Help Keep The Place In Puppet Place

We need a little help from our friends.

In February 2015 our contract on our current premises, at Unit 18, on Bristol Harbourside comes to an end. However, we have the opportunity to secure a new agreement for Unit 18 with Bristol City Council. To do this we need your support.
We are in negotiations with Bristol City Council and now is the critical time to show them that Puppet Place is an important place for Bristol and puppetry. If we do secure our new agreement this will mean that we can:
• Make Bristol Festival of Puppetry 2015 bigger and better.
• Run puppetry workshops for all ages at Unit 18.
• Continue to provide workspace for our resident community of puppeteers and artists.
• Provide a full year round programme of events and activities for everyone.

If you like the sound of all this and would like to express your support for Puppet Place please leave a reply below, like or share this post or write a statement of support to rachel@puppetplace.org

Without a new agreement and a building to work from, we will struggle to continue the work that we already do and support the next generation of artists and puppeteers.

Thank you

Rachel McNally – Executive Producer

What’s Coming Up This Weekend?

Puppet Place’s Workshop Programme kicks off tonight with Chris Pirie from Green Ginger leading the first Puppet Surgery of the year. This is a chance to talk puppets, drink tea and get some advice and help on all those little problems that crop up in a make. 

Although we generally ask people to book in advance, we’ve had a few spaces crop up last minute so if you’ve hit a wall with your puppet creation bring it along to Puppet Place at 6.30pm tonight (30 January) and we’ll see if we can help. (£15 / £10 members)

Then this Saturday Tobi Poster from Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre will be leading our first one day workshop Introducing The Basics of Puppetry at the Brewery Studio in Bristol

When asked the question, “So what’s it all about then?”, Tobi very graciously did not refer me to the title of the workshop, but sent me this email giving a bit more information about what you can expect and his take on puppetry:

“The session will give participants a grounding in single and multiple operator direct manipulation (bunraku style) puppets, all of which will be constructed in-class from easily available and inexpensive materials.

We’ll also be taking a look at the complicite techniques and body awareness necessary to operate puppets in a group, and exploring fruitful starting points for improvising and devising with puppets. It might sound like a lot in one day on paper, but more than anything it’s a chance to have fun playing with all these elements.

 My puppetry and teaching pedagogy has its roots in clown, so there will be a particular focus on the connection between puppet and audience, and how we can play with that connection in performance. And there will be puppet dancing!

 Every time I run this workshop I’m amazed by what participants come up with, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the workshop on Saturday.”

We’ve still got a couple of spaces left for Tobi’s workshop on Saturday so if you are interested call us on 0117 929 3593 or email victoria@puppetplace.org

Our full workshop programme can be found here

Rachel

Ulrike Quade launches intensive Bunraku puppet making classes

 

The Ulrike Quade Company, who have performed shows at the last two BFPs, are looking for visual artists interested in developing puppet making skills in the Japanese Bunraku puppet tradition.

This intensive two-week workshop in Amsterdam is an opportunity to make a fully functioning puppet under the guidance of master puppet-maker Watanabe Kazunori. The finished puppets will be presented during the Pop Arts Festival in Amsterdam in February 2014.

Osaka is home to the oldest Bunraku theatre in Japan. Located in the heart of the modern entertainment district, the vibrant life of the city contrasts starkly with the traditional culture of Bunraku. This classical Japanese theatrical form has its origins in the seventeenth century and is protected as world heritage by UNESCO.

In Bunraku theatre, three players manipulate each puppet. This requires close collaboration and a high level of coordination and skill. While the puppets are almost exclusively used in traditional Bunraku theatre in Japan, they also lend themselves to movements reminiscent of animation, modern dance and games. Ulrike Quade seeks to develop new theatrical forms by exploring, in a number of different ways, the relationship of historical traditions. In 2012, Ulrike Quade and Nicole Beutler created Antigone, a movement-based performance involving three Bunraku puppets.

The heads, hands and feet of Bunraku puppets are made of wood. A costume-covered mechanism completes the whole. The faces are traditionally stipulated by the choice of text. Workshop participants will be able to experiment with the different degrees of freedom that might be taken within the strict framework of the Bunraku tradition.

During the OSAKA project, Japanese master puppet-maker Watanabe Kazunori will teach ten artists/art students how to make Bunraku puppets.

The objective of the workshop is to make a complete, fully functioning puppet. The workshop concludes with a presentation and evaluation session during the Amsterdam Pop Arts Festival, which runs concurrently. A follow-up to the OSAKA project will take place in 2015, when a number of the puppets will be developed and a performance prepared.

The workshop takes place in Amsterdam between 27 January and 8 February 2014, and concludes with a presentation on 9 February 2014. Times: 10.00-17.00. Fee:400 euro (lunch included), discount possible for students. Register for the workshop via this link. http://www.ulrikequade.nl/theater/?page_id=3347

The Ulrike Quade Company produces visual theatre performances under the artistic direction of Ulrike Quade (b. 1971, Neuss). In search of new theatrical forms, the Ulrike Quade Company often works on (inter) national coproductions with other artists and institutions, including the Jo Strømgren Kompani and Nicole Beutler Projects. With an impressive command of performance and technique, the company brings handmade human figures to life. Every production takes a new perspective on people and their surroundings as its central theme. Quade makes theatre that is committed and layered, but also surprisingly elegant, surreal, ironic and poetic.