The Greatest Exhibition

The Greatest Exhibition (Illustration for visual narrative, March 2017, Acrylic on tracing paper mixed on acetate)

 

Artist & Illustrator, Fann Peeti
[See her mouse toy theatre HERE...]

In this project, I created a replica of The Crystal Palace, the building in The Great Exhibition of 1851. This artwork shows ten (10) innovations that changed the world. 


Also, it tells the viewer that the most incredible creation is themselves, hopefully to increase viewer's self esteem.

Pop-up Theater Course!

A unique opportunity to learn, study, meet, and collaboratively work with artists from all over the world from your chair at home...

• Course title: Pop-Up Methods and Techniques as a Basis for Theater.
• Puppets for Pop-Up Stages.
• The last lesson will be dedicated to personal counseling and watching the works.

Opens on Thursday 20.8 at 8 pm Israel time; the course will be held weekly for five consecutive weeks - 20.8, 27.8, 3.9, 10.9, 17.9

The course will be in English and includes personalized online guidance.
Number of participants, about 15, and each lesson will last 2-3 academic hours.

Price: US $ 100, payment via PayPal or Western Union Service)

For more details, contact Galia Levy-Grad

The Oz Head, Wicked Stage Model

May Fayre Memories Documentary

For 45 years Maggie Pinhorn and Alternative Arts have organised the Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival. In this video Punch and Judy professors, puppeteers, entertainers and puppet builders discuss what makes the day so magical, why people travel from across the globe to attend, and thank Maggie for her unparalleled contribution to British puppetry.

Student Production: Shakespeare Film Adaptation

Anglia Ruskin University's Film & Television program students created this toy theatre trailer recently. They shared with me that, "...We are going to release a very different version very soon!"

I look forward to it!

Popovy Sisters: Dolls by Hand

Magnetic Toy Theatre

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Just practising on #toytheatres with new #magnetics system to make figures #dance in $Sugg&Davidsons new Theatre based on Music Room at #brightonpavilion before packing it up to send to our lovely client in #mumbai

A post shared by Sugg&Davidson (@philipalexandersugg) on Jun 1, 2018 at 11:24am PDT

Lost & Found: Tinkering with Intent

Take a peek into Blair's bizarre and beautiful world. In a remote corner of New Zealand's South Island, tucked away among the last remaining tracts of native forest, lies a little-known place of wonder. It is the life's work and extraordinary creation of inventor, artist and self-confessed tinkerer, Blair Somerville.

For over twenty years Blair has single-handedly owned, operated and ceaselessly expanded the Lost Gypsy Gallery, his wonderland of homegrown wizardry and a playground for kids and adults alike. Using only recycled materials, Blair takes DIY to artistic extremes. His creations are ingenious, interactive, and often hilariously impractical. They take many shapes and forms and share an uncanny ability to amaze, entertain and inspire.


Art and entertainment don't need to be expensive. Sometimes the most fascinating and wonderful things come from the most peculiar places.

Blair Somerville lives in the remote town of Papatowai, on the South Island of New Zealand. He uses found materials and other curious objects which he re-purposes into magical moving artworks.

Blair realized early on that he didn't need a lot to live, and that money and material possessions were not important. Instead he has chosen to value happiness, creativity, and well-being.
__________

If you'd like to visit Blair, please note that he is open summers only, November - April, 10am to 5pm. Closed Wednesdays

Pollock's Toy Museum Exhibition

gal·li·mau·fry 

/ˌɡaləˈmôfrē/ 

a confused jumble or medley of things.
"a glorious gallimaufry of childhood perceptions"

The 14 artists participating in A Pollock’s Gallimaufry have been offered unprecedented access to the Museum’s international array of toys, dolls, puppets, games, gadgets, and the paper theatres for which it is best known, as well as its archive of original engraved copper plates used in the production of those theatres. The resulting pieces, installed as stand-alone displays and interventions across the Museum, span a variety of approaches, processes and media.

A Pollock’s Gallimaufry will be a month long event showing works by contemporary artists working in a variety of crafts and media inspired by the unique, mostly Victorian, collection at the two historic buildings on the corner of Scala Street and Whitfield Street.

Jack Fawdry, whose great grandmother founded the museum, is curating the exhibition and has gathered the artists together to produce the works.

“It’s quite exciting because the toy theatre has had a turbulent past and it almost disappeared completely,” says Fawdry who is an accomplished artist and printmaker.

“Mr Pollock was the last great publisher of toy theatres, then he went out of business. After the Second World War Britain started to modernise and change and its Victorian past was slightly left behind.

“So that’s when Marguerite, my great grandma, comes in and starts the museum in homage to toy theatres,” he says.

- From Museum is keeping the drama of toy theatre alive with a new exhibition

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Pheew! What an unusual eve. Me and @chapseth first toy theater performance! Wonderfull way to open @apollocksgallimaufry. Thank you to all who took part and to all those who had part took apon them! Beautiful long live the Toy Theater! Hurrah hurrah hurrah!

A post shared by Jack Fawdry Tatham (@jackfawdrytatham) on Nov 8, 2019 at 12:56pm PST

Second Annual Winnipeg Crankie Festival

The 2nd Annual Winnipeg Crankie Festival, taking place at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, NOVEMBER 8-10th, 2019 promises to expand on the inaugural edition as a new, interactive and participatory festival, where audience members can immerse themselves in music and art; on and off stage.

 We are honoured to dedicate this year's festival to Canadian Folk Music Pioneer, Mitch Podolak.

To find out more, visit the festival website here, or check out the poster, below...

Pontine Theatre: Exciting Improvements!

Pontine Theatre announces its 42nd Performance Season at its newly renovated venue located in Portsmouth's West End at #1 Plains Avenue. Audiences will enjoy ample free onsite parking and comfortable seating in the intimately-scaled, fully-accessible studio theatre. This season offers three original productions by the company and two productions by invited guest artsts.

First up on the schedule is Pontine's adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Gothic Romance, The House of the Seven Gables, playing October 11- 27. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, the story follows several generations of the ill-fated Pyncheon family, bowed under a curse dating from the famous witch trials, and trapped in the once magnificent but now decrepit family mansion. This production is underwritten by Piscataqua Savings Bank.

November 8-10, guest artists, Great Small Works, perform their original production Three Graces & Other Works. This company is a collective of artists who draw on folk, avant-garde, and popular theater traditions to address contemporary issues. Based in New York City, they produce works on a variety of scales from outdoor pageants with giant puppets to miniature "toy theater" spectacles. The company has received a Puppeteers of America Jim Henson Award, a Village Voice OBIE Award, and an UNIMA Citation for excellence in puppetry.

Pontine celebrates the Holiday Season, November 29 - December 8, with its annual New England Christmas production. This year's rendition features a story by South Berwick, Maine's celebrated author, Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909). A Neighbor's Landmark: A Winter Tale with a Christmas Ending, is a tale set in a rustic coastal fishing village populated by taciturn Yankee characters who struggle to bring their community together in time for Christmas.

January 24-26, Pontine presents guest artist, Sarah Frechette, founder of Puppetkabob, in her original production, The Snowflake Man. The piece is inspired by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, the self-educated farmer and scientist who attracted world-wide attention when he bccame the first person to photograph a single snow crystal. The play features creative storytelling, intricately designed Czech-style marionettes, and a striking pop-up book of water color scenery. This UNIMA-USA award-winning show tells a little known story to magical effect. Ms. Frechette studied marionettes in Germany with legendary Master Puppeteer, Albrecht Roser.

The season culminates March 27 - April 12 with Pontine's premiere of a new production, Robert Frost's New Hampshire, based on the early poems of the long-time summer resident of Franconia NH. Known for his New England settings, his down-to-earth, stark depictions of the difficulties of rural farm life, and his use of colloquial speech, Frost is widely admired as a true American Master.

Performances are Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm and Sundays at 2pm. The five-event Season Subscription Package is $108 and may be purchased online at www.pontine.org. Tickets for single shows are $27 and may also be purchased online. All productions are designed for adult audiences. Performances are offered at Pontine's resident venue located at #1 Plains Avenue in Portsmouth's West End. Pontine Theatre is supported by a grant from the NH State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Source:  Broadway World

Coming in July: The Smallest Show on Earth!

Coming up next month in July: The Geisel Library's annual Paper Theatre Festival, aka

..."the Smallest Show on Earth"!

Every year, the UC San Diego Library hosts a Paper Theatre Festival, celebrating an art form with roots in Victorian Era Europe. Paper theatres, also known as toy theatres, were used to promote productions. They were printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. The kits were then assembled at home and plays were performed for family members and guests, sometimes with live musical accompaniment. The theaters gradually declined in popularity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but have enjoyed a resurgence in interest in recent years among many puppeteers, filmmakers, theater historians, and hobbyists. Presently, there are numerous international paper theater festivals throughout the Americas and Europe, as well as several museums.

Watch this short documentary celebrating paper theatre filmed by UCSD-TV for the Library’s Channel!

Action Shot

From the film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is a scene showing a mechanical prop operated off-stage that provides the illusion of a sea monster 'eating' a sailing ship.  What fun!

Although this was meant in the film to be full-size, the same type of mechanisms, scaled down, would do beautifully in the toy theatre.  Hmmmm...that gives me an idea.......

Curious Contraptions: Now through January 20th

Going on right now is a fascinating, fun exhibition of automata at San Francisco's Exploratorium. 

The featured artists are from around the world, and have a wide variety of styles, of which only a few are shown in the above film clip.

To find out more, visit the exhibition's page...

Shadow Smash Hit: Feathers of Fire

Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, created and directed by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist. The play unfolds an action-packed magical tale of star-crossed lovers from the 10th-century Persian epic Shahnameh (‘The Book of Kings’)

6th International Toy Theatre Festival at Vischmarkt

I am happy to pass on that there will be another toy theatre festival in Harderwijk, Netherlands next month, May 9-11, 2018!



The organizers, Harry and Tieneke Oudekerk, have shared:

Eleven paper theater companies from the Netherlands, Germany, and England have been invited to perform at the festival this year.  Over the course of the festival, more than 40 performances will be shown in residential buildings around Historic Vischmarkt. 

It is a special feature of the festival that you not only get to see jewels of this small form of theater, but also have the unique opportunity to look behind the facades of beautiful historic homes and to talk to their residents. A wonderful concept, it allows visitors to feel the familiar atmosphere in which paper theater originally took place. The central meeting place for the players and season ticket holders will be the old synagogue again this year - a wonderful location to meet friends and talk shop.

The theatre companies/individuals and their plays that will be performing are:

• Poppentheater Damiet: "Het Bubbelbabbel bos"
• Haases Papiertheater: "James Honk versus Dr. Kamishibai"
• Paper Theater Fabula: "Kalief Oojevaar"
• Paper Theater Chaya: "Peter en de Wolf"
• Paper Theater Kitzingen: "De Kikkerkoning"
• Roman's Private Theater: "The Hokusai Museum"
• Papiertheater Heringsdorf: "SOS Italia"
• Papirniks' Paper Theater: "The Flying Dutchman"
• Poppentheater Belletje Sterk: "Ssst! De Tijger slaaps"
• Phoenix Paper Theater: "De Nachtegaal Chinese"
• Alice's Upside Down Theater: "Alice in Wonderland" (Ted Hawkins)

AutomataCon 2018

AutomataCon hasn't been around all that long. But it's picking up steam. There has been a growing renaissance around kinetic, mechanical art, aka automata, in recent years. All around the world. Enter Brett King, who decided it was time to showcase the creations of all these amazing artists from around the world. And not only showcase, but provide a forum where they can network and collaborate.

AutomataCon 2018 is coming up May 18-20, 2018.  You can find out the details here, including what artists will be attending.  It looks like it'll be an amazing convention!

Take a look at the video below, showing highlights from the last convention...

Maker Spotlight: Maggie Rudy & Mouseland

Recently, I discovered a wonderful article about  Maker Maggie Rudy, who invited us into her studio where all the magic happens for Mouseland...

Artist & Author, Maggie Rudy

Maggie’s fascination with mice began in the third grade, when her family moved to Lancaster, England, where her father, a biologist, had a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in physiology. She awoke from her “baby stupor” to an English aesthetic that would remain hugely influential in her life: hedgerows, gypsy carts, and a field trip to the home of Beatrix Potter. From a shop in Lancaster, the Rudy household acquired some mice made of felt. She and sisters Susy and Annie dressed them and placed them in a variety of settings. The “rapture of the tiny” that she celebrated in childhood has never left her.
- Rapture of the Tiny

The short film below is fun to watch, where Maggie lets us in to her studio, and shows us a few of her secrets on how she makes the magic happen!


Currently, Maggie has a traveling diorama touring the US, as shown below. Be sure and check it out if you can, when it comes near you!

House of Automata

In a wood in the far North of Scotland, there is a magical workshop where Maria and Micheal Start work preserving and restoring antique automata. With over 25 years experience, they painstakingly bring these pieces back to life...

The House of Automata from Euan Myles on Vimeo.


(BBC) - Automata in The Modern Age from Matthew Knight on Vimeo.

Matthew Knight, the filmmaker, says: 

"Automata are mechanical moving figures; throughout history their lifelike movements have fascinated such creative minds as Da Vinci and Faberge. 

"One century ago however, production fell silent. Now though, in a fortuitous twist, the computer age is turning the gears of an automata revival. Michael and Maria Start who run the House of Automata in Scotland are two of the world's foremost restorers of antique automata. 

"Here, they discuss their love for automata, and why more people are drawn to the craft."

Japanese Theatre Traditions to be Featured at Lincoln Center

On March 8th, Zach Dorn will join Julie Taymor in conversation regarding his experiences in Japan studying Edo Era mechanical puppetry and fusuma karakuri.  They will also be joined by the other 2018 fellows, Hector Flores Komatsu and Jesca Prudencio. The event is free! You can reserve tickets for the event here. Reservations are recommended! 


Taymor World Theater Fellowship WRAP-UP 2018 from MINORapocalypse on Vimeo.