Gardner Puppet Theatre

Posted by hil

In Victoria people are doing individual things to celebrate World Puppetry Day this year. Lorrie Gardner, Australian president of UNIMA, has received some coverage in a local paper for the day and her plans to celebrate it:

Maroondah Leader, March 16, 2004 : Puppeteers have own special day

“Ringwood East puppeteer, Lorrie Gardner, says next week’s World Puppetry Day will be a celebration of puppetry and its contribution to the arts. Gardner, the Australian president of the Union International de la Marionette, said the day aimed to raise awareness of puppetry.

“The idea is to call attention to the art form of puppetry to the general public,” Gardner said.

Gardner, who has been involved in the field for more than 30 years, said the world puppetry day would grow. “This is only the second year we’ve had the World Puppetry Day, so it’s just getting started,” Gardner said. “Last year, unfortunately on the day, we went to war so it overshadowed it.”

To celebrate the event, Gardner will perform on Monday, March 22 at Catjump Pre-school, Doncaster. For further details on World Puppetry Day phone 9870 8998.”

Sydney Puppet Theatre: ‘Z for Giraffe’

Posted by hil

Sydney Puppet Theatre is presenting performances of Z for Giraffe to celebrate World Puppetry Day. The shows will be at The Rocks Puppet Cottage, on Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st March at 11am, 12:30pm and 2pm.

‘Z for Giraffe’ is based on the true story of a young Giraffe’s travels to France in 1826. There will also be short demonstrations of puppets that families can make at home. Over the last few weeks SPT has been advertising the day at the Cottage and encouraging kids to make their own puppets. They have been asked to bring their puppets to show when next they visit.

Contact : Sydney Puppet Theatre, P.O Box 520, PETERSHAM NSW 2049, tel/fax 02 9550 6457

Spare Parts Puppet Theatre at the Joondalup Festival

Posted by hil

In Perth, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in partnership with the City of Joondalup will celebrate World Puppetry Day with the spectacular opening of the Joondalup Festival. The project, Animus Maximus, is supported by Healthway, the Heart Foundation’s ‘Smarter than Smoking’ message and ArtsWA.

Spare Parts Company associates, Bryan Woltjen and Karen Heathey, will not only be bringing out the giant Wubba puppet, but are co-ordinating three festival parades comprising puppets made by the children, including large scale stilt walking creatures. Narelle Simpson, another talented multi skilled company associate has been doing stilt walking classes with children in preparation for the big event on World Puppetry Day. And Sanjiva Margio has also been working with the community to create large scale puppetry parade elements.

Overview:

“The performance is a spectacle street theatre event (devised by Bryan Woltjen and Karen Hethey in conjuction with Kinross College and Warrick Senior High School) based on the 2004 Joondalup Festival’s theme of Global Village. Through the project students have undertaken workshops in complicite’, performance development, introductory puppetry skills, and construction to bring to life giant multi-operated puppets on the streets of Joondalup.

Dillo the giant scaled shape changer, a magnificent glowing raptor the size of a two story building, a graceful stilt creature and the Five Fingered Puppet King will take to the streets of Joondalup to meet at the great cross-roads for a summit which will hopefully bring peace to the global village. A village whose clans have been left fractured and fearful from the great battle which has waged for four centuries.

The setting is the third Millenia, and the formidable Dillo the scaled shape changer, protected by the legions of Dillodians has dominated the clans through sheer force and numbers but the clans have grown tired, hungry for change. A small contingent of renegades, the Aeralians have held out against the all consuming might of Dillo. Through out time, woven into the mythological threads of the clans, a prophecy has for told of a time of change. Some think the prophecy to be nothing more than a children’s story or fools riddle, but the older wiser ones Annularis, Medius, Digitus, Index and Polex whose wisdom was born long before the clashing times know otherwise.

The prophecy fortold of a great winged creature
made from neither flesh nor wood or metal nor bone,
not feathers, skin nor wire alone,
whose force if harnessed and rode in flight
would turn the scales of wrath and might

A legion of Dillodians capture a great raptor. Is this the mythological beast of the prophecy? Is a time of change at hand? Or do the fates hold another story? Set to a sound track designed by Kingsley Reeves with SPPT company associate Nel Simpson playing the character of Arial, all is revealed at twighlight at the great summit of Animus Maximus, at the cross-roads of Grand Boulevarde and Reid Promenade in Joondalup March 21st.”

Mixed Media Productions joins World Puppetry Day celebrations

Posted by hil

Mixed Media Productions will be celebrating WPD by presenting ‘Shoreline’, a puppetry and story-telling performance for the whole family.

The Shoreline project is part of the this year’s Mountain Festival in Hobart which takes place from 19 to 28 March 2004. Shoreline involves performing artists Thomas Zotz and Heidi Callewaert of Mixed Media Productions as well as visual artist Chantale Delrue working with diverse community groups in the Eastern Shore region of the Derwent Estuary in the City of Clarence. The artists facilitate community workshops in making artworks including sculptural works, prayer flags, masks, costumes and puppets and storytelling as performance using the history of the region and ecology of Mt. Wellington as the focus. These artworks will become part of a public installation and be the site for a related storytelling performance encouraging audience participation, at the historic Bellerive Fort reserve with Mt. Wellington as a dramatic visual backdrop.

Van Gogh Hot Air Balloon

Posted by hil

I love the hot air balloon festivals in Canberra, particularly the one on now, part of Canberra Week. Getting up and mooching around the balloons as they set up on the lawns at Old Parliament House at dawn is a lot easier in autumn than in the cold of winter when the other major balloon festival takes place. I remember when the ballooning festivals started here about 16 years ago. I was blown away by the magic of the things: their sheer size, how they looked like giant pregnant women lying on the grass; the dragon’s breath roar of the burners; and their silence in between times. I also love the special shaped balloons. Over the years the most memorable have been the birthday cake, the upside down balloon, the cow, the polar bear, the Swatch watch, the Freddo frog, and the kookaburra. Its wonderfully surreal to see these things just appear out of nowhere in the sky, or see them floating among the clouds or drifting across the lake.

On Saturday, I went to this year’s lauch of the balloon fiesta. I was especially interested in the Van Gogh balloon, which was appearing in the southern hemisphere for the first time. And it was magnificent! Its a three-dimensional balloon replica of Van Gogh’s painting, Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, and was made in 2003 for the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh’s birth. The face has the rather grim exacting expresssion and textured brushstroke look that it should.

Apparently the balloon was made by modelling a 3-D plaster cast of the head from a digital photo of the portrait. The original portrait is kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Actually there are three self portraits in grey felt hats, two in dark felt hats, seven in straw hats and two in caps – obviously he was a man who liked hats! But I imagine it is this portrait that the balloon was modelled on. The brush strokes were copied onto the model on the areas of the head that were not in the painting, and then transferred onto more than 1000 pieces of balloon cloth. This was done with a computer-directed laser printer. Up close to the balloon you can see the cloth has a definite digital print appearance, but that is lost quickly as you step away.

The other special shape balloons this year are a frog (also from the Nederlands), a bunch of balloons, an Aussie Rules football, and the Liberty House (with two cats on its roof). The advertisment for tyres on the football flapped a little at one corner, gradually came loose all down one side, and then shimmered gracefully to the ground, even before the balloon took to the sky. Which was probably a good thing if it was going to fall off somewhere.

Many of the special shape balloons in the world, including the Van Gogh, are made by Cameron’s Balloons in Bristol, UK. According to the Wikipaedia entry, Don Cameron started making balloons in 1971 in his basement, and they now make about 500 a year. You can take a virtual tour around their factory here. Camerons also make airships! And they made the Breitling Orbiter balloon that made aviation history by flying round the world in 1999. There is a model kit of the orbiter, if you fancy such things.

One of the balloonists I chatted to was telling me that Kavanagh balloons are the only manufacturers of hot air balloons in Australia. She had a Kavanagh balloon (and immediately I noticed others), and was visting from Mildura where the The Nudie 16th World Hot Air Balloon Championship is going to be staged from the 26 June – 3 July 2004. With over 80 competitors from around the world already signed up, it sounds exciting.

Harvie Krumpet on SBS

Posted by hil

Adam Elliot’s animation Harvie Krumpet won an Oscar yesterday for best short animated film. It has already been shown in cinemas in Melbourne and Sydney, but next Monday we can all catch it on SBS at 9pm. The ABC Radio National program The Makers, always worth a listen, has an interview with Elliot on audio this week, and there is an interesting online interview with him, with a variety of the characters pictured, at Sleepy Brain.

World Puppetry Day : March 21

Posted by hil

Activities are being organized internationally to celebrate World Puppetry Day on March 21st. The day is to celebrate and recognize the art of puppetry, and our association, UNIMA. Sirppa Sivori-Asp, (Finnish actress, director of puppet theatre, drama, opera and television, ex-President of UNIMA International), has written an international message for World Puppetry Day.

Puppeteers and people interested and involved in puppetry are invited to organize their own celebrations of WPD. You can email information to me for inclusion (take the ‘about me’ link at the top right-hand of the page), and check in here over the next few weeks to see what others are planning.

Do use the ‘comment’ facility below posts to add details or to respond to ideas and plans, too.

75th Anniversary of UNIMA

Posted by hil

Yep, this year Union Internationale de la Marionnette, (UNIMA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary, making it the oldest theatrical association in the world.

The anniversary coincides with the 19th UNIMA World Congress which is to be held in Opatija, Croatia, from 7th to 11th June 2004, while the accompanying International Puppet Festival will be held in Rijeka from 6th to 12th June 2004.

Just a reminder too, that March 31st is the deadline for registration. Registration for the congress includes admittance to all shows accompanying the festival. There is also an option to register for attending the International Puppet Festival only, without participation in the work of the congress. The theme of the festival will be water in all its metaphorical and literal meanings.

Puppet carving workshop

Posted by hil


Antonin Muller and Michela Bartonova from Prague’s renowned Tineola Theatre are making their first Australian visit this year, and they’ll be holding an exclusive puppet carving workshop in March. This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in woodcarving or puppetry to learn from these acclaimed creative artists. The six-day workshop will be held near Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW, and numbers are strictly limited. You’ll need a basic set of woodcarving chisels, but experience is not necessary.

Dates: Saturday March 6 – Thursday March 11.
Cost: $630 plus cost of wood (tba)

For more information, or to make a booking, please call Lucy Turner on (02) 4871 2822.