NPF ‘09 Gallery NPF ‘09 Itinerary

Hobey Ford has uploaded his workshop notes from the National Puppetry Festival to his site - so those who didn’t get to attend can head here and download the notes for themselves. (I don’t need to, I already have a copy )

NPF ‘09 Gallery NPF ‘09 Itinerary

Before launching into it, to make things easy I’m putting everything in one post: you can find a summary of the show ratings (below) here, including a few thoughts on the shows themselves; a summary of the festival highlights (below) here; return to the itinerary to see that I’ve updated it with links to each day’s diary post and show reviews, so they’re all easy to find and read according to your particular fancy.

Also, forgive the length. I thought that I would have very little to say - or at least I had very little on my mind when thinking about the trip in general - but once I sat down I found I had heaps of things to say.

Overall thoughts on the trip

Over the past few days I’ve been thinking about the benefits of going to the festival; and find myself struggling to answer it. My expectations of the event were so different than what I got that I’m actually disappointed. The workshops were honestly not worth travelling so far to attend - although informative, it’s nothing I couldn’t have gotten from websites online or books ordered from Amazon. And though I could say that being around other puppeteers is itself encouraging and reinvigorating, I spent so little time actually making acquaintances with anyone (staceyrebecca not included) that I find that too wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.

One could be tempted by those statements to think that I’m writing off the whole trip, but I’m not. At the very least, I got to prove to myself that travelling - no matter how difficult emotionally - is possible, and that my newfound ideas of how to mitigate the panic attacks is not only on the right track, but repeatable. Most of all, there were even some new things that I’ve discovered which will help improve things for ‘next time’ (every time I return after travelling, I think "never again"). 

I recently filled out the festival survey, and found myself making a lot of criticisms of the event. Most were small things - better signage for instance - but I think it’s mostly due to making the comparisons between the NPF and UNIMA 2008 (the latter site is no longer available, visit the blog page of my site for the diary posts from that experience). In many ways they are incomparable. Because of my scholarship from UNIMA Australia though, I must not only think about, but write about, what I gained and experienced at the NPF. 

Did I learn anything fantastically new or something that opened my eyes to new techniques, ideas, or ways of using puppetry? For the most part, no. I did have my eyes opened for some fantastic shadow puppetry - see Danny the Diver - but as mentioned above, nothing really pushed the boundaries of puppetry. Perhaps this is due to the nature of the shows presented, which were of often random quality. But I really expected the workshops to teach me something, especially to allow me to have hands-on experience building. I specifically chose workshops where my knowledge of the subject was minimal at best, or for the shadow puppets, where my knowledge could use some refinement. I found myself unchallenged, and in learning, isn’t that exactly what is needed to gain anything of value?

Of what then, happened in my mind? I discovered a way forward in writing a script for puppetry which I’ve been brainstorming. Although my word working workshop (ech, alliteration and a repeat of ‘work’) provided impetus for the move forward, I’m not 100% sure that it occured because of what we learned in the class, or simply from activity naturally improving creativity (the more active puppetry I do, the more likely I am at being creative in general. The more I sit on my ass, the less creative I am). Likewise I discovered a new way of attaching rods to my shadow puppets; but this occured on the second night of the festival - before I attended the shadow puppet workshops - and again, not related to anything from the NPF itself. 

So did nothing really inspire me? Did I really get zero out of this whole experience? The obvious answer is yes. But it got me thinking: I’ve been doing puppetry now for about 7 years, and only really been taking it seriously for the last year and a half. Over the last year, I’ve taught myself a considerable amount in terms of shadow puppetry and what I can do with it. In fact, just finding my niche in shadow puppetry is new in itself, and only occured thanks to my visit to UNIMA  2008. Perhaps I was expecting too much from NPF; that my learning has come so far over this time that I need/needed more than what I got from the ‘beginners’ workshops at the NPF. I feel somewhat annoyed, especially in regards to one thing: I received a scholarship from UNIMA Aus. to go, and the majority of the reason I applied was because I wanted to learn more in a place/setting that wasn’t available here in Australia. I actually almost feel as though I let down the people behind, and premise, of the whole scholarship. I hope that those who made the judgement call don’t feel as though it was wasted, particularly in light of the following…

But also, I find that something else unexpected happened. Although nothing really made me want to change my plans for my business - in fact, in some ways it solidifed them further - I did do one thing. I missed my friends, and fellow company members, Jeany and Susan. We’d been talking on and off for years on making a new show, doing this, doing that, but with work and other commitments (and lack of money or ideas), we never seem to get around to it. I really love working with them, and miss doing so quite a lot. I knew all of this before I left, but at the festival, seeing so many people actually making shows, as well as celebrating each other’s work, it made the feeling a lot stronger. So I’ve resolved to try and resurrect Sticky Apple Legs from its lethargy; Jeany and I have already been thinking on similar lines for a new project, which would also coincide with some personal plans for Puppets in Melbourne… so maybe by the end of the year we can have something put together. 

Before I leave you with the highlights and show ratings, I thought it would be a good idea to also have a side-by-side comparison between NPF and UNIMA 2008 (see table below, I go on a bit of a sidetrack in the following paragraphs). I will add that these things I think are interesting: as mentioned previously, NPF is predominantly by puppeteers, for puppeteers, whereas UNIMA 2008 was more by puppeteers for the public. As such, I think it’s good that included in the registration fee to NPF is all entrance costs to see shows; and that even if the quality of the shows weren’t great, that it’s also good to have everyone attending the festival go to see all the shows (instead of picking and choosing like at UNIMA 2008, where I missed a lot of good stuff because of time and money). However, I think that the quality and quantity of workshops available at NPF were reduced because of the overprogramming of shows (3 hours total per day of workshops, vs about 6 hours total per day of shows). 

Finally, I would add one more thing: I wish Australian puppetry was a little bit more community-minded. In the US, there are state and city ‘guilds’, where small local groups of puppeteers come together to support each other, see other people’s work and share information. This is on top of having UNIMA USA and the umbrella organisation, Puppeteers of America. Attending NPF, it was clear that many, if not most, of the attendees had friends, colleagues and workmates also in attendance; and that this biennial festival is predominantly a time to catch up and make connections. Although Australia has the UNIMA Aus branch to rely on, our community is so small and sparse, that it’s difficult to be in contact with others; further to that, I would suggest that UNIMA Aus is underused, and that the community here is less willing or able to spend the time meeting up. We also have no guilds, and though I’m tempted to set one up in Melbourne, I know that it would fail miserably - and quickly - for the exact same reason UNIMA Aus is underused.

Likewise, any puppetry festivals here are presented for the public only, and classes and workshops are offered likewise. Any opportunity for the Australian community to meet up is limited at best; and it would be wonderful if we could arrange a NPF of our own (only perhaps a little better ). I know that other (younger) puppeteers have commented on the woeful amount of communication between the rest of the industry, but I also know that the (older) puppeteers have been trying for decades to establish our very own centre of puppetry (venue, workshop space, etc.). There is a lot of room to move forward, and I think it is necessary for the younger generations that the Australian puppetry industry gets off its ass and makes some of this happen.

In fact, other than wanting to start producing shows again, this is the single biggest effect of attending the NPF: I’m going to be more active in UNIMA Australia’s activities, including actually attending meetings where possible, and being more vocal as a member of the organisation. I’ve long been an open and vocal advocate of the arts/theatre in Australia - from submitting my thoughts to government inquiries, to writing on important issues (see my letter about VCA) - so it’s about time I get active about puppetry on a more substantiative level. Heck, I started in this direction the very moment I began the Learn Online page and blogged about where to buy puppets in Australia, etc. If there’s not enough info out there about Australian puppetry, then why not write about it? Likewise, if there’s not enough community involvement in Australian puppetry, then why not get involved yourself and help change things? It would be great if my efforts resulted in an Aussie festival of our own, or something more substantial by way of community gatherings.

… Overall, my experience has been mixed. Couple nervousness and stress with a lack of sleep and food; then blend it with a dash of boredom and semi-good shows… And then top it off with some genuine learning and growth, and a rediscovery of certain aspects of my passion for theatre… Well, I’m not sure what that adds up to. 

(I hope I’ve covered all the differences between the two festivals; I’m sure I’ve missed something, but there’s a lot of stuff here and I can’t think of everything right now!)

NPF Highlights

Actual festival highlights:

• Meeting staceyrebecca, and all the other people at the festival
• Seeing Nana Projects’ fantastic shadow puppetry
• Seeing Hobey Ford’s foamie puppets, up close and personal; they’re so unbelievably flexible and lifelike!
• Jim Henson Day, not just being there for the announcement, but for The Little Pirate Mermaid, which was a fantastic set
• And I think the A Puppet Intervention film, word working workshop, and the overall festival experience for reinvigorating my need to actually produce shows, inspiring a few lightbulb moments, and to get more active in UNIMA Aus activities. 

Sightseeing highlights: 

• Going to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta (more info on Day Two)
• Doing the Segway tour in Atlanta (see Day Nine)
• Watching the Black Holes film in DC (see Day Fourteen)
• … And I think I’ll include the moonlight trolley tour of DC; despite having a panic attack, on reflection, it was really great to see all those famous places and I think if I’d have just eaten properly I would have enjoyed it immensely (see Day Eleven)

NPF Shows

I’m posting here my original ratings; but I do also want to add a comment or two. After leaving the festival, I find my mind returns again and again to a number of the shows, even if they didn’t receive the highest ratings; Danny the Diver is my top favourite, but also in the list is the True Story of the Three Little Pigs (things may have gone wrong, but it was lots of fun); The Dragon King was perfect theatre, but I almost prefer The Little Pirate Mermaid in a weird way… maybe because it pushed the boundaries with their realistic sets. Likewise, those who received highest ratings I’ve not thought about again since seeing them. Indeed, proof that a confusing storyline is a bad idea is in that a few of them I’ve actually even forgotten what they were about! And with Panther & Crane, I really now think they deserve one star, not two (though I’ve left the rating intact to reflect what I thought at the time), as even Cinderella in Muddy York was better than P&C; funnily enough, I’m also tempted to reverse that for Bride - making it a two star instead of one. Looking over the ratings, it’s sad to see the quality all over the place; UNIMA 2008 averages at a 4 star rating (4/5, instead of here which is out of 6), meaning a higher quality of performances overall at UNIMA 2008. Sadly, I was also waiting for my Angel; a show that so completely challenged the concept of what puppetry is that it’s hard to forget. Even Danny the Diver doesn’t near Angel’s repeatable watchability factor - well over a year later, and I’d go to see Angel every day for a week if I could.

	Danny the Diver & Alonzo’s Lullaby The Dragon King (technically unrated, but I’ll stick it here anyway) An Evening with John Tartaglia Poli Degaine (Punchy Draw)
	The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A Wolf  The Day it Snowed Tortillas La Muela del Ray Farfan The Little Pirate Mermaid
	Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop The Rainbow Bridge and Other Tales Entertaining a Thought
	The Box? A Show of Feelings
	As I Lay Dying  Panther & Crane Cinderella in Muddy York El Hombre Ciguena (The Stork Man)
	Bride Secrets History Remembers

NPF ‘09 Gallery NPF ‘09 Itinerary

Read yesterday’s post here.

Day Seven: Jim Henson Day

Seeing as how all workshops have finished for the festival, we spent our last day celebrating Jim Henson Day - that’s what it’s marked in the festival program as. (Those following on Twitter already know more about this, but I’ll recap a little for everyone else a little further on)

What today meant was we got to go to the Centre for Puppetry Arts, here in Atlanta, and not just take a look around (the Centre is also home of UNIMA USA and a permanent Jim Henson exhibition) their three floored building, but also see a show in their theatre; and have a special welcome by the Jim Henson Legacy, along with Jane and Heather Henson (wife and daughter respectively). More pics of the Centre can be found on my Flickr set.

As with our afternoon shows, the trip was done in two lots, with the Blue group (mine) going first. Yay!

We were provided buses to get to the Centre, and we loaded up at 9am. The show started at 9.30am, so that left us with a little time beforehand to wander the exhibition space. I’ll get to that a bit more in a minute. (Before you even ask: there were no photo/video taking allowed in the Centre’s exhibition; hence, no photos of anything other than the building itself.  I really wanted to take pics, but there were lots of Centre staff wandering around, and someone even got told off for trying, so I wasn’t about to risk it)

We then entered the theatre, a small space fitting about 100-150 people (the seating is cushion-covered benches, so you could squeeze more in than normal venues). Before we started the show, a short intro was provided Vince Anthony, the director of the Centre, followed by Jane and Heather. Their intro was a sort of conversational ramble on Jim and how he helped found UNIMA USA (up until then, UNIMA did not have a branch in the US, despite having them elsewhere in the world), and how they were happy to have the Centre be a home for the collection (they hope to have a larger permanent collection/wing in the future).

Then, we had a very special event: a spokesperson (I forget the official title, but it was something like Director of Marketing) for the Mayor of Atlanta read out a proclamation. It declared that Jim Henson, for his work in puppetry, his promotion and support of children’s education, and for his worldwide award-winning excellence… July 18th is now known as Jim Henson Day in Atlanta!!! And here I was thinking the festival program was just an honorary title! 

So the people at the National Puppetry Festival were the first people to hear this official announcement; Jane and Heather received a plaque with the proclamation on it, and naturally, everyone in the audience was overjoyed. There’s something interesting that happened when we viewed the exhibition/Centre. If puppetry is like a religion, this Centre would be Mecca, and Henson would be able to walk on water. There’s something about Henson that manages to bring all puppeteers together - in awe - and excited about what can be done/is being done in the realm of puppetry. 

Ok, I’m going to write sideways now, and return briefly to the exhibition. 

Funnily enough, when I saw the poseable replica of Kermit, or the huge Big Bird in the glass case upon entering the Centre, I didn’t bat an eyelid. But when I rounded the corner I saw a DRD from Farscape and just wanted to drool. … I know, I know, I’m sad . They also had displays of many of the characters from The Muppets and Fraggle Rock (the large and small versions of the puppets in terms of the latter), an animatronic mechanism from Dinosaurs, some of the models and puppets from Labyrinth, as well as Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, and stuff on Sid the Science Kid. There were video screens playing behind-the-scenes excerpts and footage from shows, along with interviews with cast and crew members; plus plenty of drawings, plans and other ephemera. There were even some things to play with: a range of fleece-covered faces and laminated eyes, noses and mouths… then you can create your own muppet face! There were also a selection of puppet materials (fleece, fur, etc.) that you could touch and see the texture. Pretty neat stuff!

Now, back to where I was discussing the announcement of Jim Henson Day; whilst we were in the theatre, we watched a performance of The Little Pirate Mermaid (the show I wanted to see initially on Tuesday, but got cancelled and replaced with a show I didn’t go to anyway). You can find a review of that under the related posts heading on my site.

Once the show was over, we had more time to wander the Centre. There was also a nice little reception (with food, mmm!) downstairs in a small room. I sat with @staceyrebecca and then we had a wander around. I went upstairs, where they have their offices/activities rooms, and Centre staff were running small workshops making paper puppets. Then I headed back to the exhibition because I knew there was something else special: Heather Henson was doing a short tour of it. She explained each of the exhibits and talked about the people involved (unfortunately, we had about 20 minutes left of our trip to the Centre left, so we didn’t get through even half of the exhibits before we had to leave). Luckily, John Tartaglia and Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (both Muppeteers) were also in attendance, and added a little bit more insider info too.

Oh yes, I bought myself a piece of Henson-alia whilst at the Centre; there’s a puppet store (with a range of puppets, Henson stuff, puppet books and kits, etc etc) and I got myself a Kermit book bag. It’s pretty cool!

So it was time to head back to Georgia Tech, and have some lunch. After lunch we had two shows; Poli Degaine (the show that was supposed to be on yesterday) and Secrets History Remembers. Dinner came and went, and then we had two more things: the awards ceremony for Puppeteers of America and UNIMA USA (most of which I really had no idea what was going on, seeing as I didn’t know half the people/shows), along with the Traffle (raffle) drawings. I didn’t win what I bid on - but then, people were stuffing the boxes, since you could put in more than one bid - and almost thought no one had bid on my donated item. They announced it last, and was happy to see at least one person bid! Yay!

Finally, we had the last performance of the festival, Bride. You can find links to all the reviews below the related posts heading. There was a closing night party, but I decided not to go since I’m pretty exhausted. I said goodbye to Stacey, and here we are!

So the festival is officially over! I’ll do a wrap-up of review ratings some time soon (either before I leave or when I get back), along with a wrap-up of the workshops and festival itself too. Tomorrow’s plan is nebulous: I’m very tempted to just spend the day chilling out at the hotel, and give my feet a rest. The plan was to head out to a local mall where there is a market on, but seeing as how I’ve spent oh, 99.99% of my souvineer budget, I may give it a miss. 

Read next day’s post here.

NPF ‘09 Gallery NPF ‘09 Itinerary

Read yesterday’s post here.

Day Six: Wayang, Tortillas and Tartaglia

Today is the last day of workshops, and funnily enough, both of them are related to shadow puppets. I started with ‘Control Mechanisms for Rod and Shadow Puppets’, run by Hobey Ford (see yesterday’s diary post and review - linked below - for more info about Ford). He brought in a range of sample materials that he uses: from wire cable, to string; from telescoping brass rods to nuts and bolts and other bits and pieces. He also brought in many of his puppets, including the ‘Foamies’ that he used in his show yesterday (pictured here are his whale puppets), other rod puppets, and some eye mechs. Unfortunately, he spent a lot more time talking about what the materials were, and less time on how to use them.

Fortunately, a lot of his stuff is described on his website, as well as my workshop notes. The gems:

• The main goal of the rod on a puppet is to support it
• His ‘Peepers’ (go google it) tell us that if you put eyes on anything, it comes to life
• Guitar string and piano wire are strong materials
• Never use three-braided cord, it unravels when you cut it; use parachute cord, which is better
• Hansjurgen Fettig’s book is invaluable ()
• You must always consider your rod attachments/strings/etc and if/how/when they will stretch
• Flange the ends of tubes to reduce friction and cutting of string/wire inside the tubing
• If you’re making shadow puppets, check out eBay for Indonesian shadow chisels!
• ABS plastic is what Ford uses for his puppets; it comes in thin black and is durable
• Bailing wire is good for armature
• Using nylon for mechanisms, melt the end of the cord, and then shape it; you can use it as a needle, making threading through screw eyes, tubing, etc. much easier

From this workshop, I headed to ‘Messing with Wayang’ with Michael Richardson. I got there a bit early, and got to watch him set up a bit. For those who aren’t familiar, Wayang Kulit are Indonesian shadow puppets, made out of animal hide, painted, and then jointed with bone. The rods are also bone. The puppets are very intricate; see my Flickr pics for more (The particular puppet at the right here didn’t have rods attached; but you can see just how detailed they get).

Richardson spent most of the workshop talking about how he got into Wayang, sprinkling it with a little info about how the puppets are made. There weren’t that many gems: just that if you don’t want to use animal hide, you can cut up washed-out milk bottles and then use sharpies to colour them; something about durolar, which now I’ve completely forgotten about and didn’t write more than that word (), and nylon lacing cord can be used to make strong joints - melt the ends to secure them.

We then got to watch one of his shows, a tale about a soldier who gets tricked by a witch, finds a magic tinder box, falls in love with and rescues a princess; all with the help of a magical dragon. I’ve never seen Wayang performed live, and though the puppets were beautifully made, the manipulation of it could have done with some refining. Having said that, I’ve got nothing to compare it to, and maybe traditional dalangs (puppeteers) perform in a similar way.

Time for lunch: and then two shows. First was The Day it Snowed Tortillas, and then, unfortunately the second show got cancelled and was replaced with Entertaining a Thought. The evening shows were (well, the first, not so much a show) An Evening with John Tartaglia and La Muela del Ray Farfán. You can find the links to the reviews below, under the ‘related posts’ heading.

Read next day’s post here.