O
P
E
NIn this issue:
Whatʼs On" " " " " " Puppetry book by Penny FrancisQTOP celebrates 40 years of puppetry" " Puppet Palace at Adelaide FringeHandspringʼs Tony Award" Festival in KazakhstanUNIMA News - Fringe Puppetry Night, and " Swinburne Puppetry and Mask recipient of Lorrie Gardner Scholarship " Kassius Kamel does THE Wedding
Issue Nø 15 May 2011
Suitable for all ages till May 14. Bookings 93355044
FRONT COVER IMAGE - Merely a Puppet ?
Osama Bin Laden by Chris van de Craats (Melbourne Puppet Carver) Puppet created for Punch and Judy take Afghanistan Puppet Palace 2011
After being named Number 1 selling tour in the world in 2010 - WALKING WITH
DINOSAURS - THE ARENA SPECTACULAR is back bigger and better
than ever.
20 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, T-rex come to life in this
stunning theatrical event.
Now In Melbourne - Hisense Arena 11.00 a.m. 3.00 p.m. 7.00 p.m. Wed 4 - Sun 15 May
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40 years of the
Queensland Theatre of Puppetry
by Rita Monteith
When one thinks of Queensland’s Surfers Paradise, images of glitzy hotels, meter maids and theme parks come to mind. Amidst all this, in a prime position in a park by the beach, the Queensland Theatre of Puppetry has been quietly working away to produce regular school holiday performances for local children and holiday makers. 2011 marks the 40th year of existence for this community theatre which has become a much loved Gold Coast institution.
It all began in 1952 when the late Mrs Kay Littler was living on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays and was inspired by a picture in a newspaper to start making puppets out of whatever materials she was able to lay her hands on. Her hobby soon turned into a profession and she began making figures for Fairytale windows in Brisbane department stores. After moving to the Gold Coast, she approached the then Queensland director of Cultural Activities, Mr Arthur Creedy, to find a good use for her puppets. Mr Creedy suggested she call a public meeting to form a puppet theatre. During that meeting in March 1971, the Queensland Theatre of Puppetry, affectionately known as “Q-TOP” was born. The late Mrs Gerda Pinter OAM was the chairperson of that meeting and was already a keen patron and director of theatre on the Gold Coast. She became the company’s first director and remained a staunch supporter and driving force until her death in 2003. The group worked in parks and kindergartens unti l 1974 when the counci l agreed to accommodate a puppet theatre in a bandshell which was being constructed in Macintosh Island Park, thus giving QTOP a permanent home.
Local artist and puppeteer, Dale Woodward, took over as director for some years and continued the work of producing original productions using handmade rod and glove puppets. Dale was a wonderful puppeteer and showman and kept the audiences entertained with his cheeky puppet characters and lively performances.
Today QTOP is run by a small, dedicated group of volunteers. Our longest serving puppeteer, Margaret Hymus, has been with the company since 1978 and is still puppeteering today.
Over the years we have prided ourselves in charging a small admission price so that the experience of live puppetry theatre is accessible to all. Our takings at the door and donations are our only funding yet we have managed to make major refurbishments to our theatre and even donate to local charities. We have a large and loyal audience, many of whom attended QTOP as children and are now returning with their own children.We run our own productions in the summer and winter Queensland school holidays and we get together weekly to work on these. Ideally we would love to be more involved in community events and run workshops for children. This would require more volunteers with some
expertise in puppetry. However, finding and retaining capable volunteers who have the time to commit to QTOP is a constant challenge.
In the past few years we have invited guest puppeteers to perform over the Easter holidays, which gives our audience a chance to see other forms of puppetry and also educates and inspires us in our own practice. This year we were delighted to host Richard Hart of Dream Puppets with his show, Superbia. We are interested to hear from other puppeteers or companies who would like to perform here on the Gold Coast in the future.This winter we will celebrate our 40th Birthday with a production called “The Three Little Pigs and Friends”. This will encompass 3 segments of some of our most popular shows and include some narration about our past. We are intending to display photos and information about the history of QTOP at these shows. If you have anything to contribute or if you have any memories of QTOP please forward it to us through our website www.qtop.org.au
Mum (Marja Liisa Gregory) and Dad (James Anderson) sing “There was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly” to Sebastian in “Bedtime Stories” January, 2009.
New Recruits Nina, Vicki and Dianne at rehearsals.
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Handspring wins Tony AwardCape Town's 30-year-old Handspring Puppet Company, which created the life-size and lifelike cane-and-plywood horse puppets for War Horse, was named a special Tony award winner earlier this month.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1049413.ece/South-African-puppeteers-win-Tony-Award
UNIMA AUSTRALIA
A CENTRE FOR L'UNION INTERNATIONALE DE LA MARIONETTE
CALLING FOR PUPPETEERS!Want an opportunity to showcase your work? This could be it!
UNIMA Australia is hosting a cabaret of puppet and visual theatre madness for one night only at the Melbourne Fringe Festival Club in September/October and we need YOU.
The aim of the evening is to showcase the incredible range of talent, celebrate the rich and vibrant history of Australian puppetry, raise awareness of our art form and reach new audiences.
We need roving acts, big and small stage pieces, puppet booths, work for both children and adults, solos, experimental craziness, old and new acts, crowd favourites, greatest hits and
experimental work you might want to trial in front of an audience for the first time. Anything goes!
Come celebrate the awe inspiring community we share by doing what we all do best.
At this point we are asking only for expressions of interest ‒ commitment comes later! The expressions of interest should outline broad details of the performance(s) being offered. No limit
on number of acts being proposed (if you've got twenty five minute acts you want to do, send them in, we'll do our best to find a place for them). The date has yet to be finalized, but will be
during the Fringe Festival which goes from September 21 ‒ October 9.
All interested parties should email Robert Reid, UNIMA’s curator for this wonderful event, at: [email protected]
Deadline for expressions of interest - Thursday 12th of May.
PUPPETRY, LOCAL + GLOBALWWW.UNIMA.ORG.AU
Lorrie Gardner Scholarship Award!UNIMA is pleased to announce that the 2011 Lorrie Gardner Scholarship has been awarded to Lana Schwarcz. The $1200 will enable her to accept an invitation to the Emerging Artist Program at the Eugene O’Neill Puppet Conference in Connecticut, USA. She will also attend and participate in the National Puppetry Festival, Atlanta, and upgrade her skills and networks at the Henson Digital Puppetry Studios, Los Angeles. Congratulations Lana!
UNIMA would also like to note that the other applications were of high quality, and we hope your projects will succeed. It would have been wonderful to fund them all!
Puppet Palace at the Adelaide Fringe 2011
Puppet Palace is coordinated by puppeteers Keith Preston and Lachlan Haig as part of the annual Adelaide Fringe Fes:val (over 700 individual events are registered in the Adelaide Fringe) This was our fiCh year of presen:ng Puppet Palace. It is presented in partnership with The Garden of Unearthly Delights which is a special performance precinct comprising seven venues with cafes, street stalls, shops and bars and featuring mainly cabaret, comedy, music, burlesque and other fringy kinds of entertainment.
During our four week season two hundred individual puppet performances were presented in the Puppet Palace venue. This year the venue was the best ever in terms of facili:es and it seated a capacity of 180 persons. Puppet Palace shows are by necessity all portable shows and run between 30-‐45 minutes in dura:on.
The good news is that this year our aSendance rose by around 60% with around 12,000 people aSending the ten shows we presented. Not all shows were box office ‘hits’ but many of them had virtual sell-‐out seasons.
Our major focus in 2011 was the hos:ng of a group from Iran, “The Appletree Company” who comprise four sisters, all are puppeteers as well as actors, singers and musicians. The group stayed for three weeks and presented their tradi:onal show ‘Pahlevan Kachal -‐ The Bald Hero’. The company gained sponsorship for their travel costs and also brought over two senior arts people from Tehran, Talehay Royayi and Majid NabiAllah. It is possible they are invi:ng several puppet and theatre companies to present their shows in Iranian puppet and theatre fes:vals in 2011/12. We toured Appletree Company to regional areas of SA, Port Augusta and the Clare Valley as well as arranging four schools performances. The group were a big hit wherever they went. One result of this visit by overseas acts is that we are discussing the possibility of future collabora:ve projects with these companies.
Puppet Farewell - Appletree Co, Iran.
We also hosted two companies from New Zealand, Stringbean Puppets with two small shows and Tablo street puppetry company . We also presented Canadian shadow puppeteer Jeff Atchem, who picked up this year’s Fringe Fes:val Puppetry Award for his new show ‘Swamp Juice’.
Puppet Palace also encourages the development and presenta:on of new puppetry projects and we were able to present our popular family show ‘Pigs In Wigs’ and an adult show ‘Punch and Judy Take Afghanistan’ a cukng new show combining war commentary in the context of a tradi:onal Punch show. Chris van der Craats from Melbourne created a fantas:c Julia Gillard, Osama bin Laden and Barak Obama amongst the ten new puppets created for this show. We hope to take this show to UK in 2012 for the 350th Birthday of Punch.
Best selling shows were again ‘The Amazing Drumming Monkeys Save The Planet’ and ‘Tyrannasaurus Sex’. Other shows presented included Lindi-‐Jane Ventriloquist show, as well as the ever popular Gothic and Seaside Punch and Judy shows which featured our youngest performer 11 year old musician Shivani Preston who accompanied the puppets with sensa:onal live music.
While we do not guarantee a set income for ar:sts we create an opportunity for puppeteers to perform a season in an exci:ng arts fes:val, to an audience, with no money upfront required and for a % of the doortake, which means ar:sts always earn some income. They do not lose. The ‘average’ net income to ar:sts for each show in Puppet Palace is now around $300 so if a company does a season of twenty five shows it can be significant. We have supported most visi:ng ar:sts with accommoda:on support for the dura:on of their stay in South Australia.
In addi:on this year Puppet Palace arranged a two day puppet venue at the Goolwa Wooden Boat Fes:val which was held at the same :me as the Adelaide Fringe. Dream Puppets presented ‘Dreamer in The Deep’ and Chris van der Craats presented his ‘Tradi:onal Punch and Judy’ as well as performances by New Zealand companies, Tablo and Stringbean.
Plans for 2012? Well we are assessing opportuni:es to further develop the Puppet Palace concept. In five years we have build a solid base for puppetry within a large fes:val. There is a Fringe Puppetry Award and an awareness of puppetry in this fes:val. In 2012 we may look at staging shows in other venues apart from our own and there is also an idea for a larger Puppetry weekend during the Adelaide Fringe where we can include workshops, displays and more complex shows. This is all subject to confirma:on of our arrangements with The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Word must be gekng around that we have a major puppetry project here as we have recently been contacted by puppeteers from Portugal, France, Philippines, Thailand, Spain and UK all wan:ng to come to Australia to take part in Puppet Palace. We would be interested in touring the overseas companies interstate to make their trip to Oz more viable.
If you are interested in taking part in future Puppet Palace projects in Adelaide between mid February and mid March please get in touch and drop us an email. We will soon be star:ng to plan our program for 2012. Keith Preston [email protected] Mob 0418 839 264 www.puppetpalace.com.au
WORLD PUPPET CARNIVAL *25 September to 2 October 2011*ALMATY, Kazakhstan [email protected]* Phone: +7 (727) 273-69-24 *[email protected]
Dear Puppeteers:
We would like to invite you to participate in a spectacular event in Almaty Kazakhstan: The 1st World Puppet Carnival to be held this coming 25 September to 2 October 2011.
All kinds of Theatre Shows and Puppet Films are welcome: for children and adults, from traditional Puppetry, to the new, innovation and experimental works, shows for theatre and shows for the street, ventriloquists… World Puppet Carnival is competition and International Jury will award you with many valuable prizes:
During the Carnival every participant will be provided with free accommodation, food, and daily pocket money.
You are kindly asked to choose one of your performances or puppet film and send with Application form to the Carnival until 15 June 2011.
Also you need to send :
- DVD with whole show, film or video
- 5 photos of the show or film
- A short story – summary- of the show /film?
All material send address:
World Puppet Carnival
Almaty State Puppet Theatre
Pushkin Street 63
050002 Almaty
Kazakhstan
Carnival Commission will select Performances and Films and inform you until 30 June 2011.
World Puppet Carnival welcomes Puppeteers from all over the World to meet in exotic and beautiful city of Almaty for Life Celebration on 1st World Puppet Carnival.
President of Carnival Carnival Artistic Director Madeniyet Yussupov Rod Petrovic
http://www.lutfestsubotica.net/slike/APPLICATION%20FORM%202010.pdf
Fest iva l
MANIPULATE MEPuppetry and Mask Performances by First Year Theatre Arts Students at
Swinburne
The first year students in the Diploma of Theatre Arts have just presented a showcase of their puppetry and mask work. With the guidance of their teachers,Dr John Butler (mask) and Julia Davis (puppetry), the students constructed their own puppets and masks and devised a three minute performance piece. The show, Manipulate Me , ran from 28th - 30th April and was warmly received by the audiences.
I was there, you know!
Of course, it’s outrageous that I didn’t receive an official invitation, but I managed to join the wedding party procession in my own inconspicuous way. Apparently, I bear more than a passing resemblance to certain members of a royal family. And I wore a scrumptious hat, especially crafted for the occasion. (My milliner tells me it was almost an original; he’s only ever made one other - for an elderly woman attending her grandson’s wedding). Besides, canary yellow quite becomes me, as you can see.
Anyway, after the long haul up the westminstered aisle, I parked myself in the choir stalls so as to get a decent view of the proceedings. And I did, I did. I could even tell you what those two naughty brothers were whispering about before the arrival of the lovely bride - but I won’t (due to the dictates of dromedarian discretion).
I’m sure the ceremony itself was lovely, but I was more than a little distracted trying to avoid all the clumps of chewing gum stuck to the choir stall pews, and by the stashes of mobile play stations, piles of swap cards and water pistols barely concealed behind the abbey’s embroidered hassocks. Of course, the little cherubs wouldn’t dare, not while I had my dromedarian eye on them. ( I joined in with the anthem, motet and ‘Blest Pair of Sirens’, just to add a little stentorian body to all that piping).
And so it went and so it went and it went on and finally there was the balcony kiss and you all turned off the TV and went to bed, but I partied on with the royals and ended up losing my precious triple string of pearls.
May we all get our just desserts. K
JUST DESSERTS
with
Kassius Kamel
About O.P.E.N (Oz Puppetry Email Newsletter)
O.P.E.N. is a free and voluntarily produced newsletter and is open to all. You can contactus on [email protected] Past issues of O.P.E.N. can also be accessed onour website: www.dreampuppets.com
Please send reports of any known or suspected puppet activity by the 25th of each month.(Profiles of puppet characters or drawings/cartoons also welcome). Please keep photoresolutions low. Preferably send written material in .doc form so that it can be edited orrearranged on the page.
Publication will be during the first week of each month.
If you have urgent news: deadlines or notice of performances previously notadvertised, you can send it to us for inclusion in Op-date at any time.
LINKS to more information about Australian puppetry:
www.PUPPETRYNEWS.comhttp://africanpuppet.blogspot.comwww.unima.org.auhttp://twitter.com/OzPuppetrywww.dreampuppets.comwww.puppetpalace.com.auwww.schoolofpuppetry.com.au!! ! ! ! ! ! ! Julia Davis and Richard Hart,!May, 2011
! ! ! You never know who is reading O.P.E.N.
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