These were some more puppets on display at the National Puppetry Summit. They featured in Terrapin Puppet Theatre’s 1985 production, Princess With The Echo.
‘Most of Terrapin’s earlier shows were designed and built by Jennifer Davidson and Greg Menthe, however Terrapin sometimes commissioned other designers. Well known Tasmanian artist Tom Samek designed these Czeck style marionettes. The heads are carved from Huon Pine.
In her welcome to the summit, Annie Forbes used these puppets as a starting point, asking if such use of the endangered huon pine could be justified, and suggesting it could, because puppetry as an artform can evoke the spirit of the tree, and take us to magic and sacred places, an idea returned to later in the weekend when Neil Cameron talked about puppetry as celebration, and a way of transforming and illuminating our everyday experiences.
Annie also spoke of some of the questions being asked about old and new puppetry, issues around which the summit program was structured:
Does concentrating on traditional puppetry forms and skills hold back new ideas and approaches?
Does not using them, in favour of, for example, the non-verbal and experimental, make modern approaches less effective?
And what can be done about the vulnerability of traditional forms in rapidly modernizing societies?
We also welcomed international guests:
- Peter Manscher (ASSITEJ and Teatercentrum – Denmark);
- Simon Wong (UNIMA & Ming Ri Institute for
Arts Education – China); - Nyoman Sedana (HOD Balinese
Theatre & Culture, Denpasar University – Indonesia) - Dadi Pudumjee (UNIMA & Ishara Puppet Theatre – India);
- Peter L. Wilson (National Theatre for Children, NZ);
- and several other puppeteers and makers from NZ.
(BTW, I’ve made a photoset at Flickr for my summit photos. I’m adding them gradually as I get time.) See below instead:
(My attendance at the puppetry summit was supported by the ACT Government)
Links updated 2015
