I was delighted to receive my signed copy of the New Revised Second Edition of David Currell’s “Puppets & Puppet Theatre” on World Puppet Day. I was invited to share some images of my work for the book a while back now and I am thrilled to discover that these have been included on three separate pages of the book as well as a mention in the sound equipment section, the “Contributors” section and the Acknowledgements.
To be included in this book has special significance for me because it was books like my copy of “The Complete Book of Puppet Theatre” by David that helped me to make some of my first puppets when we first started out making things for Rough Magic Theatre‘s first production “The Tempest”.
To be included in a book like this after over 25 years doing puppetry and making puppets which may inspire a whole new generation of new puppeteers is amazing and wonderful.
I have not had time to read the whole thing in depth from cover to cover, but it is clear that it is an extraordinarily comprehensive and up to date guide to puppet making, performance techniques, staging and even touches on the business side of things.
This new edition includes such up to the minute making techniques and materials such as 3-D printed puppets (featuring Nik Palmer’s work), worbla, plastezote etc. as well as traditional materials such as wood and so on.
For anybody starting out this would be an excellent buy and indeed it could be useful for established practitioners to find out about new techniques and materials etc.
This is a fairly big book and every page is literally crammed with pictures, instructions and all sorts of practical information.
I shall do a follow up on the book after I have had time to read all of it, but I feel that this is almost like an encyclopedia of puppetry that you can consult when you have a specific issue or technique that you want to know more about.
If you want a copy of the book; it can be purchased online or from The Crowood Press for £25 + £3.99 postage (£28.99) or David says you can contact him for a signed copy for £25 including postage
We had a great time performing our new show “7 Songs of Love” at the Moving Parts Arts Scratch Space at Beverley Puppet Festival this year. You can see images of the show in rehearsal on the slideshow above.
We will performing the show again at More Music in Morecambe on Saturday October 1st sometime between 12 and 4pm as part of their Fun Palaces event. So please do come and see it if you are interested in booking the show. We are interested in using the show for rural touring as well as more conventional theatre spaces. The show has a heavy emphasis on eighteenth century sailors/sailing so would be great for any maritime themed events/locations. It features a variety of eighteeth century folk songs so would also be of interest to folk festivals/music festivals. The show uses a minimum performance area of 4m square and ideally requires blackout, (does not have to be total). We are currently self-sufficient regarding tech. The version we performed at Beverley was 25 minutes long, but we intend to work on expanding the show to around 45 minutes (potentially with an interval). We can also combine showings with shadow puppetry workshops for adults or children as required. We are in the process of putting together a video trailer using the footage we got from the scratch space showings and will post this too as soon as we have it.
We are interested in partnering with venues to work with us on improving and expanding the show. We need space to rehearse and develop the show, a third eye, ideally some funding and performance opportunities as well. Please get in touch if this is you!
It was so wonderful to see so many familiar faces in person rather than on a computer screen. The atmosphere was really great and the fact that we were accommodated in the Beverley Friary YHA (which was also the festival hub) meant that there was plenty of opportunity to meet other puppeteers when we were not performing. We had just one performance on the Saturday and one on the Sunday which meant that (for a change) we had plenty of time to see other people’s shows. We were also able to attend the PuppeteersUK meeting at which the Chair (Malcolm Knight of Scottish Mask & Puppet Centre) spoke about the future plans for PUK and the current situation in the UK regarding the puppetry sector and also the impact of Brexit on touring, festivals etc.
We also took a look at Noisy Oyster’s “The Noughty-One” installation which used the same 3-D printed puppets as the “Noughtymation” scratch piece. Nik Palmer had been experimenting with these during lockdown and I was very interested to see them in action live.
Sarah Rowland-Barker returned the favour by coming to see our scratch space show. We got lots of positive feedback from the audiences as well as some suggestions for improvements. One of the things we were unsure of was the age range the show was suitable for as the content is more adult than our usual offerings. Feedback suggested that it was suitable for Keystage 2 and up.
We also went to see “Kit and Caboodle” by Thingumajig Theatre. I have encountered Thingumajig many times at many different festivals etc. but I have mainly seen their processional work and this was our first time seeing one of their static shows, (I say static but it was of course combined with a little walkabout to gather an audience with their wonderful pack mule “Kit”).
It was very interesting seeing this show after having watched the Scratch Space show “Displaced”, (which was used the real stories of different refugees) as Kit and Caboodle dealt with many of the same issues but in a more subtle and family friendly way. It was good to see some positive/sympathetic messages about immigrants and refugees in both these shows as we need an antidote to all of the toxic messages about this subject in the press. As Kit and Caboodle is a street show there is more chance of the message reaching ordinary people in the street who might just happen to come upon it accidentally. As an indoor show, however, “Displaced” would undoubtedly be attended by people who are already sympathetic to the message of the show.
Andrew Kim very kindly let me have a closer look at the crankie theatre box that very cleverly slotted into the side of the set, (you can see it in action in the video below). I even got to have a go at cranking it! This was particularly interesting for me at the moment as I want to experiment with some crankie shows myself.
Puppet Lady 