Inspired by Mikropodium

This month has involved a great deal of reflective thought for us. We started it feeling happy, relieved and totally shattered. The month before had ended with our co-production with Little Rays called ‘Fishwife‘ selling out on its run at the Tobacco Factories Brewery Theatre in Bristol,

Fishwife at the Tobacco Factory

 plus whats more, we really enjoyed the performances and working with the Tobacco Factories hospitable team. If you would like to know more we’ve got a blog for the show called fishwifeshow.wordpress.com and it is book able for small theatres puppetry festivals and schools. Anyway all good but we hadn’t stopped since long before the summer which was filled with performances and workshops at festivals and so finally it was great to have a bit of time to collect ourselves and relax a bit. Nice! After our period of contemplation, we are inspired, rejuvenated and have a slightly different work ethic. The shift is mainly to do with not letting work take over as it started to do this year. We love the business of puppetry but in order for it to work long-term for us our kids must be more of a priority than the puppets, it’s all for them really anyway!

We have started work on a number of interesting projects. One is the idea of assisting the study of a historical subject by helping the students to build puppets based around that theme. We trialled this idea with year 4 at Ashley Down Primary School who are studying the Romans and how they affected Britain today. The idea is to inspire interest in learning by demonstrating as simple but quirky piece of puppetry using materials that the kids can easily get hold of. After the display we describe the techniques for making the puppets and then help them to build their own, allowing them to choose what to make so long as it is within the subject matter. We were happy for them to work as a team or on their own if they preferred. The medium for the day was  as accessible as you can get, we were using cardboard. Our little show involved a talking loo,

who described to the audience a piece of history that some knew already and some didn’t but probably none had heard it from a lavatory narrator before, it being how the Romans introduced britain to sewers, and then finger puppets enacted a scene imagining how horrible it would be without sewers. This little show got everybody interested and then we described how the puppets were made and then got everybody making their own puppets. Most people took to the idea quickly and we were happy if they wanted to work in teams or alone. Those who struggled with drawing we guided along with a few tip and they were soon fully absorbed in the task. We asked everyone to make a sketch or two of their ideas with a few descriptive words alongside. Given more than a morning these early workings can assist more complicated design, creative writing and storyboarding. Maybe try the idea for yourself of if you need some enthusiastic and experienced practitioners  you are welcome to get in touch.

We are also working on a highly interactive and tactile puppet show that helps to embrace the social and emotional aspects of learning or (S.E.A.L.) We are not going to give too much away at the moment but we would like to thank Corina Bona for her advice regarding the casting of clay in plaster in order to make latex moulded heads and Mark Hancock for his advice and assistance on moving body parts. We are very lucky to have the resources of all these wonderful creative people who Bristol has to offer.

Work in Progress

This month we attended a short professional development evening  called ‘Puppet Surgeries’ and  hosted by the organisation ’Puppet Place’ in association with the internationally renound ’Green Ginger’. Present were representatives from Little Rays, Wattle and Daub, Talulla swirls, and CounterClockwork Creations. We all presented a puppet we were/are working on and then had the opportunity to get advice from Chris Pirie of Green Ginger plus all the companies offered their knowledge to each other. It was useful to a degree in that we would have preferred a longer session  in the workshop so things could be a little more hands on, but this wasn’t possible as I noticed the workshop was busy making props and puppets for the Tobacco Factories Christmas Pinocchio Show. But to Chris Peries credit and obvious passion for puppetry,  he was most insistent that if any of the companies wanted to follow-up the session he would find us a corner of workbench and  the use of his expertise for an afternoon. Nice One! Puppets and Pandemonium took along a puppet we have started making that has been inspired by the work of the Hungarian Puppeteer ‘Mikropodium’. His puppets are brilliant! they have such life-like movements we just had to try to make one. Check them out on U Tube if you want to see more. Well we took along a puppet that looked like this;

Inspired by Mikropodium

Mr Piries first suggested that we should get on a flight to Hungary and go meet the guy and ask for his advice. Un fortunately we can’t just up and do that at the moment… we have kids who count on us being about but in essence I agree with him, it’s a technically difficult puppet, thats why I took it to the Puppet Surgery. Anyway we have worked at it a bit more since then and its coming along.We now we have found another use for clothes pegs (a post due and on its way) and they are serving nicely as leg mechanism triggers and the decoration is going nicely although the trousers we have given the puppet are a little restrictive. Once they are replaced maybe its time to take Chris up on his offer of a corner in his workshop for the afternoon. We’ll keep you posted.

Rock Star?