Category Archives: Alice in Wonderland

Jellyfish at Carnival Bentham and Mad Tea Parties in Ormskirk

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Hello again to all my lovely readers.  We’ve been very busy recently with various things including rehearsals for “The Tempest” which will be performed in Hereford on Saturday the 23rd July.  And that is my excuse for not doing a blog post before now.

Above are some photos from our recent performances including a parade jellyfish made on an umbrella frame for Carnival Bentham (which had an umbrella theme this year) and our ever popular “Interrupted Wedding” shadow puppet show, which uses an umbrella for a screen was performed by me in Bentham Auction Mart’s Bull Ring.

Below that are a couple of photos from our recent Mad Hatter’s Tea Party walkabout show in Ormskirk with myself as Alice and Tim Austin as the Mad Hatter.  This was for the Chapel Gallery monthly makers market and we went out and about the town centre and as well as our usual entertaining walkabout show told everyone about the Makers’ Market at the Chapel Gallery.  This was full of all sorts of interesting things from lino printing to wood turning to jewellery and glitter tattoos and all being sold by the people who actually made the things (hence makers’ market).

Afterwards we relaxed and had a cup of tea in the gallery cafe which I would highly recommend.  Not only did the tea pots come in a variety of highly coloured hand made tea cosies but the staff were incredibly helpful and friendly.  In most places I have to ask for extra hot water but here I was offered extra hot water and extra tea bags without my having to ask at all!  We only sampled one kind ourselves but there was also a variety of yummy looking cakes to choose from, (we had a coconut slice which was very tasty).

This weekend both Beverley Puppet Festival and Horse + Bamboo are running excellent puppet festivals on so why not check them out?

Stone Puppet Festival 2016 Needs Your Help! :)

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Festival CF posterStone Puppet Festival  2015 was a fantastic occasion and a first ever  puppet festival for Stone in Staffordshire.

CLICK HERE to remind yourself about what it was like.  You may notice the familiar face of Rough Magic Theatre’s Tim Austin in the guise of a Mad Hatter on this poster too!

It was particularly heartening to see a new festival starting when so many festivals and artists are struggling in our current economic climate.  Events like this can be a lifeline – not just for puppeteers but for all the other local businesses too.

Festivals like this are an annual tourism opportunity with many puppet festival fans travelling many miles year after year to the same event.

This is to say nothing of what an enlivening and inspiring thing it is for local residents too (particularly children and families) making for a great community spirit and atmosphere and pride in the place you live.

With all this in mind David Leech (of Pelham Puppets) and Richard Jones (a resident of Stone who teamed up with David last year so his children and other families could have an exciting local event) have started a Crowd Funding campaign to try and make the festival happen again this year.  They are aiming to raise £3000 by 11am on the 28th of May and thus far have raised £159.00 so that means that we have £2841 still to raise.  Unless the target is reached then the festival will not go ahead.
Wuffles Poster3queenpicWe performed our “Alice in Wonderland” show at Stone last year and this year, assuming all goes to plan we will be performing our “Clueless & Wuffles -The Case of the Missing Jewels!” show that premiered to packed houses at the Kidz Field in Glastonbury.  It would be wonderful to have an excuse to perform this show again at Stone (particularly in the year of the Queen’s 90th Birthday).

HOW YOU CAN HELP –

  •  You can either pledge money yourself (from as little as £1 every bit helps).
  • You can share the Crowd Funding link below with all your friends on all your social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and encourage them to do the same!

CROWD FUNDING LINK – http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/stone-puppet-festival-2016

So please give as much or as little as you can and please Share, share share and help this wonderful festival happen 🙂

CLICK HERE for the main festival website.

CLICK HERE for festival facebook page.