Pumpkin Time!

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It’s pumpkin 🎃 time. Starting this Thursday expect some spooky goings on in your feed . . . . . #cinderella #pumpkin #cinderellacoach #toytheatre #fairytale #toptoytuesday #theatre #benjaminpollockstoyshop #pollockstoyshop #coventgarden

A post shared by Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop (@benjamin_pollocks_toyshop) on Oct 15, 2019 at 4:54am PDT

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...

Crankie Creative Commercial

Crankie Blues

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!

Dreamland Theater: Star Trek Marionettes

Careful attention to detail and mastery of puppetry give
Dreamland Theater appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

From:  Saline Journal article by Dell Deaton

This past December 16, 2018, Dreamland Theater in Ypsilanti Michigan hosted its second live performance of A Star Trek Mad Lib Puppet Show on stage in downtown Ypsilanti. From pre-show to behind-the-scenes debrief, it was thoroughly delightful. [1,2]

First off, this is very much a presentation fundamentally true to the golden age of marionettes with its ties to Saline Michigan through the legacy of the late Meredith Bixby. The scale, rigging, and attention to detail have all meticulously attended to. Behind and above the stage, five human beings manipulated hand-crafted figures from rather cramped quarters, hunched about, shoulder to shoulder. [3]

The area on which action took place couldn’t have provided a viewing space more than eight feet across, three feet high. And yet, as Bixby student Erik Grossman has regularly said in his own recollections, everything around it quickly disappears once the story starts and the audience is drawn into it. Appropriate to how the original Star Trek series was watched first-run in the 1960s, akin to a large family gathered in the living room to watch it on their home television. [4,5,6,7]

A “Mad Libs” approach was cleverly used as both warm-up and to invest audience members in the story to come. Post-show, it was revealed that significant differences in one performance versus another would come through the selection of one from among ten different music beds, for example. Backstage crew members weighed-in with real-time responses to suggestions that required some arbitration (eg, Was Warren G Harding appropriately considered a “historical figure” from the 1910s?). [8]

When the curtains then opened, it was pure, respectful Star Trek — with puppets. A solid third season episode, if influenced by Gene Coon. Rest assured, nothing like the animated installment. [9,10,11]

After the approximately forty-minute performance, troupe lead Naia Venturi invited all who were interested to come see their setup behind the curtain. Meticulously detailed string-puppet renditions of the five featured Enterprise crew members were suspended at the ready from ceiling hooks. Each was a work of art in its own right, without a visible hint of compromise. For this project, she’d elected to fabricate all characters in tandem.

Which was the most challenging? “Captain Kirk,” she replied without hesitation. “He just didn’t have any distinguishing features that I could call out for emphasis.” No one who heard this showed sign of agreement; the Venturi Captain Kirk marionette looked great.

Aside from the core work, there was evidence of modern technology that had been brought along side vintage puppet work. For example, a large screen hung above the curtain opening and visible only to the performers acted as teleprompter for script text. Ms Venturi additionally had a sound sampler from which she could deliver context appropriate sound effects and music beds in real time. [12,13,14]

References

1. Dreamland Theater (home page).
2. Star Trek (home page).
3. “Once Upon A Time, Marionettes Set The Stage For Entertainment Techniques That Remain Relevant To This Very Day” Dell Deaton (September 10, 2018) Saline Journal.
4. “A Brief Look Back On The Meredith Bixby Marionette Story, Part I: History Can’t Be Packed Away In A Single Box” Dell Deaton (September 20, 2018) Saline Journal.
5. “Star Trek” IMDb.
6. “Star Trek” Netflix.
7. “Tech Time Machine: Screens and Displays” Stephanie Walden, Mashable.
8. Mad Libs (home page).
9. “Coon, Gene” Star Trek.
10. “Gene L Coon: The Man Who Made Star Trek Worth Saving” Carlos Miranda (November 8, 2017) TrekNews.
11. “Star Trek: The Animated Series” IMDb.
12. “Hey, what’s that sound: Sampler” David McNamee (September 28, 2009) The Guardian.
13. “Music Recording: What Is a Music Sampler?” (December 18, 2008) expertvillage.
14. “Calendar” Dreamland Theater.

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.......

Focus on Toy Theatre: DAVID'S VOICE (film)

David Worobec is a classically trained vocalist who performs musical theater on miniature stages. Not content to play merely one character, he sings and performs every part with the help of an ensemble of action figures he’s carefully cast in each role. Through a series of intimate performances and conversations with David, his mother and others close to him, there emerges a portrait of an artist searching for his place in life.

I've posted about David before. Even other films about him. But this film is my favorite, because it's the most intimate, sharing with us a bit more 'behind the scenes'.  What an amazing performer!

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)

Private Toy-Theatre Exhibition Opens in Preetz

About 50 toy theatres, hundreds of sceneries and tiny paper models - the lovely, private collection of Dirk and Barbara Reimers - has found an official home in the Heimatmuseum (Local History Museum)  in Preetz.

All of the toy theatres have been part of a show once upon a time. The oldest is an original from 1869.

You can combine your visit with a private toy theatre show of Dirk and Barbara Reimers in their theatre room, upon request.  To get an impression of the exhibition, click here.

The Attic at the Preetz Local History Museum,  is the new home of the Reimers' Collection

In the Heimatmuseum in Preetz:  Dirk and Barbara, the founders of the International Preetzer Papiertheatertreffen, recently celebrated the official opening with Mayor Jörg Demin along with several journalists. 

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.

Enchanted Dolls

I love making dolls because it allows me to work with several mediums at once. Making dolls is a creative process that combines the disciplines of industrial design, sculpting, ceramics, painting, engineering, drawing, engraving, jewelry making and textiles. It generates a whole that is greater and richer than the sum of each comprising medium put together. 

- Marina Bychkova

Mechanic of the Past

Brittany Nicole Cox is one of the only antiquarian horologists in the world. She's basically a mechanic—a mechanic from the 17th century. Cox fixes old machines with watch or clock mechanisms inside them for a living. Often, these machines are missing parts that frequently no longer exist, so Cox fashions them herself. To visit her workshop is to see what the future looked like centuries ago, and while Cox's trade is laborious, time-consuming and incredibly intricate, she is preserving a magical part of humanity's past.