To celebrate the creation of their puppets, the students created a Harlem Shake video to help promote this year’s Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival. Principal Paul LeRoy was excited to engage his students in both the puppet project and the Harlem Shake, and, as you can plainly see from all the smiling faces in the video, the students themselves were thrilled! In addition to these talented student performers, Liam the Celtfest mascot, Gloria Gopher and Jacob Bluejay from Under The Umbrella Tree, and, of course, Puppets Up!’s own mascot Nick, can all be seen doing the Harlem Shake at http://youtu.be/UYKaeuzuuNE

This August 10 and 11th, come join Puppets Up! International Puppets Festival

The Legend of the Banana Kid

as it welcomes friends old and new in its “family reunion”-themed ninth year. With a host of new faces and old favourites, it’s sure to be an unforgettable weekend of family entertainment.

The Dragon King

Returning to the Puppets Up! family again this year, Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers will once again perform the hilarious and lovable “Legend of the Banana Kid”, a tale of western hi-jinx which delight those old and young alike. Another returning favourite, Massachusetts’ Tanglewood Marionettes, will present their stunning underwater fantasy “The Dragon King”, an all-ages adventure based on Chinese folklore.

And the reunion doesn’t end there – joining us again from Coconut Creek Florida, Puppets to Go promises to bring an “all-new twist” to their performance of “Little Red Riding Hood”, and teach us a bit about puppetry while they’re at it! Montreal’s Théatre des Petites Âmes also returns this year with their new show “BAM”, a heart-warming bamboo-inspired tale. Hungary’s Bence Sarkadi will once again wow crowds with his “Budapest Puppets” and fellow Hungarian Andras Lenart – teacher and friend of Bence Sarkadi – will be joining the Puppets Up! family for the first time this year with his troupe Mikropodium and their amazing show “Stop!”.

Puppets Up! will be welcoming a number of fantastic new acts to the family this year: Toronto’s Heath Tarlin Entertainment will join us with their show “Spin Cycle”, which features everything from yo-yos to synchronized swimming, and Metaphysical Theatre will be performing “Pierrot and the Moon”, which the debuted last year at the Toronto Fringe Fest to much acclaim. Rounding out the roster of shows this year is Montreal’s More of Everything with their “Puppet Vaudeville Show”, and Peterson Puppets, whose performance “A Good Old Fashioned Punch and Judy” will bring laughter to all ages.

Along with so many fantastic shows, this two day international festival features a slew of family-friendly activities, amazing street performers, fun vendors, and of course the incredible Puppet Parade!  So bring your family and join the reunion because this year’s Puppets Up! is a festival you won’t want to miss.

We are giving away 2 tickets to the Vinyl Cafe on July 12.

“We’re really happy to be out in Almonte again,” states Nolan. “We love the town! And of course we’ve known Noreen for many years now. It’s just great to have a town that’s so dedicated to all the arts, and to puppetry in particular. Puppets Up! is such a wonderful festival.”

Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre was founded in 1978 by John Nolan and Kathy MacLellan. “We met in a play when we were both actors, and things just grew from there,” states Nolan. ”We started out by doing shows in parks, birthdays parties.” Since then, Rag & Bone has toured Canada and the US, giving over 100 performances a year at schools, libraries, children’s festivals and theatres, and earning numerous awards, including an ACTRA award and a Citation of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from UNIMA, the international puppetry association.

In addition to their performances, they regularly teach workshops on puppet making, mask and drama at all levels. “Our workshops are really for any school-aged kids – they have a really broad appeal from five years olds right on up to high-schoolers,” states Nolan. The workshops, in addition to entertaining and teaching the kids, also give John and Kathy a chance to talk to kids about their ideas about stories, something they really enjoy.“When we’re performing we get to entertain kids on mass,” says Nolan, “but with workshops we get to talk to kids one-on-one, find out what they’re into these days.”

In their upcoming workshop, kids will learn all the steps that go into creating a puppet performance. To begin, John and Kathy show kids how to make wood puppets. “We use scraps of wood, and the kids arrange and glue the pieces to create puppets. It’s a great way of making a really adorable puppet in a minimal amount of time,” states Nolan. “And they’re durable – a lot of times when kids go to workshops and make things, they last at little while and then fall apart. We’ve talked to high-schoolers who did a workshop in kindergarten and still have their puppets!”

After crafting their puppets, it’s time to put together a performance. The entire show is created by the kids, using their puppets and their stories. “The kids are very creative! They’ll use their puppets make up stories, and we’ll work with them to turn it into a show. Then they put on a performance for their audience,” says Nolan. The performance is also video taped, so at the end of the day kids can take home a copy of their final performance.

An excellent introduction to the art of puppetry, “A Puppet Show by Kids” is a one day workshop held on Saturday June 8th. For more information or to register, please visit www.puppetsandyou.wordpress.com

We want you!

We are looking for acoustic and small act performers for the festival this year. Auditions will be held on June 13 from 7 to 9 pm at the Almonte United Church.

Spencer’s interest in puppetry began about seventeen years ago. “I first became interested in puppets through reading comics,” she s

Megan Spencer performs with a dragon shadow puppet

tates. “One of my favourite authors did a version of Punch and Judy, and I was fascinated! I found the original play, and started to make puppets of my own, of all shapes and sizes.”

Since then, Spencer has explored a range of puppetry styles before specializing in shadow puppetry. “I love drawing too,” she explains, “and really enjoy the crispness of a solid line, and strong contrast. I took a workshop on shadow puppets 5 years ago at Puppets Up! with Nappy’s Puppets, and I fell in love. This type of puppetry brought two of my great loves together: the contrast and lines in my drawings, and storytelling.” This year, Spencer will be offering her own workshop on shadow puppets. In it, Spencer will guide her students through making their puppets and props, and using them to tell their stories. At the end of the workshop, students will take home shadow puppets, and the skills needed to create their own shows.

Sharing her skills through workshops is another love of Spencer’s. “The curiosity, the excitement that comes up in people making and performing their puppets is inspiring,” she explains. “I love seeing kids that don’t normally talk come to life behind the screen. I love offering an opportunity to see things differently, and to open up more creative possibilities for those participating.”

This Saturday’s workshop, which is geared towards adults and teens, will not only explore the techniques for building and performing with shadow puppets, but the rich history involved with this art form.  “I love the origin story of Chinese puppetry,” states Spencer, “in which the emperor’s favourite concubine dies, and he demands she be brought back to life. His court people rush to build a version of her, over 100 pieces jointed together made of painted donkey skin, then placed behind a screen to perform her life for the emperor. Other countries have similar veins to why they perform shadow puppetry. In essence, the shadow, and shadow world are the in-between places. A place where the spirits live, a place to go deeper. I am intrigued by shadow puppetry as an act of traditional teaching, and spiritual teachings.”
Megan Spencer’s “Create Shadow Puppets” is a one-day workshop which will be held on June 1st. Spaces are limited. For more information or to register please visit: www.puppetsandyou.wordpress.com

Puppets to Go

“Television puppetry is really a marriage between the art of puppetry and the art of the camera” states Leeper, “And a person can come at it from either direction.” One example she gives for this is Jim Henson, who “started off as an art student interested in exploring the art of video. Not being an actor himself led him to exploring puppetry as a means of playing in front of camera. That marriage of the art of the camera and the art of puppetry – his use of the camera frame as a ‘playboard’ to hide the puppeteer and create the illusion of reality – opened up a whole new world in the creation of television puppetry.”

In her workshop, Leeper will introduce students to television puppetry by teaching the art of movement and character interpretation for camera. “There’s the skill of learning how to puppeteer – and you can apply that pretty directly,” she explains, “but there’s a lot more to it than performing live. You have to understand the frame work, seeing what the director sees.” Leeper has had experience both as a puppet coach for productions involving puppet and mask as well teaching puppetry in workshops and schools, and states “I’m finding more and more – even teaching live puppetry – it’s really useful to use a camera. The learning curve suddenly arcs. The camera helps students see their own performance and perfect their skills from that, rather than relying on feedback and audience reaction.”

Students of Leeper’s workshop on Television and Youtube performance should expect to learn to use the camera not only to perfect their puppetry but to play with the opportunities for creativity provided by the camera frame. Leeper explains that puppetry on film opens up infinite possibilities for the performer. “There’s so many ways to explore how you can play with the frame – jump in, jump out. You can make a puppet dive out of frame and splash up some water and the audience believes there is water! And also you’re not limited by what you are physically. There’s something really great about that kind of freedom,” she says. “It’s a wonderful medium of creative performance.”

Youtube – which is mentioned specifically in the workshop’s title – is a platform for puppeteers that Leeper is excited to encourage her students about. “There’s a whole range of people who want to use puppets,” she says. “Say you’re not a professional actor – you can still put your performances up and connect with an audience. I’ve seen some really great performances on Youtube. A lot of really amateur ones as well, of course, but some that make me wish I’d thought of it first!”  Leeper’s workshop will give students the opportunity to develop the skills they need to create these kinds of performances. Puppets will be provided, and at the end of the workshop each participant will leave with a video sample of their work. “Don’t worry about experience,” Leeper advises workshop participants, “beginners can learn a lot and more experienced puppeteers can really hone their skills. We can all learn from each other. Bring your own puppet if you have one and be pr

epared to have a lot of fun!”

Trish Leeper’s workshop is part of an ongoing series of workshops hosted by Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival and JBArts. It will be held this Saturday, May 25. For more information or to register visit http://puppetsandyou.wordpress.com/.

This May 11th will boast a “Patterned Foam Puppets” workshop led by Vicki Veenstra, a professional puppet builder for over 15 years. Veenstra has created puppets for numerous shows including Higglety Pigglety Pop, Puppets Who Kill and Zoboomafoo. She has perfected the art of foam puppet making, and is eager to share her skills.

In Veenstra’s workshop she will be showing students how to work with patterned foam, a very popular method of puppet construction.  Students will learn to build their own foam puppet from the patterns and materials Veenstra provides. “I will introduce them to some of the work that I’ve done and some techniques that I’ve used. Then we will get down to it and build a basic patterned foam puppet,” she explains. “In the afternoon we will build the body and get a chance to add some features to give it a character.”

Veenstra’s workshop is a great introduction to puppet building for adults looking to learn the skills required to create foam puppets. Potential students “should be comfortable working with tools and a range of materials,” she states, “But they should not be intimidated.” Veenstra is very encouraging to beginner puppeteers. For anyone getting started with puppet building, she advises: “there’s lot of great resources online, a lot of people are sharing skills and techniques. And really just experiment. Just a few subtle changes can bring you from scary monster  to super cute!”.

Viciki Veenstra’s “Patterned Foam Puppets” workshop will be held on May 11 in Veenstra’s beautiful home studio, a lovely barn in the woods near Cedar Hill. Spaces are limited. For more information on the workshop series or to register, please visit www.puppetsandyou.wordpress.com .

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