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.

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

The Chelm Legend: Fool Moon

A theatrical adaptation based on the humorous stories of Chelem and Eastern European Jewish folklore. Leimech and Laizer set out on an adventure to find a new moon for the town of Chelem to replace the one that was stolen.

The plot unfolds via a pop-up book, combined with puppets and shadows and incorporating original klezmer...



Reviews:

Galia Levy Grad has created a world of magic and beauty using the simplest, most minimalist techniques: the entire drama materializes out of a pop-up picture book. The visibility of the theatrical mechanism to the audience only serves to enhance the magic and liveliness of the two-dimensional figures. Galia has created exhilarating theatrical moments by means of inventive, aesthetic and highly imaginative elements. 

 - Comments by Judges’ Panel, 22nd Haifa International Children's Theatre Festival, 2012

A brilliant adaptation of the Chelm stories for paper theater, created jointly by Naomi Yoeli and Galia Levy Grad. (The latter is also the narrator and manipulates the characters, engaging in lively dialogue with them.) It’s impossible not to fall in love with Levy Grad, who brings to life the townspeople made of beautifully decorated papercuts; they appear, in fact, from an old book of tales, like pop-up postcards. The show reminds us of the true magic of theater and is an extraordinary glimpse at some wonderful stories from Jewish culture.

- Merav Yudilovitch, Ynet

A British Christmas Tradition: Pantomimes

Pages from printed programme for Robinson Crusoe pantomime performed at the Theatre  Royal, 
Drury Lane, December 1881, England.  (c) Victorian & Albert Museum, London

Pantomimes are a mainly British tradition, that has come to be performed almost exclusively in modern times around Christmas.

Being a type of theatre, pantomimes have of course, been adapted to the toy theatre.  The toy theatre versions originally came out during the Victorian age.  Victorian pantomime inspired today's versions, but were very much of their time.  The history of pantomimes goes back much further, however...

Great Small Works: NEW SHOW!

We are delighted to announce that La MaMa, in association with Great Small Works, presents our newest show,  

Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls

From October 28th through November 6th, 2016.

Please come, invite your friends, and support this exciting project!

Did we say we are delighted?

Yes, indeed!

And we are also struggling to find the funds to make these performances possible. Any donation will go a long way toward paying our artists -- keeping flavorful modernist Yiddish alive! Asking useful questions in tough times! Laughing at jokes our ancestors laughed at (still funny and in translation!) 
       

WE THANK YOU!

Great Small Works revisits the work of radical 20th-century New York City puppeteers Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler. In a bilingual Yiddish-English play that uses Maud and Cutler's satirical puppet scripts and original graphics, together with Great Small Works' own puppets and projections, and appearances by demented dybbuks and Mae West, Muntergang is a meditation on historical models for changing power relationships.

Created in collaboration with the archive of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research by Great Small Works members John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine and Roberto Rossi.

With puppeteers Joseph Therrien and Sam Wilson

Music by Jessica Lurie and Hannah Temple

Lights by Meredith Holch; sound by Akeyjoa Ando

Script by Jenny Romaine

Nourish your queer political desire today. Enjoy this limitless non-normalized,  very open utopian vision of what's possible...

Buy tickets here

Make a donation here

Tunnel Book: Zombifying a Classic

When watching a recent film entitled, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, I was enchanted by its opening prologue...

In keeping with Regency-era authenticity, the prologue unfolds through a tunnel book, providing a theatrical stage for the fictional narrative to take place. Working with satirical newspaper cartoonist Martin Rowson, Ben and team transformed hand drawn illustrations into 3D animations, intricately rendered and paced to the prologue’s voice over narration...Pride + Prejudice + Zombies was all done in 3D, the team worked hard to recreate the visceral and dusty reality of a regency tunnel book, they added creases, paper texture, flickering candle light, jerky animation, lens distortion and depth. - The Mill

A wonderful article about the "world-building mashup".

The Ghastly Dreadfuls: Vaudeville Puppet Theatre

An amazing show called "The Ghastly Dreadfuls:  Raising Spirits" is being performed right now, through October 31st, at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reporters...recently had the pleasure of attending a performance of the award-winning The Ghastly Dreadfuls, and were astounded by the beautiful mixture of live music and dance combined with incredible elaborate puppet shorts. From the set design to the choreography, this production proved to be one of the most cleverly crafted and executed theater sets this reporter has seen in recent years. 

A well rounded production introduced the audience to the Dreadful Family of ghouls who rise from the grave during this time of year and take human form. Rising from the dead, it seems, involves a lot of wonderful showmanship and musicianship in Victorian inspired costuming. Each of the Dreadful is introduced in turn by the ring master of this frightful circus, Simply Dreadful. 

The show continues by interspersing vaudeville styles shows with a selection of puppet vignettes representing puppet stories from around the globe. Some of the vignettes include songs such as the opener, “La Petite Vampyr,” and others work through voice over or dramatization, such as the compelling “11:59″. Not one of the pieces or songs fell flat. In a very real way, this production combined the best of early 20th century live theater with the best of modern puppetry.           

- Ghastly Dreadfuls Sell Out at Center for Puppetry Arts  

Lady Dreadful (Reay Kaplan)

Dapperly Dreadful (Bryan Mercer)

Dizzily Dreadful (Scott E. DePoy)

Shockingly Dreadful (Spencer G. Stephens)

Daftly Dreadful (Kristin Haverty)

Catly Dreadful (Jason von Hinezmeyer)

Simply Dreadful (Jon Ludwig)

Above and below - Cast: Scott DePoy, Kristin Haverty, Reay Kaplan, Jon Ludwig, Spencer G. Stephens, Bryan Mercer, Jason von Hinezmeyer

All portraits by Clay Walker

Pollock's Toy Museum & Eddy Fawdry

Awhile back a profile was done of the museum, by none other than Professor Ronald Hutton, which is lovely indeed for those of us halfway around the world who may never get to visit there in person. It is, in a limited sense, a virtual tour. Enjoy this clip from the program that featured the Pollock's Toy Museum...



Reviews:

Eddy Fawdry (and his wee dog Haggis) preside over this strange secret world of vintage toys, which he inherited from his grandparents and they from the Hoxton-based Pollock family, which made famous toy theaters. In room after creaky room, history stares back at you with doll’s eyes: puppets, Gollywogs, the 1921 forerunner to G.I. Joe (Swiss Action Man), doll’s houses, mechanical cast-iron banks, 1950s rocket toys, a board game based on the Falkland Islands invasion that was banned for being in poor taste. Stories are everywhere and the kitsch factor is through the roof, which brings us to the quirky, spirited building, which has been left leaning and unrestored since its erection in the 1780s (but received a new roof after the Luftwaffe blew off the original one). The ground-floor shop stocks unusual, hard-to-find toys that don’t cost much, including handmade items and cardboard theaters—the original inspiration for this one-of-a-kind time warp.

- Jason Cochran (Frommer's)

Cat, Mouse with a Brick, and Cop: The Eternal Triangle

In the UK in 1996, a three-minute pilot was created in hopes of launching a new Krazy Kat cartoon series.  It was directed by Derek Mogford and produced by Spitting Image Productions.

Krazy Kat had been animated often before, and always in long-running and successful series. There were theatrical Krazy Kat cartoons in some form or another running from 1916 to the end of the thirties, and in the sixties the character was brought back for a television series.

So what makes this 1996 Krazy Kat cartoon so interesting if the strip has been animated so many times before? The difference is that, apart from being British, was that it was the first (and so far only) time the characters of Krazy Kat had been brought to life using stop-motion animation. The pilot was produced by Spitting Image Productions and directed by Derek Mogford, an animator who had previously directed several stop-motion children shows including Postman Pat and Bertha.

Sadly, the pilot was never aired and did not lead to a series.

- Credit: Smart Than the Average!

Doctor Who in the Small

Scene from BBC 2013 Doctor Who Christmas Special:  The Doctor contemplates alien with his sonic screwdriver

Doctor Puppet, created by
Alison Stern

With this being the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, there are many creative projects and performances being inspired by the Doctor.  This includes projects that take the doctor to the small stage, as well as to the world of stop-motion film shorts.

The creativity of the people behind these projects boggles the mind.  Even the official Doctor Who program itself will be featuring a Punch-and-Judy-like puppet story in this year's Christmas Special!

The Burke Dollhouse

6' wide x 5' tall.  Fully functioning electrical lighting, 
and running water in the kitchen and bathroom...

Recently, a very special dollhouse was donated to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA).

It's special because of its size and complexity.  The rooms were outfitted over many years, and no attention to detail was spared.

One can look into each corner of a room, and discover something new upon every viewing.  The house is truly a work of miniature art.





The dollhouse was donated by Mary Livingston [Griggs] Burke, who passed away in 2012. It was built in the early 20th century, and had been added to over the decades by the original owner and her daughter. The family foundation donated the dollhouse to the MIA in 2013.

Ms. Burke, a distinguished art collector,  made known her intention to donate her Japanese art collection upon her death to the MIA.  The dollhouse may have been a fortunate after thought that the MIA inherited along with it.

Michelle Mausi, the author of
Tales of the Tchotcke Family 

One of the staff at the MIA began taking snapshots of the rooms as well as the miniature figurine characters that inhabit them, captioning each image with a fictional narrative.

The figurines became the Tchotcke family.  They had individual names, back stories, and narratives for their particular scenes.

You'll want to check the stories out here and here.

Traveling Family Puppeteers

Puppet Heap

Click to see Video...

Puppet Buzz posted today about a delightful series of videos that I had to pass on.  They are highly amusing and just plain fun.  Lots of hard work and love obviously went into their production, and it shows!

GSW9: Post-Festival Images

Photo by Tess Elliott

A very fun toy theatre by Nicole Schulman - I love the chicken feet!

GSW8 Spotlight

"The Little Mermaid" - Great Small Works 8th International Toy Theatre Festival from btay on Vimeo.

From last year, comes this video of a very unique, original toy theatre.

If you can make it to this year's festival (see more here) - it starts today and goes through June 13th!

Backstage Cat II

Images by Bill Reynolds
Whiskers is hanging out backstage again. He's very sleepy. He can't be bothered that it's time to change scenery...

For some reason I keep thinking of him as Godzilla Kitty when I see him against this miniature perspective!

Backstage Cat

This is Whiskers. He is a Maine Coon cat. His new favorite hangout is backstage in my toy theatre.

For some reason both the Wizard of Oz (who's behind the curtain?!) and Snagglepuss ("...exit, stage left!") pop into my head.

Panto

In the spirit of Christmas, I offer this link to a video of a 2002 production of Dick Whittington.

Now I fully admit as an American I was totally ignorant of this until recently, but was delighted to watch it. What fun!

Opera in 10 Minutes

Fraggle Rock: Behind the scenes

Thanks to Puppet Buzz, here are amazing 'behind-the-scenes' vids about one of my all-time favorite shows, Fraggle Rock!