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.