FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Almonte (Town of Mississippi Mills) Ontario, July 21, 2011 — Two students from Sheridan College’s Advanced Special Effects, Makeup, Prosthetics and Props program have arrived in Almonte for a two-week field placement under the supervision of the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival.

This special course is one of a few of its kind in North America and the only one in the Ontario college system. Through intensive lab experiences, students gain a solid knowledge of casting, molding, sculpting and developing prosthetics, props, puppets and animatronics.

Liz Heaslip (left) and Katherine Theriault (right) painting windows for Puppets Up!

Students Katherine Theriault and Liz Heaslip are in their final semester of the one-year Sheridan post-diploma program and must complete 100 hours of unpaid work experience with a host institution in order to graduate.  This field placement will allow them to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to a work place setting.

Partnerships of this kind are recognized as an invaluable opportunity for Sheridan students engaged in this sector to further develop and apply recognized professional industry practices. “This program’s success would not be possible without the support of our community partners, ” says Nisha Lett, Sheridan’s Faculty Supervisor for the course.

The students are working in a beautiful studio space generously provided by Stephen Brathwaite in the Thoburn Mills.  Under the watchful eye of the festival’s Artistic Director, Noreen Young, they are tackling a whole range of projects that will contribute to the success of the festival which is only weeks away.

Drop by the studio and say hello to them!

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Media Contact:

Susan Wright: (613) 730-2020, (613) 314-2021 (cell)
e-mail: susan@suzwright.com

Almonte (Town of Mississippi Mills) Ontario, July 20, 2011 — The Puppets Up! International Festival (August 6 & 7) has posted both its official show schedule and a visitor guide to the festival web site at www.puppetsup.ca.

The festival schedule includes performance times for this year’s 12 visiting troupes. The guide includes key information and links to help festival goers, especially those with young children, plan their fun in Almonte.

“I love everything about Puppets Up! but its best features are world-class family entertainment in the theatres and on the streets, hassle free (and free) parking, a very walkable and visitor-friendly festival site, great local shops and festival vendors, our hundreds of helpful volunteers, and plenty of green space where kids can play,” says the festival’s loveable mascot, Nick. “Oh, and it is only a half hour outside Ottawa!”

For more information on about the festival, tickets and pricing, visit www.puppetsup.ca.

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Media Contact:

Susan Wright: (613) 730-2020, (613) 314-2021 (cell)
e-mail: susan@suzwright.com

Almonte (Town of Mississippi Mills) Ontario, July 19, 2011 — UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette), the international puppet organization that represents over seventy countries, will hold its board meeting in Almonte during the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival on August 6 and 7, 2011.

Manuel Morán, founder and Artistic Director of the Society of Educational Arts Inc. (SEA) and head of the Teatro SEA (Society of the Educational Arts, Inc.) – Los Kabagitos Puppet and Children’s Theatre in New York City will chair the meeting. He has been working in professional theatre and television as a performer, writer, director and producer in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the United States. Among the attendees will be Oscar and Laura Guarduno from Leon, Guanajusto, Mexico (Oscar is president of UNIMA Mexico), Montreal’s  Jacques Trudeau (Secretary-General of UNIMA throughout the world and President of UNIMA CANADA), Karen Smith of Los Angeles (President of UNIMA USA),  Claudia Orenstein (Professor of Theatre at Hunter College, City University of New York  and board member of UNIMA USA), and Kingston Ontario puppet performer and musician David Smith  (Vice President of UNIMA CANADA and Past President of the Ontario Puppetry Association).

UNIMA’s objective is to promote the development of the art of puppetry in North America by creating opportunities for exchanges and encounters between puppeteers, puppet companies, producers and festivals in Canada, United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

For more information on about the festival, tickets and pricing, visit www.puppetsup.ca.

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Media Contact:

Susan Wright: (613) 730-2020, (613) 314-2021 (cell)
e-mail: susan@suzwright.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Almonte (Town of Mississippi Mills) Ontario, July 12, 2011 — For seven years running, the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival has allowed its well-scrubbed, family friendly reputation to be dragged through the mud – for a couple of hours anyway. Once again, the fresh-faced, youth-oriented festival is turning its Saturday evening stage over to some very bad puppets and some very bad puppeteers.

Puppets Up! presents Au Naturel, an adults-only puppet cabaret, on Saturday, August 6 at 8 p.m. at the Almonte Old Town Hall.

Leading the mayhem is headliner, Dan Redican, a well-known actor, writer, comedian and puppeteer and his own very bad puppets. Dan’s whacky sense of humour and unique bad puppet vision has been showcased in episodes of The Kids in the Hall, Puppets Who Kill, The Jenny McCarthy Show, the Jim Henson Hour and in performances by the comedy troupe, The Frantics, and at the Just for Laughs Festival. Check out his bio at www.puppetsup.ca (Festival Information > 2011 Performers).

By his own admission, Dan’s show defies description. He says it features “a range of puppets from the sublime to the ridiculous – but actually without the sublime part – this show barrels from monologue to sketch to a kind of confused storytelling. It’s grounded in a love of absurdist comedy, a mish-mash of cultural references, and an irreverent exploration of societal mores and clichés”. Sounds like pretty typical Puppets Up! Cabaret fare.

Other cabaret performances will be delivered by naughty festival puppeteers (the same people who will deliver not-so-naughty puppet shows during the day), Tim Holland and Salim Hammad (normally found performing on the street at the festival) and MC favourites, Betty and Jo, from Matt Ficner’s Creepy Puppet Project.

Au Naturel will try to focus on the festival’s nature-loving theme – All Creatures Great and Small – but is likely to veer riotously off topic. You just never know what will happen when puppets take a walk on the wild side.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at:

Mill Street Books – (613) 256-9090
Baker Bob’s – (613) 256-7474
It is highly unlikely that tickets will be available at the door as this show tends to sell out.

For more information on about the festival, Au Naturel, tickets and pricing, visit www.puppetsup.ca.

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Media Contact:
Susan Wright:  (613) 730-2020 -  (613) 314-2021 (cell)
e-mail: susan@suzwright.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Almonte (Town of Mississippi Mills) Ontario, June 17, 2011 — Birds, and bugs, and all the huggable (and not so huggable) creatures of the natural world will inspire the puppeteers and their audiences at this year’s Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival.  Almonte’s world-famous festival will be “alive” with the natural talents of the acclaimed puppeteers, and their puppets, who will creep, crawl, sprout, fly and wiggle their way to this charming community on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“From the classic Frog Prince to the Bugtown Follies, Puppets Up! is going all natural this year,” says the festival’s Artistic Director, Noreen Young. “Tossed in are a few swashbuckling pirates, some classic children’s stories, an amazing Aboriginal re-telling of Nanabush and the Ducks, and the Treehouse Channel’s famous Toopy and Binoo, to name just a few.” Detailed information about the festival line-up can be found at www.puppetsup.ca or in the attached media backgrounder.

In its seventh year, Puppets Up! will feature 11 professional troupes, including one from France, and up to 66 family-friendly puppet shows in tents and old-fashioned theatres along the banks of the Mississippi River and Almonte’s historic Mill Street. The festival runs on both Saturday and Sunday and offers daily parades, street entertainment, musicians, a kids’ craft tent, and an adult cabaret.

“This year the festival will give expression to all the life that goes on in our gardens and woodlands and even beneath the back steps,” says Young. “Young or old, we all like to contemplate how all of the creatures and life forms interact, and play, and live on the earth.  Puppetry lets us imagine what that life is like”.

The Town of Mississippi Mills truly rolls outs the welcome mat each year for festival visitors, especially families with children. Nearly all festival activities take place within the downtown core of Almonte, along Mill Street. Local businesses and volunteers are ready to attend to every need for shopping, entertainment, food (full meals, snacks and take-away) and guest services.  Theatre venues are wheelchair and stroller accessible. All theatre venues are located within an easy stroll and there are plenty of shady places to sit and for kids to run in the grass.

This year’s festival line up has something for everyone —toddlers to grown-ups!

Puppets Up! is presented by the BMO Financial Group and our major partners include the Town of Mississippi Mills, the Ottawa Citizen, the EMC, and theHumm. The festival is strongly supported by a growing list of local businesses and individuals.

Tickets:

Day Passes:

Adults:  $15
Children (ages 3-12) – $10
Kids under 3 get in FREE

Weekend Passes:

Adults:  $25
Children (ages 3-12) – $15
Kids under 3 get in FREE

Passes allow entry to all shows.

Tickets can be ordered online via PayPal at www.puppetsup.ca

Cash, debit and credit payments can be made on-site.

For more information on performances, tickets and pricing, visit www.puppetsup.ca. Become a Puppets Up! fan on Facebook too!

The following backgrounders are also posted on our web site:

-Puppets Up! 2011 Festival Line Up

-Noreen Young’s bio

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Media Contact:
Susan Wright:   (613) 730-2020 – (613) 314-2021 (cell)
e-mail: susan@suzwright.com