The seventh ‘One Van’ International Festival of Puppetry will be taking place on January 21-24, 2005 in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.Ailie Cohen from Scotland will be bringing 2 shows, ‘Rumplestiltskin at the Fairytale Laundry’, and ‘Jazz Mouse’, to add to the fabulous Australian shows coming from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and north coast NSW.
It will be a chance to see Richard Hart’s Dream Puppets ‘Dreamer’ trilogy, ‘Muckheap’ by Polyglot Puppets, Aphid’s ‘A Quarrelling Pair, ‘Moon Shadow’ by Sydney Puppet Theatre and two productions by Krinkl Theatre, among others.

There will be great workshops for adults in manipulation, writing, mask and shadow puppetry and puppetry making workshops for kids. Philip Millar, Joanne Foley, Sue Giles and Gary Friedman are among those offering workshops.

‘Nature Band’ is a community puppet project being run as part of the festival too, as Sean Manners at Puppetry Australia explains:

‘Designed by Jenny Kee, a number of large street parade puppets, celebrating the flora and fauna of the area, are being constructed by local members of the community who then will use them in outdoor events in and around Blackheath during the Festival.

Construction workshops are being run every weekend in November, December & January apart from Christmas and New Year from 10.00am to 4.00pm in Blackheath next door to the Fire Station on the Great Western Highway. All are welcome over the age of 16 to come and join in. Come for the day or for an hour.’

A full list of performers and activities for ‘One Van’ can be seen at a glance here.

An umbrella event of the festival will be a 2-day Puppetry Conference on Jan 19 & 20th in Blackheath in which there will be discussion and focus groups on various topics. All puppeteers are welcome, but the emphasis is on puppetry in NSW. For information contact the directors:

David Collins – drcollins@ozemail.com.au
Sue Wallace – Ph/fax: (02) 9550 6457, or email spuppet@ozemail.com.au

For further information or to be on the festival mailing list contact:

Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre,
Gardiners Crescent
Blackheath
NSW 2785
Australia

Phone: (02) 4787 7770
Fax: (02) 4787 7777
Email: puppets@banc.ngo.org.au