My New Favorite Thing: Puppetry Festivals!

Hello to all my favorite people,

Fall is steadily approaching! It's almost time for playing in the leaves, apple picking, pumpkin carving and Oh! Halloween! Where you can dress up like spooky, scary things! I'm a monster and supposedly I am scary but Monster is just my last name. I am filled with sweetness like all of you. I use Halloween as an opportunity to show everyone how adorable I am.

However, my absolute favorite thing about Fall is our Fall Fairy tale Festival, which is a collection of fairytale puppet shows presented throughout the season of Fall.

Fall Fairy Tale Festival
September 1 - October 14

To kickstart this year's event is "Cinderella" by Tanglewood Marionettes. The classic story we all know and love told in wit and style, and featuring your favorite characters in a whole new look of lavishly costumed marionettes!

Cinderella by Tanglewood Marionettes
Sat 9/1/2012 & Sun 9/2/2012 | 1pm & 3pm
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I am so excited for our upcoming event that festivals are my new favorite thing! So what is a festival and what does it mean to be festive? A festival is a day or period of celebration. We do lots of celebrating at PST for all the performers who put on great shows for everyone. To be festive is to have a joyous or merry mood. I am always full of joy! I think I have been participating in more festivals than I realize... 

If you love celebrating the art of puppetry with merry or joyous people, you might be interested in some of these other puppet festivals.

Puppeteers of America Festivals
September 7-9, 2012
Puppet Festivals are Awesome! They also have great opportunities for performers to do slam pieces, network, and volunteer. There is a regional festival happening this September 7-9 in New York, lets go!


Puppets In The Green Mountains

September 22-30, 2012

Annual Puppet festival held every other year in Sothern Vermont. Check out the site for more info.

The Grand Auditorium Puppet Festival
October 5-7, 2012
Set in Ellesworth, Maine with performances by FrogTown Mountain Puppeteers, Tanglewood Marionettes, Nappy's Puppets and The Manipulators it is the ultimate celebration for any puppet fan. More info at www.grandonline.org.  






In the mean time, lets try and make every day a festival and be merry together!

The always joyous,
         
Bella Monster  

Puppet Slam Grown-up Fairy tale Edition

Greetings Puppet Enthusiasts,

The time has come for Puppet Showplace Theatre's 2012-2013 Puppets @ Night season kick-off!  The first slam of the season is September 15th: The Fall Fairy Tale Festival Slam for Grown-up Fairy Tales.

What is A Puppet Slam?

It's an evening of short varied theatrical mini-plays for adults that use (or sometimes abuse) puppets for all or part of the drama. Each piece is performed by a different artist or artists, and the content can be wide-ranging; some are elegant or poignant, others are satiric, irreverent, or humorous, and still others can be passionate, political, or spiritual in nature. The performers range from the seasoned professional to the nascent puppeteer, and often include poets, musicians, dancers, mimes, actors, and other sundry affiliated artists.

The Fall Fairy Tale Festival Slam
Puppet Showplace Theatre
Saturday, September 15 2012, 8:00pm

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About the slam: Pieces will be 3 to 10 minutes in length and have some connection to the theme of fairy tales. Performers will use diverse and/or experimental theatrical styles which could include: mask, object theatre, storytelling, crankies, burlesque, etc. as well as traditional puppet styles. We can hardly wait! We hope to see you and your work. More info coming soon!

My New Favorite Thing: Middle Eastern Music

Welcome Puppet Fans!                                                                
I am here to give you your weekly addition of me, Bella Monster with my new favorite thing. An Arabian Adventure is playing this week at PST! This is a tale of a Persian Prince imprisoned for his love of a beautiful princess who must stop at nothing to save her from a terrible fate. The soundtrack for the show is traditional Middle Eastern music that transports you to another time and place entirely new. Join me on this adventure!

An Arabian Adventure 

Aug 1, 2012 - Aug 4, 2012 

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The music is hypnotizing and exotic. I wondered what made it so different from the music I am familiar with? My curiosity led me to my new favorite thing, Middle Eastern music! Here's what I learned. Traditional Eastern music uses what is called, Maquams, melodic modes which are said to evoke a different emotion in each listener. Each time we hear these maquams we all feel a different feeling, unique to who we are! Isn't that amazing that we can all hear the same sound but have a different feeling?

Our music or Western music uses chords but traditional Eastern music will have one instrument carry the melody while the others layer melody scraps or rhythm segments over it. When we listen to this we are absorbing new musical rhythms, musical notes and melodies. Listen to the arabic instruments in this video below. How do these new sounds make you feel?

Here are some of the most popular instruments in traditional Middle Eastern music seen in the video. 

Oud - A string instrument with 11 strings and no frets.

Riq- The Arabic tambourine.

Darbuka- A popular percussion instrument.

Ney - Resembles the flute in instrument and sound but is very difficult to play.

I can't wait to experience the exciting arabian tale this week at PST with the beautiful instruments I just learned about. Hope to see you there! 

Love,

Bella Monster

My New Favorite Thing: Glove Puppetry!

Hello Puppet fans,
It's your favorite time of the week, "My New Favorite Thing" from me, your favorite puppet, Bella Monster! This week I want to tell to you about glove puppetry. Glove puppetry is totally awesome! It's one of the most recognizable and common forms of puppetry. Being one of the oldest forms of theatre, you might recognize it as one of the most famous puppetry acts, Punch and Judy.

Brad Shur, my friend and artist in residence here at PST, is teaching a class for adults this Summer on glove puppetry. (photo right)  I wanted to know what glove puppets are all about, and boy did I find out!


Glove Puppetry Boot Camp
Instructor: Brad Shur, Artist in Residence





I took the class and can now unleash the expressive power of my hands in glove puppetry, like a pro. I also got to interview my pal, Brad for all of you to become experts on glove puppetry too. 







Here is what the glove puppet master had to say:

Me: Hi Brad!
Brad: Hey Bella

Me: When did you know you wanted to be a puppeteer?
Brad: I grew up watching the Muppets and the Fraggles and Dark Crystal, and I always loved to act and write and make things. By the time I got to high school, I realized that I could do all those things in one job as a puppeteer and be a part of the art form that I'd loved so much.

Me: What is a glove puppet?
Brad: A glove puppet is a very old style of puppet that fits over the puppeteers hand. The fingers are used to move the head and hands of the puppet. It's called a glove puppet because it fits over your hand like a glove.

Me: I'm a mouth and rod puppet, what's the difference between a glove puppet and the kind of puppet that I am?

Brad: Glove puppets mostly don't move their mouths like you do. They use body language like clowns or mimes do. That's how they communicate. A mouth and rod puppet like you takes two hands to manipulate, but I only need one hand for a glove puppet, so I can perform two puppets at a time, and that's a show!

Me: What was the first glove puppet show you saw?

Brad: The first one I remember was Liz Joyce's Punch and Judy show. Punch and Judy is a show that began in England hundreds of years ago. People perform it all over the world today. I'm not quite that old. I saw the show about twelve years ago and loved it.

Me: What was the name and personality of your first glove puppet?

Brad: I made a puppet in college named Oatmeal because he was made from brown paper the color of oatmeal. He didn't really have his own personality, I used him in different stories and he would become the character the story needed.

Me: How do you prepare before a show?

Brad: I'll go through the show in my head to make sure I remember everything and all the puppets and props are set up where they need to be.

Me: How do you start creating your awesome characters for your puppet acts?

Brad: The idea comes first. I think of the story that I want to tell, and then I figure out what characters I need to make to tell it.

Me: Thanks for letting me interview you!

Brad: Thank you! I've never been interviewed by a monster before.

Now that you love glove puppets as much as I do, check out Clown Circus performed by Brad Shur this week: Wed, July 25th through Sat, 28th, performances as 10:30am and 1pm!  The show and all of the glove puppets are hand made by Paul Vincent Davis, and Brad brings the characters to life with silly voices and lots of laughs! See you at the theatre!

Love,


Bella Monster

Clown Circus by Paul Vincent Davis

Performed by Brad Shur, PST Artist in Residence

July 25th-28th | 10:30am & 1pm

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My New Favorite Thing: Puppets At Night

Hi Everyone!
It's me again your favorite, furry, fabulous, friend, Bella Monster! It's Tuesday and it's time for My New Favorite Thing. This week my new favorite thing is Puppets at Night at PST! What is Puppets at Night? Well I'll tell you! Its programming for adults in the evening for ages 16 and up at PST. After dusk the puppets come out to play in performances and classes, including me!

Adult Classes
In our adult classes, teachers, artists, puppeteers and puppet enthusiasts come to strengthen their puppet skills. This summer we are offering a brand new class which starts on Sun, July 22nd.  Can puppets make puppets? I want to! More info.

Puppets and Play-Making In the Classroom

July 22nd-Aug 12th, Sun afternoons, 
3:30-6:00pm

Puppet Slam
Our upcoming performance for Puppets at Night is the Puppet Showplace Slam; a collection of mini plays using puppets with content ranging from elegant to satiric. All kinds of artists show up from all over to put on an amazing show and have lots of fun!

Last slam this season! 

Saturday, July 21, 2012, 8:00 pm 

Buy Tickets

Now that Puppets At Night is my new favorite thing, I better learn how to become an adult so I can go! Check out this video of my friend Phil teaching me about what it means to be an adult.

Love,
Bella Monster

My NEW Favorite Thing

Hello all,

I am pink, furry and fabulous. Thats right its me, Bella Monster! Reporting live from Puppet Showplace theatre, the first puppetry center in New England. Thank you for visiting our blog. This post is about my new segment called 'My New Favorite Thing', by me! Every Tuesday I will update you with my new favorite thing, things like puppets, pink and strawberries.

This week my new favorite thing is Pinocchio! PST's new show coming out Fourth of July weekend. Pinocchio is a story about a puppet who wants to become a real boy. I'm a puppet, like Pinocchio, and I am on a quest to find out what it means to be real. What do you think it means to be real?





The trees outside are real and give us oxygen. I try to be kind and generous like the trees but they don't laugh and sing like me. The kids I meet are real! Kids play and learn like me. Together we learn from each other. But they aren't covered in fur the way I am.


So being real must come from inside. Being real can't always be seen or heard. The love we have inside is what makes us real. I'm Bella Monster, I'm proud to say I'm real and I know you are too!

Love,

                                                                    Bella Monster        

Raccoon Tales by Brad Shur

THIS WEEK AT PST

"Raccoon Tales" by Brad Shur

Weds, Thurs, & Sat | July 20, 21, & 23 | 10:30 am & 1 pm

$8/Members, $10/General Admission

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About the show: The animals in the forest are always getting into trouble playing tricks on each other. Will they learn their lessons? The show includes three humorous tails inspired by the Native American tales of the Seneca Tribe: How the Fox and the Raccoon Trick EachOther; Why the Blue Jay is Blue and the Gray Wolf Isn't; and, Why the Bear has a Stumpy Tail.

Hand Puppets, Recommended for ages 4 +

About the performer: Brad Shur, artist in residence at PST, has been professionally involved in puppetry for nearly 10 years. As a fan of all types of puppetry, Brad has built and performed with rod puppets, hand puppets, shadow puppets, larger-than-life costume puppets, Japanese bunraku puppets and marionettes. His shows are high energy blends where at least a few of these styles come together with storytelling, original scripts, and lots of audience participation.

You can catch Brad at least twice monthly at Puppet Showplace Theatre, performing any one of six shows in his repertoire: "Raccoon Tales," "Here Come the Clowns," "The Singing Turtle," "Dr. Doohickey's Monster Machine," "The Carrot Salesman," and his newest production "The Magic Soup and Other Tales."

Brad is also an experienced teacher and offers workshops and classes for all ages on site at PST or private bookings in addition to extended residencies. This programming includes shadow, hand, and rod puppets, or custom workshops. Click here for more info!

(Brad Shur and participants from Summer Saturday Workshop Series, July 2011)

Puppets in Primetime...and on the Silver Screen

We at Puppet Showplace love live puppet theater more than anything, but we also know how important TV and film have been to making puppets famous around the world. Our regular Friday evening series, "Puppets in Primetime," is coming up April 16th at 6:30. Come on by the theater for a double bill of classic Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock episodes.

If you're craving more puppets on the big screen, our friends at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge are doing a weekend muppet marathon, with screenings of the Muppet Movie, Labyrinth, and other great films.

When I watch TV or film puppetry I'm always on the lookout for examples of the subtle manipulation techniques that really make the puppets come to life. It's a lot harder than it looks! Not only do puppeteers need to re-wire their brains while performing on camera so they can watch their puppet in monitors that show everything in left-right reverse, but they need to choreograph their movements so they translate well from 3D to 2D.

For a manipulation skill that's also translatable into live puppet theater, next time you watch the muppets try using your hand as a mouth (for extra fun, add a set of "peepers" eyes from our store) and see if you can talk in time with the puppets. Make sure the movement is mainly coming from your thumb rather than your top fingers--otherwise, your eyes would move every time you opened your mouth! This skill, called "lip synch" is one of the first things puppeteers need to master when working with talking mouth puppets.

Bonus: for an example of (intentionally) not-so-great on-camera puppetry, check out last week's episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he satirizes RNC chairman Michael Steel with a crazy puppet routine (the puppet appears about 10:30). Funny, or just painful to watch? The character is based on a Sesame Street routine set in a restaurant where Grover waits on a man who keeps sending his soup back. Enjoy!