Tag Archives: puppet suitcase

Lots of fun at Castlefield Carnival!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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It was a real treat to be at Castlefield Arena on Sunday.  The last time I performed there was with “Manchester 5000” which was Tony Watts of the Manchester School of Samba’s attempt to get 5000 samba drummers all playing at the same time.  It is a wonderful venue for street performance as you can see from the photo’s.  I even did one show for a group of blokes on their canal barge, which was fun.

There were a few worries about the weather as rain was forecast for the afternoon but in the end there were just a few specks here and there.  So this meant that all the planned fun such as running races and inflatable slides etc. could go ahead without any trouble.  It was good for us as well of course, though I did have to make a dash under the bridge during just one of the many performances.  It is the first year they have done this particular event and Carol, (one of the organisers) was saying that they were hoping that numbers would continue to grow from year to year through word of mouth etc.  So if you didn’t make this year, do try and come along next time as it was a wonderful family day out with a huge variety of things going on.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy both Tim as the Mad Hatter and myself doing the “Jabberwocky!” suitcase show.  In fact, I was delighted to get a fan email the day after our performance with some photo’s from Caroline Thom.  Below is a copy of her email:

“Subject: Brilliant today @ Castlefield Carnival

Hello,

 

Just had to say I thought your performers were fabulous at Castlefield Carnival today. Me and my son were lucky enough to see the Mad Hatter and the puppet lady do their thing !! My 6 year old son was captivated by the puppet show, I have a few photo’s I wanted to share with you

Taken by Caroline Thom

Taken by Caroline Thom

Taken by Caroline Thom

Taken by Caroline Thom

Caroline also said:

“I thought your performance was so original and fun”

A big, big thank-you to Caroline and her son Leon for that!!

Look out London,….Here I come!!!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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If you have been wondering if I’ve fallen down a deep well for the last few weeks, due to the lack of fresh news on my blog, then you’d be wrong.

What I have in fact been doing, (amongst other things) is making the costumes you see in the photos above.  These are for the “Feast of St. George” GLA Festival.  I shall be doing my “Jabberwocky!” shadow puppet suitcase show in Trafalgar Square on Saturday the 20th of April between 1 and 6pm.  Click HERE for news article.

I will wear the St. George themed costume for this event but the medieval dress costume can be used for performing the “Jabberwocky!” show at any other medieval themed events.  We can also use it for one of the new children’s party ideas we are working on.

This is the first performance I am doing through the street arts agency Continental Drifts and also my first performance in London.  It will be interesting to see how (if at all) the London audiences differ from audiences elsewhere in the country.  I was very amused, when I was in London once, that a local was puzzled by my Northern accent and asked if I was from Scandinavia!

The “Jabberwocky!” show is, of course, perfect for St. George’s Day because it involves the slaying of a big nasty monster by a brave hero with a sword.  The singing that I do in the show also has the feeling of a medieval folk ballad about it.

The journey is going to be suitably epic as we will be departing from Lancaster by Megabus at 3.20am and arriving back at 2.05am the next day.  It is not as bad as it sounds, because we should be able to have a snooze on the bus.  A gallant knight, (in the form of my husband, Tim) is coming too and will hopefully be able to take some photos during the day.  Wish us luck on our arduous quest!  I shall report back on how it went in my next blog post.

I have also finally got confirmation of what shows we will be doing at Mintfest this year in Kendal.  We are very pleased to be presenting our fabulous “Fred Fettler’s “Pony 3000” – The Transport of the Future!” show.  This was originally commissioned and performed in High Bentham as part of “My Last CARnival” last year.  We will be doing the show on the 31st of August and the 1st of September 2013 there will be more details as and when they become available on the “Where You Can See Me” page.

We shall also be doing a new show for Child Safety Week at the end of June.  We have been doing a lot of negotiations with a publisher to see if we can secure permission to do a show based on a famous modern children’s book and we hope to be able to tell you more about that very soon.