatre

(photo credit: irlLordy, used with permission – thanks!)

irlLordy took a great sequence (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of photos of a cool puppet entertaining the queue on the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin recently. I really like the aethetic, and it’s interesting to see a bunraku-style puppet being operated on such long rods. The puppeteers – are there five? – must have a really good understanding between them. Apparently the puppet did matrix-like leaps off someone’s shoulders in slow motion at one point. Please do let me know if you happen to know which puppet troupe this is – I’d love to know!

Tags: berlin, bunraku, puppetry, puppets, street theatre

I’ve been keeping a list of Royal de Luxe links since I first became aware of them last June. This weekend I believe The Sultan’s Elephant is in Calais, and then in La Havre at the end of October (26 – 29th).

The producers who brought The Sultan’s Elephant to London in June this year are bringing out a book of photos, reminiscences and articles about the event which will be published in November.

Meanwhile, some lovely Royal de Luxe photos at Flickr:

Le Grand Géant in the water at Pont Du Gard in August (by krisyid)
The Giraffes in Le Harve earlier in September (by jeffreyhill)
Machines of Spectacle at Le Grand Repertoire in Paris (by Tekrotzen)
Most recent Royal de Luxe photos

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant

As I hoped out loud, Andrew at PuppetVision took some great photos of Sau’rus when they were in Toronto.There are some cool preparation shots there, as well as ones of the performance. Thanks, Andrew. I particularly like this one as a picture, because the letters on the shop suggest “Sau’rus”. Its a bit like that meme about being able to read jumbled letters as long as the first and last letters are right. Although they say that was a hoax, it makes sense to me.

Tags: close-act theatre, dinosaur, puppetry, puppets, sau'rus, street theatre

(photo by digitaldust)

A few weeks ago I was impressed by a number of photos at Flickr showing some fabulous big dinousaur walkabout puppets at the Paradise Gardens festival in London. This was Sau’rus, an act by the Dutch theatre group, Close-Act Street Theatre. Close-Act was formed in 1991 and ‘has since grown to a professional community of actors, musicians, stilt-walkers, dancers,
fire-throwers and acrobats’. Along with technical details and the story, they also have a cool video of the dinoaurs, which shows them as quite agile and menacing, especially with the noises they make and tails whipping around as they stalk along. Looks like they have some other cool acts in their repertoire, too.

The festival also had the pod puppet Flying Buttresses, a tiny elderly couple called Hodman Dodmanott and Sally Forth who ‘venture out in search of fame, fortune and friendship with all their possesions strapped to their backs. After living alone for hundreds of years they have lost touch with the realities of modern life.’ They look fun.

Update: Andrew at PuppetVision reports that Sau’rus is performing in Toronto in the The Celebrate Toronto Street Festival, July 8th and 9th. Maybe he will take some photos :-)? Yes, here they are! Thanks, Andrew.

Tags: close-act theatre, dinosaur, flying buttresses, pod puppets, puppetry, puppets, sau'rus, street theatre, video

Andrew at PuppetVision kindly told me about Make’s report on this huge robotic Electric Giraffe, aka Rave Raffe, a walking vehicle built by Lindsay Lawlor. It’s design follows the mechanism of a toy Tamiya giraffe:

The front and back legs opposite each other step ahead at the same time, propelled by an electric motor. When those legs land, hydraulic brakes lock the wheeled feet, and the other two legs take a step. Canting from side to side, Raffe lumbers ahead at about a mile an hour. A propane engine runs only to recharge the batteries, so the beast is quiet and efficient. When Lawlor let Raffe shuffle off alone in the desert, it walked for eight hours.
– Popular Science

You can follow the building process through to it’s completion in time for Burning Man 2005, when it fulfilled Lawlor’s original purpose, to see Burning Man from a height. The giraffe has done various gigs since then, most recently appearing at Maker Faire. Plans are now to add ‘computer-controlled flashing giraffe spots, an electroluminescent circulatory system and a gas grill’. :-)

Some other giraffes of note:

• In 2000, Royal de Luxe (who recently put on The Sultan’s Elephant street theatre spectacle in London) had a similar spectacle, The Hunters of the Giraffes, with a huge puppet giant boy, a mother giraffe and her baby. Scroll down this page for details.
• Handspring Puppet Company‘s Tall Horse has a 5 metre giraffe manipulated by 2 puppeteer on stilts. It tells the story of Zarafa, the giraffe who was taken to France in 1827.
• France’s Compagnie Off‘s Les Girafes, Urban Operetta. PuppetVision has accounts and pictures here, here and in London.
• Mark Jenkins tape sculpture giraffe.

Tags: compagnie off, giraffe, handspring puppet company, les giraffes, make, maker faire, mark jenkins, puppetry, puppets, robots, sculpture, street theatre

John Fox, the artistic director of the renowned celebratory street theatre company, Welfare State International – ‘eyes on stalks, not bums on seats” – explains how bureacracy kills the creative spirit, and why he is going solo.

‘The final straw? The ‘hot work’ permit for a bonfire in a field.
Had we swept the floor, and were the overhead sprinklers working?’

Welfare State came to an end on April Fools’ Day this year, after 38 years.

Tags: celebration, john fox, puppetry, puppets, street theatre, welfare state international

The find of my week was the discovery that Emmanuel Bourgeau, a sculptor in Plogonnec, has a small gallery of photos of the construction and carving of the huge elephant and girl in Royal
de Luxe’s spectacle, The Sultan’s Elephant, which paraded the streets of
London last week. Isn’t the net wonderful? I’ve added this link to my collected Royal de Luxe links.

(Via Royal de Luxe).

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, make, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, sculptor, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant, woodcarving

There is a Flickr pool for photos of the Sultan’s Elephant, the Royal de Luxe street theatre spectacle happening in London right now and over this weekend. The official website gallery is also starting to post photos. The BBC coverage looks as if its going to be good too – I’m hoping to see it on one of the webcams!

I’ll be adding links that I find to my previous collection of links as I get time, but you can also see more immediately what I am finding by checking my del.icio.us/royaldeluxe tag. Or you could subscribe to it’s rss feed.

Upadate: wonderful footage of the elephant, taken by Mike. (via Boing Boing)

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant