In the next couple of weeks we here at Puppeteers Unite present a new video series “How to Build a Puppet”. We are going to use the Roly Puppet Pattern found at Project Puppet and build a Monster puppet. This beginners course is totally free and will walk you through the stages of building a puppet from beginning to end.
Go to www.projectpuppet.com for the Roly Pattern and get your today before the series begins.
John Tartaglia, creator of acclaimed ”Johnny and the Sprites” and star of “Avenue Q” and “Shrek the Musical” has produced a one of a kind black light live puppet show called “ImaginOcean”. This underwater tales takes kids of all ages on a remarkable journey of discovery. ImaginOcean follows three friends: Tank, Bubbles, and Dorsel as they sing and dance their way through various audience participated adventures. Check out the ImaginOcean website for tickets and more information.
Slimed, it’s a feature-length film recently completed by Eric Manche (co-writer/co-director) and Jeff Nitzberg. After 3 years of work, they finally are premiering it to the internet for free! Eric wrote me an email about the film:
“Slimed is about an atheist park ranger and a bible salesman find themselves in an unlikely partnership, thrown into the wilderness, where they stumble upon a sinister and slimey conspiracy that threatens to destroy not just the woods – but the entire world.”
He continues: “Slime features slapstick violence, religious indecency, incomprehensible stupidity, epic laser gun battles, depressed wizard cats, puppet super-villains and exploding children – Slimed will make laugh, scream and cry… possibly all at the same time.”
“Jeff and I are both huge puppet fanatics and knew from the beginning that we wanted the main villain to be a hand-puppet… and in order to really paint the villain as a truly imposing and terrifying figure - we decided on him being a “lab-rat” scientist. Despite our small production size, we managed to film his scenes over a period of 4 nights, mostly with Jeff on camera and me under a chair doing voice and puppetry. We also used various compositing techniques to enable him to walk across the room.”
“It’s a pretty child-friendly movie, there is a big battle scene at the end but the violence is pretty cartoony (when people die they explode in a fire ball and sparks) and there is no serious language of concern. There is also some pretty tame religious satire.”
Slimed available to watch in its entirety here on Vimeo:
“One Take Jake”- a term in the film industry which means the entire sequence was taken in one take. It looks like they did this in more than one take, but it is done in one shot. Incredible!
Sadly, Eugene Lambert died yesterday at the age of 82. Eugene was one of the worlds leading puppeteers whose creations on ‘Wanderly Wagon’ delighted generations of Irish children, and who performed for many celebrities including Michael Jackson.
‘Wanderly Wagon’ began in 1967, and all of the Lambert children worked on the show, which ran until 1982. The puppet characters in ‘Wanderly Wagon’ — Judge the dog, Mr Crow, Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake are remembered with great fondness by generations.
A native of Sligo, Mr Lambert had a huge passion for puppetry and managed to turn that passion into a lifelong career.
He founded the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown, Co Dublin, in 1972, and was the force behind the International Puppet Festival of Ireland.
“From his work on RTE with ‘Wanderly Wagon’, to his ongoing commitment to puppet theatre, he inspired a generation of puppet theatre makers, and delighted and entertained generations of Irish children and their parents,” said the council’s head of theatre, David Parnell.
The theatre is home to the country’s largest collection of puppets and hosts family productions throughout the weekend. It holds up to 250 people.
Mr Lambert’s funeral Mass will take place on Friday at 10am at St Patrick’s church in Monkstown. He will be sadly missed.
Eugene Lambert is survived by his wife Mai (they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this summer), eight children, 15 grandchildren and five great-great children.
is a FREE video sharing site strictly for puppeteers and puppet enthusiasts. Watch, Share, Embed, Network, Promote your puppetry site, organization, business, etc., Make some new friends! It’s all here, it’s all puppetry, and it’s all FREE. Post your live puppet performances, news, images, audio, film/video projects, how to’s, advice. Create a group or blog here. Your puppetry videos will be viewed and appreciated here, by millions of other puppetry people! So create your FREE account now. Because after all, real people play with puppets!
A New York indy band called Heads Up Displayhas created a music video for their song “Formula VS. Perfume”. All the puppets were created by Joshua Dillard, who was once an intern at the Sesame Street Workshop. A great song with amazing puppets!
In the context of the Festival Montréal en Lumière, Montreal’s Panadream Theatre presents a night to remember for Nuit Blanche, named Marionette Marathon!
This will include all night entertainment with live puppetry and short film screenings, in both English and French. Panadream Theatre will premiere their new string marionette children’s show, Yorgo & the World. Also slated to perform are Jullie Desrosiers of Poupées [k]rinkées, with her street show Punzelle, and Maya Ersan and Jenny San Martin of the Mere Phantoms, with a visual projection feast for your eyes set to live music. All live performances will be presented three times throughout the night, with short puppet related movies being screened between shows.
This event takes place Saturday, February 27, 2010, and will begin at 6:00 pm and end at 2:30 am, at the Off the Hook gallery, located at 1021 St Catherine West on the third floor. This all ages event is FREE, and juice and popcorn will be served all night.
Schedule
6:00-6:45 pm films
7:00-8:30 pm live shows: Yorgo & the World by Panadream Theatre, Punzelle by Jullie Desrosiers, Kouk Lá by Mere Phantoms
8:30-9:15 pm films
9:30-11:00 pm live shows: Yorgo & the World by Panadream Theatre, Punzelle by Jullie Desrosiers, Kouk Lá by Mere Phantoms
11:00-11:45 pm films
12:00-1:30 am live shows: Yorgo & the World by Panadream Theatre, Punzelle by Jullie Desrosiers, Kouk Lá by Mere Phantoms
1:30-2:15 am films
We welcome you to Puppeteers Unite! We are excited to bring to you news related to the art of puppetry. If you have any input, or feedback feel free to contact Puppeteers Unite at: info@puppeteersunite.com.
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