The Boston Area Guild of Puppetry and the Puppet Showplace Theatre put together a day of celebration for this year’s National Day of Puppetry. It will be Sunday, April 26th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline.
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National Day of Puppetry! April 1, 2008
Slam! March 16, 2008
Last night was the Puppet Showplace Theatre’s March Puppet Slam. I showed up beforehand and got a chance to talk with some of the puppeteers, who all had some pretty illuminating things to say, and also ran into a little bit of hesitance from some of the puppeteers. I videoed the entire show, which was difficult because I didn’t have a tripod, but I think I got some OK video. I hope so at least. I’m very new to video recording.
The Slam itself was pretty interesting. There was some funny stuff, some emotional stuff, some shows that were scenes from childrens’ shows, and some that were sort of venting sessions. There were several performers who mostly do childrens’ shows, and some that pretty much only did adult puppetry. But as Kathleen had told me, the night was all about variety.
Oh, and Kathleen’s “Untouchable” piece turned out really nice! Hopefully I’ll find a place for it on my website.
Incubator March 5, 2008
Last night I went to the Puppet Showplace Theatre‘s Puppet Incubator. It was a rainy night, so there were only two people there, but it was pretty interesting. I wasn’t sure what exactly the Incubator was, so I didn’t know what to expect. But basically, puppeteers use the time to get practical ideas from other puppeteers. Well, that’s what happened last night at least– Kathleen says they vary a lot. It was only Kathleen and Paul Vincent Davis, the Showplace Theatre’s puppeteer in residence, because the weather wasn’t very nice. They talked a lot about shows they were working on, from how to make a puppet perform a certain action to how to create a clear story arc in a show. Kathleen worked on a piece called “Untouchable” that she’s going to perform at the Puppet Slam that looks like it’s going to be really neat. It was interesting to hear about the kinds of issues that puppeteers run into while they’re creating a show. And it seems like it must be incredibly helpful to have an outlet like the Incubator to get advice.
