Playboard
*November 2010 – February 2011*

PLAYBOARD is the Newsletter of the Puppeteers of America, Inc.
Editor: Fred Thompson * 26 Howard Avenue * New Haven, CT * 06519-2809
playboard[at]puppeteers.org

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President’s Message
National Puppetry Festival
Membership
The Guild Connection
REUM…with a View..
Eureka!!
Address Change

President’s Message

Greetings to All,

For those who are REALLY tired of Winter, we now have something wonderful to look forward to: The National Puppetry Festival is now open for registration!

This summer marks the 75th anniversary of Puppeteers of America. We hope to celebrate this in a very special way at the National Festival , so please plan on attending. Go to the website, check out the performances, make your plans, the game is a foot (afoot ?). Whatever.

Puppeteers of America is a unique organization, held together by the untiring efforts of so many people. I would like to take this time to thank all of you: those working on the National Festival of course, but also all the committees, all of the consultants, all of the contributors to the Puppetry Journal, the executive committee and the board members. Thank you for going the extra mile for PofA; thank you for giving back to this wonderful organization. You are greatly appreciated.

And all of you who are now feeling like – what can I do? There’s always a way to serve. Check out the PofA Directory for a committee that might interest you, come to Atlanta and volunteer at the festival. Seen a good show? Write a review and send it to Paul Eide for the Journal.

We are all PofA. Let’s celebrate!

Anna Vargas – President

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National Puppetry Festival

The Puppeteers of America
NATIONAL PUPPETRY FESTIVAL
July 11-17, 2011
Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, Georgia

Online: www.nationalpuppetryfestival.org
Not Online? Please Call 215-885-7073

A festival postcard will be sent out in the next week or so.
All contact information will be provided there.
If you do not have access to the internet, you may be able to use the public computer services at your local library. You can download and print forms and other information from the website.

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REUM with a View
By: M’El Reum

I hope by this time everyone has thawed out, the snow is shoveled and the sun is shining brightly in your hometown. What a wild winter. One day it was 69 and the next we had three inches of snow and the next day it was l2 below. It was a tough holiday for me. My Reum-mate of 54 years died in December. He had a wonderful life working with young people and as Time magazine described his life, “He changed the world one kid at a time.”

The new year looks busy for The Puppet Co Playhouseat Glen Echo, Maryland. They are celebrating their 28th anniversary this year and are the recipient of the Cherry Adler Award from the Maryland State Arts Council for excellence in Children’s theatre.

Bob Brown will be there, offering a number of shows for tiny tots. “Penguins,‘ Playground,” “Snow Show, “ and “Panda Monium” are on the agenda.

Up in Seattle the Carter Marionettes are working on a Baroque marionette opera “The Burning House.” Puppets and opera seem to have a long history together.

Z Puppets Rosenschnoz in Indianapolis are doing “Monkey Mind Pirates” and in their Toy Theatre after dark they will be doing “Gnip Gnopera.”

Puppet Slams have become a craze all over the country. Chicago. Los Angels, Detroit, Virginia, etc. etc. That is a good sign. Let’s put puppetry on the rise.

We often find that our puppeteers cross-country are multi talented. John Byrne is a contemporary poet is published in ”Many A Trail to the Summit.”

I had a wonderful visit with Peter and Debbie Allen of Jamestown, Missouri. They are revving up for Puppet Fest Midwest. Paul Mesner, Kansas City, Misssouri also stopped by on his way through Colorado. He was lucky enough to hit one big snow, but it was great for me; I had the day off.

Chris Neely is working on Shadow puppets. She has traditional Greek shadows she made from spray painted matt board and other large images inked on Mylar. She has had great success with a screen made of t-shirt material.

In Los Angeles Rick Mitchell has written and directed a “Shadow Anthropology.” The story is about an Afghan family and its struggles. The puppets are by Maria Bodmann. The performance includes lots of characters and wonderful battles.

I have a review of Alissa Hunnicutt’s “The Kid Inside” from Elise Handelman , New York. Alissia, with puppets, video, and her beautiful voice, treated the audience to thirteen well-developed vignettes. Lindsey ‘Z’ Briggs and Chad Williams were assistant puppeteers.

“Holiday Spectacular,” a new show, with Carole D’Agostino and Brian T. Carson was presented at New World Stages in New York City. I was delighted to hear they used black light. I haven’t seen much black light lately. John Tartaglia created wrote the book and produced the show. William Wade wrote the lyrics and music.

Puppetworks– Park Slope New York is doing “Alice in Wonderland.” Penny Jones is pleasing the kids with” Mother Goose “and “The Magic Forest”.

Joe Santoro. Martinsburg, West Virginia is having a wonderful time with the “Little Red Hen Cooking”. That’s a fun new twist. He is performing at the Wonderment Puppet Theatre. Joe’s sense of humor shows through his next show has Cinderella at a sock hop.

Lois Corwin, of Leonia, New Jersey has written and directed “The Tall Tales of Paul Bunyan.”

Joseph Therrien is doing an adaptation of August Strindberg’s “Dream Play” as his MFA project at the University of Connecticut.

Puppeteers in Brooklyn were lucky enough to hear a lecture/film presentation on the Manteo Sicilian Marionettes. I was lucky enough to see a performance in Washington at the UNIMA Festival. You never forget the fun, the noise and the excitement of a performance by the Sicilians.

Lots of workshops are happening in New York. Outstanding presenters are Puppetry of Taiwan, Puppets Alive and a master class by Luman Coad, Vancouver, Canada at Flushing Town Hall.

The International Puppetry Museum in California, Alan Cook, Director, has acquired Bob Bromley’s puppets, a gift of Charles and Elaine Taylor. They have also acquired Rogers Barns “Granny” and George Latshaw’s “ Indian Brave.

Suisun City, California hosted the Fratello Marionettes of Danville for performance of “Carnival of the Animals.” Puppeteers were Kevin Menegus and Fred C. Riley III.

Heart of the Beast, of Minnesota, one of the ever-busy puppet theatres in the country, has a wonderful puppet lab going on with rising stars Bart Buch, Blake Love, Soozin Hirschmug, Angeela Olson and Janaki Ranpura.

Janaki Ranpuraalso has a new show that sounds fascinating “Your Heart is in my Mouth.” It includes a heart that leaps up and takes off. Puppets and shadow projections fill the show.

Los Angeles had a visit from the Slovene Betontanc, Umkav, and the Slovene group Silence. They performed “Show Your Face” it is a contemporary parable about a faceless snowsuit. The story follows the Everyman theme.
Los Angles also hosted “Quixote “ a film by Classic in Miniature, Inc. The marionettes were crafted by Russian Eugene Seregin and brought to life by Steven Ritz-Barr and directed by Hoku Uchiyama.

Shaun McNamara of California is doing “Hamlet has no Legs.” His puppeteers are James Ko and Dany Montooth.
Lynn Jenning, San Diego, a perpetual motion puppeteer is directing puppeteers in San Diego and teaching them to work with masks as well as experimenting with puppets for staged readings.

The Detroit Institute of Art opened its new puppet gallery with performances by Preston Foerder, Brooklyn, New York. They have new lighting, easier access, and plan to change the exhibits twice a year. Hooray for DIA.

In closing I need to remind everyone please let me know what you are doing. If you are written up in your local paper or have some wonderful grant, new show, or visiting puppeteer, PLEASE e-mail me, write me, phone me, whatever— if you want it in print, we will try to cover you.

Let me know what you are up to. Have a great spring! Plan on attending the National Festival it will renew you creative juices. See you in Atlanta.

M’El

M’EL REUM
827 Milwaukee Street
Denver, CO 80206
puppetreum[at]estreet.com

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EUREKA!!
By: Nancy Sander

Greetings Survivors,

Snow, ice, sleet, blizzards…and we keep going.

Oh, what fun job! Do you get paid for that?” I am so glad to see the back of Old Man Winter finally breaking. We here in Ohio had three and a half inches of solid ice laid down before the snow began. Even the letter carriers were throwing the mail up onto the porch rather than tackle the stairs. But we puppet people all stayed in touch via Facebook, Puppet Hub, Puptcrit and now the new Internet group, the Worldwide Puppetry Network, hosted by Facebook. So let’s see…

Neat and Cheap Hair 2011: I got an e-mail from Anne Newman, from Paxton, Illinois. She writes, “I needed a quick hair change for a hand puppet. At the dollar store, they had scrunchies with attached hair for, yes, a dollar. They’re perfect puppet-size and with the elastic, they work for instant wig or beard. Just had to tell somebody!” Thanks, Anne. I wish everybody were like you!

Handy Work Table: Peggy Pearson, of Greenwood, Illinois, says that she likes to work in front of TV so she lowers her ironing board to lap level, creating a nice work table. She says that the important thing is not to get hot glue on the cover. Now she tells me! A lot of my husband’s shirts are now the “stick to the ribs” variety…

Practice Makes Perfect: Speaking of working in front of TV, many years back I felt I had reached a plateau in my head modeling skills. Then, thinking of how a pianist has to practice eight hours a day, I decided to practice head modeling. So every night for three months, while watching TV, I made a head. As a result, my head modeling skills jumped way beyond what I hoped for. I suggest it to everyone.

Black Fish Line: Rick Morse, of Flushing, Michigan, and I spent some of our winter mornings, talking puppet shop. He passed on a great tip that he got from Dave Herzog, of Chicago. Both Rick and Dave generally use 16 pound test black fish line, but when it comes to lines that are very high wear, Dave switches to thirty pound test, or even (in the case of the juggler) fifty pound test. Veteran string-pullers generally agree that black fish line is so much superior to the nylon see-through filament, since it doesn’t tangle as easily and doesn’t stretch, but here’s a real goodie: You can buy “mill ends” from Cortland very cheaply. You can’t choose which weight, but you get lots and lots of it. The name of the company is Cortland Line Company, Cortland, NY; log onto Cortland’s site: www.cortlandline.com

Treasure Trove: When I finally got out of my driveway I headed for Archiver’s, the local scrapping store, to find just the right paper for the background of my new flyer. Oh, what a wonderful store for puppeteers! So I Googled it and saw that it is a franchise with locations all over the Midwest and many other states as well. Not only do they have a huge assortment of paper, they also have a whole section of doily-type papers perfect for shadow puppeteers. They have little “skylines,” great for overhead projector scenery. And they have other things as well—all puppet sized! They have teeny-tiny paper fasteners (which they call brads) in a large assortment of colors. They have “brads” that have heads that look like buttons. Yes, buttons! And they have jewel headed brads. Wow! I could hardly resist the teeny-tiny iron-on rhinestone designs, and the itty-bitty stick-on slogans in rhinestones.

Smooch: They also have something that looks like nail polish called, “Smooch,” and is described as “a pearlized accent ink.” Fifteen truly brilliant colors! Smooch is as bright as glitter.

Egg Eyes: While you’re out shopping, in the hopefully balmy spring air, remember, this is the only time of year to get your supply of plastic eggs for eyes. I am not talking about the kind that you hide jelly beans in; I mean plastic eggs that are the same size, but are white and are used in floral arrangements. They don’t break apart and are made with a more flexible plastic, rather like ping-pong balls, but even more flexible. I always think that ping-pong eyes are great for hairy animals, but for humans, I like a less protruding look. These eggs are perfect for an eyeball that is has the same protruding-ness as the human eye. I cut the egg in half, from top to bottom, and then cut an eye from each half.

Thirft Shop Diving: Your next shopping stop has to be the local thrift store Who doesn’t haunt the local thrift shops for great puppet stuff? Lois Sansone, of Blossvale, New York suggested that, when adapting denim coveralls or jeans, I should use little girls’ outfits. It is much easier to cut down a girl’s straight skirt than trying to eliminate the crotch in boy’s clothes. And by the way, in my question and answer session after the show, I always mention that I get all my materials and stuff from the thrift store because I like to recycle. The teachers really like that reinforcement, and the kids get a laugh when I say, “This used to be a lady’s dress. Can you imagine wearing that!!!”

Finger Stall: This year, at the Great Lakes Regional Potlatch (aka Pokagon) we were privileged to see Brad Lowe’s “The Fisherman and His Wife.” Brad, from Clarkston, Michigan, made his hand puppets turn their heads much further than usual. Come to find out, and he was glad to share the idea, he has two finger stalls inside his neck stall, which gives his puppets a great head-turn.

Acrylic Paint Cracking: I also overheard some folks swapping puppet talk and someone said that in order to reduce brittleness in acrylic paint, add liquid acrylic medium. I was rushing somewhere and didn’t have a chance to track it down. Have any of you tried this? I’d be interested…

Return Post Card: As I write this column, I am already booking my summer shows. My husband, Eric, gave me a great tip from when he was a salesman in college. He told me to include a return postcard with my flyer. On this postcard I have boxes to check: 1) I don’t want to miss this one! Put me down!; 2) Hmmm…sounds good, but I’d like more information; and 3) not this year, but do keep me on the list. This is followed with lines for choice of dates, name and address, e-mail and phone. You would be surprised how many of these I get back and I can fill in my dates in half the time.

So off I go to lick envelopes. My husband always likes it when I send out my mailings – after two hundred envelopes my lips get stuck together…

So have a great season and keep those tips coming. And how about you folks on the West Coast? Do you have anything to share?

Here’s smilin’ atcha. Nancy

NANCY H. SANDER
1250 Granger Avenue
Lakewood, OH 44107
puppetmaster[at]puppetswithpizazz.com