Here’s a great photo of Xolo, Royal de Luxe‘s giant dog! It’s just been announced that Xolo will be appearing the Sea Odyssey Giant Spectacle in Liverpool in a couple of weeks time, along with the Little Giantess and her uncle, the deep sea diver.
Previously:
Handspring Puppet Company UK, the sister company to Handspring Puppet Company South Africa, has a major new dance theatre production called Crow premiering in mid-June as part of the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival in London. It is inspired by Ted Hughes’ 1970 poetic work Crow.
Crow witnesses God’s creation in the Garden of Eden and adds his own dry trickery to the events. Droll, lonely, adaptable, laughing, watching, instinctive and curious, Crow is in all of us, and in these poems Hughes presents the songs he would sing. – London 2012 Festival
The prototype puppet looks cool! (via the Telegraph.co.uk)
As does the illustration for the promotional material:
Eric Bass and Sandglass Theater have been appealing for support on Kickstarter for their theatre project D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks. It will be full-length theatre piece based on stories written by groups of people with late-stage dementia, exploring the surprising creative potential of people living with dementia. There is a short but interesting making video included. The appeal has been successful, but I dare say they wouldn’t say no to further pledges!
These are two videos of a cool audiovisual installation, Mécaniques Discursives, being developed by Yannick Jacquet (aka Legoman) and Fred Penelle. It’s an intiguing mixture of shadows and shadow puppets, unlikely contraptions, projection mapping, and edgy music.
Four years ago La Machine debuted their giant spider, La Princesse in Liverpool. This year, as one of the cities directly connected with the Titanic which sank on 15 April 1912, it’s marking the centenary with numerous events, the highlight of which will be the Sea Odyssey Giant Spectacle by the associated company, Royal de Luxe, on 20 – 22 April. It’ll feature the Little Giantess and her uncle, the deep sea diver, in a story adapted for the occasion. A number of cool promo ads in which the Little Giantess is wandering the city and peeping into different famous places have been released.
Search my blog for La Machine and Royal de Luxe if you are interested in more links – I’ve posted a lot about them and their influence over the years!
The two white butterflies body suits that I was working on last week are finished. Last Sunday one of the butterflies was out and about at the Canberra Airport Open Day. You can see more photos taken on the day at The Fool Factory’s gallery.
A Bird, A Tree, The Moon is the most recent production by Melbourne visual theatre company Peepshow Inc. The pesky skeleton bird puppet is a lovely! Directed by Melinda Hetzel and performed by Nick Barlow and Angela Orrego, the show played to passers-by outdoors at night in City Square. Alison Croggon has a great review.
It sounds as if the inaugural Tarrengower Puppetfest was very succesful. The Tarrengower Times has a gallery of photos from the weekend taken by Andrew Hobbs.
The National Theatre and Global Creatures are seeking performers /puppeteers for its upcoming production of War Horse, which will open at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, January 2013. Their casting brief (pdf) gives details and who to contact if you are interested.
Aardman’s latest movie The Pirates! – In An Adventure With Scientists is released on 28 March, and looks like it will be lots of fun. Here are three videos that give a look at the stop motion puppets and the making process.
David Sztypuljak’s video has some great footage of the sets, workshops and puppets. He also has an accompanying arcticle:
Andrew Bloxham talks about the complex process of creating the Pirate Captain’s luxurious beard:
And Caroline Hague, puppet and maintenance coordinator, talks about looking after the puppets.
Happy World Puppetry Day to everyone out there! This year’s WPD message (pdf) is by the great Catalan multidisciplinary artist, Joan Baixas.
Above, my puppeteer friend Gary Friedman is interviewed by Con Quest about how WPD is celebrated, and he tells how he has chosen today to launch his new more expanded website, Puppetry News, which will include web-based puppetry courses down the track.
