Category Archives: Hand puppets

Stone Puppet Festival a Tremendous Success

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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You can find more photo’s on Stone Festival’s Facebook page by clicking HERE

and pictures, reviews and videos on the festival page by clicking HERE

Stone Puppet Festival is a brand new festival which was organised by David Leech & Richard Jones.

Having read “The Sentinel” newspaper’s review of the festival I am astounded to find that it claims that this is the first puppet festival ever for the whole of Staffordshire.  If it is true then it is wonderful that people like David & Richard have seen this gap in the cultural life of Staffordshire folk and have made it happen.

We were very busy for much of the festival performing our “Alice in Wonderland” show, as we had 4 performances over 2 days.  This was great, as we really enjoy performing this particular show and the audiences we had were very appreciative.  However, this did mean that what with travelling, setting up, checking into the hotel room, actually performing and of course packing up at the end we did not get to see a great deal of other people’s work.

We did see a few familiar faces such as Clive Chandler, John Parkinson and Oliver Valentine (Upfront Puppet Company), and Chris Wylie (performing with Treasure Trove) which is always nice at puppetry events.

The festival was supported by the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild and all of the performers were Guild members.  This was great because a lot of the BPMTG events are held in places that are a very long way from where we live and this gave us the opportunity to meet many puppeteers who we had previously only heard exploits from via the Guild newsletters.  There was a sort of cabaret on the Saturday night where amongst other things we finally got to see Joseph Peek perform, (who I think may still be the youngest guild member at 12 years old).  Joseph did a fantastic performance with 3 different marionettes and was also enlisted to operate a Billy Preston marionette in the festival finale.  I also understand that he performed in Professor Panic’s Circus Tent at Glastonbury this year, (as we did last year).  There was also a very interesting shadow theatre performance based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Fir Tree” which I think I had come across before but a very long time ago, (like much of his work it is very sad indeed).  This evening and the finale summed up the way the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild brings together people from all walks of life, both professional and hobby puppeteers of all levels of experience were free to perform, have a go and try new things.

We also discovered that the “Supermarionation Recreations” exhibition of Classic Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet models and marionettes was practically next door to where we were in the Crown hotel so enjoyed wandering over to have a look in between some of our performances.  Later on we also found time to take a look at some wonderful marionettes and rod puppets exhibited by Ian Denny and Glen Holden.  We had already seen David’s fabulous Pelham Puppet exhibition, (including the first ever pelham puppet he owned as a child) as this was in the room where we were performing.

The finale was wonderful because we had finished all our shows and could relax and enjoy other people’s performances.  These included a truly delightful and well rehearsed “Lonely Goat Herd” puppetry and dance routine by local young people from Rooftop Studios and they also performed an “I’m a Believer” dance routine based on Shrek.

What impressed me in particular about these young people was the lack of embarrassment and professionalism they displayed, often performances by young people can often be marred by their unwillingness to wholeheartedly throw themselves into a performance for fear of looking uncool in front of their peers, but that was definitely not a problem with these performers’ fantastic contribution.  This was followed by marionettes of The Beatles and Billy Preston re-enacting their famous final rooftop concert.  These were made by David Leech and operated by himself, Joseph Peek, Richard Jones and staff from the Swan pub!

A definite strength of this new festival is that unlike some other festivals who just fly in top acts from around the country and overseas there was a concerted effort to include local people who were just beginning to learn about puppetry and give them a chance to perform in front of real audiences.  This is in addition to the schools puppet making workshops who also participated in the puppet parade and also Professor Pop-up’s puppet & mask making drop-in workshop on both days of the festival.

David & Richard also did an excellent job of including the local businesses and I understand that the traders reported a boost in sales on the festival weekend.  The Crown Hotel was an excellent venue with room for a whole host of shows and exhibitions at once and the historic nature of the architecture, fixtures and fittings of the building were stunning.  In particular the decorative stained glass ceiling window and wooden panelling in the room we performed in were gorgeous.  It was perfect for a show like “Alice in Wonderland” which is a Victorian story celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

Please feel free to contribute your own comments on the festival by replying to this post 🙂

If you would like to book our “Alice in Wonderland” show for an Autumn/Winter or Christmas event, please get in touch by clicking HERE

Bye 2014 – Hello 2015!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Hello again everyone!  The above images are from last year and did not make it into my blogs at the time because my phone whose camera these pictures were taken on died and I only recently managed to successfully retrieve the photo’s.

The first few pictures are from Buxton Puppet Festival where I saw Peter Piper Puppets version of Punch & Judy and Diddley Dee Puppets show “Rabbits to the Rescue”.

You may recall in a previous post that I held forth (at some length) against the “dumbing down” of Mr Punch with misplaced sense of political correctness.  Very soon after that I encountered this performance in which the puppeteer declared in no uncertain terms at the beginning of the show that this was exactly what he WAS planning to do.  Poor Mr. Punch was transformed into a sad and pathetic individual who not only didn’t get to hit anyone with a slapstick but was instead on the receiving end of a giant pencil wielded by a clumsy social worker in the form of Joey the clown, (among other indignities).  This was after Mr. Punch lost the baby after trying to teach the baby to walk.

The audience seemed to enjoy the show and “Peter Piper” rounded off the show by turning the audience into an impromptu band to process to the next outdoor entertainment.

However, in my opinion one of the best parts of the show were Mr Punch’s dog being taken for a walk by the puppeteer prior to the show and “weeing” all over the audience (with the cunning deployment of a not wholly invisible water pistol).  The other fun part was two unconventional “stagehand” characters whose function was to appear and hammer and saw at various parts of the booth and to tell the audience that the show wasn’t ready and hadn’t started yet.

“Rabbits to the Rescue” was obviously intended for an audience younger than myself and I have to admit to finding it a little twee.  For what it was though it was a lot of fun and the children obviously enjoyed it.  It was well performed and the puppets were very charming and nicely constructed.

I also attended Mintfest in Kendal as an X-trax delegate last year and that is where the other photo’s are from.

The previous year’s Mintfest (2013) we had been busy performing all day Saturday and Sunday with our “Fred Fettler’s “Pony 3000″ – The Transport of the Future!” show in the Westmorland Shopping Centre and thus had not had much time to see other people’s shows or to talk to bookers about our work.

“The Table of Thoughts” was an installation which was in an upstairs shop space in the Westmorland Shopping Centre.  I thought this was a very brave and unusual thing to include in a street arts festival but Mintfest are very good at including things that are a bit more challenging and different.  The installation consisted of a dining table with various peculiar “place settings” and foodstuffs.  The audience can sit at any seat at the table and by listening to an audio file from an mp3 player through earphones get a voice-over of the internal thoughts of the person whose place they are sat in.  This monologue is reflected in the appearance of the place setting in front of them as well.  In addition to this there are general ambient, but subdued, sound effects such as cutlery being used and muted unintelligible conversation.  I listened to all of the monologues, each of which was quite unique, and enjoyed them thoroughly.

I also had the opportunity to take part in our good friends at Frolicked’s game called “The Birds”.  We had heard them talking about this project at an X-Trax shorts presentation previously so it was great to get an opportunity to try it out.  We had to find a missing endangered bird, (who I am pictured with above) in teams.  I was with a dad and his little girl and another couple, none of whom I’d met before.  I did wonder if being in a team of other people I didn’t know would be awkward but they were all lovely and the activity was extremely challenging, exciting and fun!  It was obviously meant to be done in a group of mixed adults and children as some of the tasks/clues would be too difficult for small children and the challenges set were hard enough to be totally engaging and exciting for adults.  I am sorry to say that our team did not win though I think we did a touch better than some of the others.  I am saying no more but if you get a chance to take part in this game yourself, I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

One of the other puppetry offerings at Mintfest was Burek the marionette dog – puppeteered by Lucasz Puczko.  He is from Poland and has travelled to lots of different countries with this act.  I have recently found out at the X-trax Northern Street Arts Networking event that Lucasz enjoyed the reactions of the audiences in Kendal so much that he has now moved to England to live and work and is currently based in Bradford.

It was very refreshing, after hearing a bit of doom and gloom from a lot of people on the state of the industry in this country and the amount of work/money/opportunities available, that someone would actively seek out England as a place to work because of the friendliness of the people and the audiences.  Jeremy Shine was very keen to promote Lucasz’s act on the basis of it developing a hitherto untapped audience – dogs!

A lot of dogs seemed keen to interact with Burek but most seemed a bit disturbed by something that looked and moved like a dog but obviously did not smell like one!

I have heard a lot of people say that the best way to keep new year’s resolutions is to put them down publicly on a blog like this.

Last year was a good one for us in many ways with a lot of firsts.  We produced a new show “Clueless & Wuffles” for Glastonbury, (which we were attending for the first time).  I performed at Morecambe Variety Festival and also did workshops and performances for a number of Primary Schools that I hadn’t visited before.

Tim and I performed in Skelmersdale with our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party walkabout show, (somewhere I have never visited or performed before).  Together with Rough Magic Theatre founder member Leo Nolan I created a French Nursery Rhymes for beginners show: “Nursery Rhymes with Monsieur le Fou” for Wakefield Grammar School Foundation on European Languages Day.

And to crown the year off I created a new light up costume for another event I hadn’t been involved with previously the “Light Up Lancaster” illuminations event.

We were also invited back to what is becoming a regular event the CARnival Bentham.  My ever popular Shadow Puppet Suitcase shows had a lot of airings as did the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and the Hansel & Gretel and “The Interrupted Wedding” shows made a couple of appearances too.

My resolution always tends to be to get more work.  I have been doing well with my aim to get more work doing “light and shadow” workshops in schools in Spring, Autumn and Winter but more schools work would be welcome, (please get in touch if you’d like a workshop/show or both in your school).  I shall be visiting a school in Hartlepool on Monday and I shall let you know how we get on next week.

I would also like to get more work with our main hour long indoor show “Alice in Wonderland” as last year was a quiet year for this show whilst being a popular one for the show’s offshoot Mad Hatter’s Tea Party walkabout show.  Please get in touch if you are interested in booking either of these for your school, theatre, literature festival, book day etc.

In order to get more done I am also resolving to get up earlier rather than hearing the alarm go off and falling back asleep again.  I also therefore have to go to bed on time and I am also trying to build more exercise into my schedule.

It would also be great (time permitting) to finally finish of the new version of the Rough Magic Theatre Website that has been ongoing for a couple of years now.  I also resolve to be more disciplined about doing the old social media regularly rather than the rather hap-hazard approach that I’ve been taking recently.

It would be really great to hear what your New Year’s Resolutions are too.  Please leave a reply on this post, (business or personal goals or both) 🙂