Kenosha meeting and 2013

ArtWorks, a gallery in downtown Kenosha, was a good spot for our October gathering.
Jill Frederickson hosted us in the ArtWorks (gallery/studio/art supply shop) basement, home of Puppet Underground (get it? basement. underground.)
The Underground is a spinoff of a Kenosha writers group that thought -- hey let's do something with puppets. Jill said  oooh oooh! I know about puppets. The result was "Dante's Disco Inferno" last spring which I believe was the first puppet slam attempt. They're also doing "Terror at the Underground" this month.
In fact, the first performance was the night of our gathering. However, it didn't start until 9 p.m. and Chuck and I had to head back home to the West Coast of Wisconsin.
But back to our gathering. Twas a small group. Besides us Voights and hostess Jill, John Bloner of the Underground group came and Chet Griffith, owner of ArtWorks and Underground instigator, was able to pop in now and then (customers kept coming into his shop upstairs.)
Chuck did some cardboard construction demonstrating, showing Jill and John how adaptive corrugated cardboard can be. He brought examples of props and scenery from marionette shows. Jill and John discussed how they might be adapted for other forms of puppetry.
We played a bit with Pam Corcoran's improv/manipulation puppets. They are simple cloth handpuppets, featureless except for noses. Pam has cards made up with instructions, similar to playing charades. You take a puppet and see how well you can act --- Puppet walks in, looking tired, yawns, stretches, cleans a spot, goes to sleep, snores --- that kind of thing. Thanks to Pam for leaving the improv set for us to use. Would be more fun with more people.
Chet said that he became interested in puppetry as a kid because of a great aunt, Margaret Lindeman, who was an English professor at Northwestern and also did a puppet show on WGN in Chicago. We'll have to look her up.

Mark your calendars for April 12 and 13, May 18, and June 25-27

April 12 -- Brian Henson's Stuff and Unstrung, Grand Theater, Wausau

April 13 -- Meeting in Wild Rose, hosted by Kent Barnhard. Jill will do a voice workshop. The Voights' Fever River Puppeteers will perform "River Critters.'

May 18 -- Pup a Foo Glee, a day of Puppetry at the Hazel Green Opera House

June 25-27 (assuming it's one of these, not all) Touring production of "War Horse" in Appleton (save your pennies) and maybe a picnic and swap meet.

I hope to post more about the Puppet Underground as photos become available.