Hello Puppetlady fans!  My apologies for abandoning you for such a lengthy period.

I decided that most people would be too busy enjoying themselves, (or working if you’re a puppetry professional!) to be reading blogs over the Christmas period, so I didn’t bother!  It would have been nice of me to leave a place-holding Christmas note to let you know when I’d be back and to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, so I’ll do it now instead.

“Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all my faithful readers!”

Here are some festive Apes eating biscuits, adapted from a shadow puppet in my “Edward Lear’s Nonsense!” walkabout show.  I am looking for Street Festivals and the like to perform this show in the Summer period, so let me know if you’re interested and follow this link to find out more.

"4 Apes seized his girdle, which vanished like smoke!"

My plan for the year is to do workshops in schools in the Spring, (please contact me now if you’re interested).  This will be using the Hansel & Gretel Toy Theatre show and will be an introduction to a toy theatre project with the school.  Toy Theatre is a great medium to teach History, Literacy, Music, Art, Design Technology, etc.  I understand that primary schools study the Victorians, so if you’re looking for an exciting project idea, look no further!

If you a primary or secondary school, and have your own ideas for a puppet project to fit in with what you’re doing, please contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you!  I already have a tailor made workshop for Year 1 pupils coming up at The Bay Primary School in Bridlington, which is to fit in with their “Lost in the Toy Museum” story project.  So, if you are reading this book at your primary school too, I could come and do this workshop with you as well!

In the Autumn we shall be touring our “Alice in Wonderland” show round the country.  I have already approached all of the National Rural Touring groups and shall be contacting Theatres etc. in the next few weeks.  If you’re wondering if this show will be right for your venue or event, please take a look at the Alice show page here.  There is a great video and a PDF Press Release with the technical specifications attached.

Other things coming up are a rather exciting, free event called “Culture and Tourism: Realising the Value” which is for artists, venues and anything to do with art or tourism in North Yorkshire.  This is going to be at Fountains Abbey and is a free event.  All the big hitters from the Arts Council and high ups from the National Trust will be there so it promises to be very exciting.

The particular reason I’m finding it exciting is that I have been meaning to contact the National Trust about doing performances at their properties for years and just haven’t got round to it!  It is on the 5th of March and I shall tell you all about it afterwards.  Watch this space!

If any of you read my first post “A Technaphobic Blog“, you’ll see I’ve come a long way since then.  My tendency in the past was to get on with making puppets on my own and not to tell anyone anything about what I was doing until it was complete and perfect.  Even meeting people in person I would feel extremely embarrassed about telling people about my work, and this was very stupid of me as most people are extremely interested.

In the past year, I have really pulled all the stops out and been brave about talking to people and meeting people and in Blogging, Tweeting and doing stuff on Linked In and Facebook.  I am pleased to say it really has made a big difference.  For those who know about these things, I have over 100 followers on Twitter now and I only started in about April.

My initial opinion was that blogging and tweeting disconnects you from reality and real people, but actually it has been the opposite for me.  I have done more stuff in real life too, but connecting with other people via the internet can give you more of a sense of community with people like yourself.

I already live in a small community in Bentham where everyone you meet will say “Hello” to you, and it is rare to not meet someone you know when you go to the shop.  But as they said at the first PuppeteersUK AGM I attended in November 2010, in our profession you do not work side by side with your colleagues every day and you can end up feeling quite isolated.  Having joined PUK, Brunima and the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, attending a Street Arts Networking Event and the Decibel Showcase in Manchester and also doing the online networking as well, I feel more connected to everyone else who is in the same business as me and also feel that people who want to have a puppet show or workshop can now find me a lot easier too.

If you have something puppet related you would like me to blog about, or would like to discuss any of the above post; please leave me a comment below and I will happily respond 🙂