A 60 second version of Inception, drawing on the toy theatre tradition. Pretty accurate!
puppets
Norman Hetherington/Mr Squiggle tribute on iView
I was sad to hear a couple of days ago that Norman Hetherington, the creator and puppeteer of Mr. Squiggle had died. The ABC has made their Australian Story program on him available on iView as a tribute. I was delighted that it includes some behind the scenes footage that shows how Mr Squiggle is operated! Be quick though, it’s is only available to view for 6 days!
Previously:
- ‘Upside down! Upside down’ – the squiggle drawn for me at the Puppetry Summit, 2002
- Mr Squiggle and friends – photos of the puppets on exhibition at Unima2008, Perth.
Xolo, Royal de Luxe’s new puppet
(Photo credit: Dalo_Pix2)
Royal de Luxe have just staged a Mexican re-imagining of their Little Giantess street theatre spectacular in Guadalajara as part of the Celebrando el Centenario de la Revolución Mexicana. I love the little giantess’s beautiful colourful dress and pigtails. She was accompanied by her farmer uncle, and a new character, a giant hairless Mexican dog, Xolo, who is satisfyingly doggy in the way it pricks up its ears and lopes along. There are good photos at the Guadalajara Reporter, Super Punch, and Royal de Luxe Central. I also love this street art of Xolo.
The Narrative of Victor Karloch
This is the trailer for The Narrative of Victor Karloch, a travelling gothic horror stage show created by Kevin McTurk and ‘presented in the style of an eerie Victorian triptych puppet theatre’. The puppets looks great, an interesting mix of 75cm tall rod puppets, shadow puppetry and elements of bunraku.
(via Laughing Squid)
Handspring’s Or You Could Kiss Me
(Photograph credit: Tristram Kenton )
Handspring Puppet Company‘s new production Or you could kiss me at London’s National Theatre is about two men who have been lifelong partners, coming to the end of their lives. The puppets look amazing! Don’t miss the great sketchbook by the designer and maker, Adrian Kohler, as well as two short videos, Choreographing Breath and Choreographing Thought which show some of the process of bringing the puppets to life. And some extra links:
Thoughts about Or You Could Kiss Me by Rich Rusk
Time: Puppet Masters: South Africa’s Handspring
Handspring ‘s book about their company can be ordered through their site.
World of Paper creativity workshop in Sydney
Gary Friedman from Puppetry News and Sharon Gelber are running one of their awesome day-long creativity workshops A World of Paper in Sydney on 10 October. They have given the workshop all over the world, but maybe not in Sydney before. Time is running out to sign up, so don’t miss out – check it out now and give yourself a treat.
Cool crochet masks
These cool crocheted fox masks are only a couple of the unusual masks made by Huck and Stuff. I’m such a slow and occasional knitter and crocheter myself (in fact I’ve crocheted so seldom I shouldn’t count as one at all) that I’m amazed at the use of either to make masks or puppets. But they look great and given the wire frame construction are probably light and airy to wear, which is a terrific advantage.
If you remember the 1980’s ABC TV series of Blinky Bill, the puppets for that were designed and knitted by Beverley Campbell-Jackson, one of the founders of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre .
(via Whip up)
Little articulated puppet heads
Gamla Model Makers have developed these great little articulated puppet heads for an upcoming Australian stop motion animation movie (I wonder which one?). They are only 40mm tall, but have quite a range of possible expressions. On the page they look like emoticons, don’t they?
Goose Lagoon
Check out these fabulous magpie geese puppets! They were made by Erth, for the production Goose Lagoon, a new contemporary dance work by Gary Lang NT Dance Company which premiered recently at the Darwin Festival. Here are the pick of the links I could find:
- Goose Lagoon and the Gluteus Maximus – Bob Gosford
- Goose Lagoon, Darwin Festival – Erth Blog
- Top End mythology, with puppets – The Australian
- Gary Lang NT Dance Company’s Goose Lagoon – artsHub reveiw
