Fox Folk Marionettes perform

Enjoyed the Puppet Guild meeting in Wild Rose and the show at the library.  Fun day!  Here's a couple photos of the Fox Folk Marionette Show we recently gave to an audience of about 200 kindergartners and 60 parents at Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton.

The show is entitled "I Can Do All Things..."  Here Jack and Jill are encountering a big rock that no one can figure out how to move.

The prince and princess are not happy about the rock blocking their way.

Jack and Jill prove that "little people can do big things" by moving the rock and are rewarded by the king with a cart full of gold.

The Fox Folk Marionette Troupe takes a bow after the show.


If you'd like a close look at these puppets -- which were built in the 1960's and have performed for over 30,000 people through the years - come visit us for our Puppetry Guild outing in Appleton at the end of June.

April Guild Meeting Report

The Wisconsin Puppetry Guild met Saturday, April 13, 2013, at the Patterson Memorial Library in lovely little Wild Rose.
Our host was librarian Kent Barnhard. Also attending were his girlfriend, Erin, who also is a librarian, as well as Zona Platzek, Pam Corcoran, Dave and Cassie Payne, Chuck and Sandye Voight -- and Pam's 3-year-old grandson, Henry!

Chuck and Sandye (as the Fever River Puppeteers) performed their hand, rod and shadow show, "River Critters" to an audience that included about 35 Wild Rosians.
Kent had lunch fixings brought in for us, so after the show, we stayed in the community room for lunch and a meeting.

Concerned about continuing low attendance numbers, Pam, as acting president, noted that the Great Plains Guild of Iowa/Nebraska has remained dormant for several years. Younger guild members have not taken up the mantle when longtime members are ready to hand it over. This could be us soon.

We discussed offering puppet workshops for Wisconsin school and library conferences.
The Wis. Library Assn. meets in Green Bay in the fall. The Wis. Assn. of Public Libraries meets in May.  A "Getting Started with Puppets" workshop would be ideal.

We also discussed somehow getting the attention of state colleges and universities, where the students who are in education, library science and theater likely include the next generation of puppeteers. Kent has contacts with UW-Milwaukee.

Zona, as treasurer, reported that Tim Reed wanted to know if we wanted to keep the domain name Wipupptry.org connected with the website. The cost is $35 per year, $60 for 2 years and $120 for 5 years. Zona said she still gets contacted by potential members because of the website and on her recommendation, so we will keep it. She said she will contact Tim, who will maintain the basic site for us.

Sandye reminded members about the Day of Puppetry event called Pup-a-Foo-Glee coming up Saturday, May 18, at the Hazel Green Opera House. Pam hopes to attend some interviews of potential P of A executive directors in the Twin Cities in mid-May.

Dave and Cassie said they already had tickets for the touring production of "War Horse" in Appleton at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, June 30. We decided that guild members would also try to get tickets for that evening. We will meet in Appleton at about 3 p.m. that day at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, where Dave teaches and where he has the stage for the Fox Folk Marionettes. We will be able to hear the history of this historic collection that was given to the school. And we'll go out for supper before the show.

NOTE: THAT EVENING, SANDYE SUCCESSFULLY ORDERED 2 TICKETS TO "WAR HORSE" FOR THE SAME PERFORMANCE THROUGH TICKETMASTER.
Tickets are available at $92, $82 and $62. We took the middle price.  Our seats are section GRAND1, row A, seats 303-304.

The June 30 gathering will include a planning session for the rest of 2013 and 2014. The formal election of officers was tabled. Zona said she has been treasurer for more than 20 years. She also is membership chairwoman. Besides being president, Pam is in charge of programming. And Sandye took these minutes, besides being newsletter editor.

Cassie Payne (my daughter) & Mickey Stratil from Hands 2 Grow Puppet Productions presented at the UW-Whitewater conference and said it was a great forum with lots of awesome ideas!

On this Thursday (April 11), Cassie and I are doing a Fox Folk Marionette Show & Tell at the Memory Cafe event in Appleton.  We'll be showcasing the story of the marionettes inherited by Fox Valley Lutheran High School.  It's at the Atlas Cafe from about 2-4 p.m.  We are planning to offer a Memory Cafe Christmas show next November-December at Appleton's Thompson Center. 

On Friday, the Fox Folk Marionettes will be entertaining and audience of over 250 at Fox Valley Lutheran High School's Kinderfest 2013 for area kindergartners.  Our puppets give the opening devotion that emphasizes the message:  "I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me!"

Appleton will be a hotbed of professional puppetry in the next couple month with Lion King and Warhorse coming to the Fox Cities PAC.  We have tickets for both and are excited to enjoy these awesome performances. Happy puppeting!

Library ideas

Kathy Luck of Sussex emailed to say that she  is going through things and has quite a few older puppetry books. She rescued them from her library's "weed out" shelf. She wonders if anyone might be interested in them and will compile a list.

Who knows? Maybe she has some old treasures. A Paul McPharlin or a Tony Sarg?

April 13 meeting

Guild Gathering 

at Wild Rose

Saturday, April 13

Hosted by librarian Kent Barnhard

Patterson Memorial Library, 500 Division St., Wild Rose 

www.wildroselibrary.org

•  10:30 a.m. – “River Critters,” Fever River Puppeteers; a hand, rod and shadow puppet show about animals on the Mississippi River.  Buddy and Grandpa go fishing, unaware of the antics of a playful otter, a wily raccoon and assorted other critters.

This show will be open to the public. It runs about 50 minutes, plus Q&A after the show.

• Noon-1 p.m. –  Lunch out. Possibly at The Chatter Box Café! (Do you suppose they serve Hot Dish?)
•  1-1:15 p.m.: – Guild meeting – Short and sweet
• 1:30 p.m. – Voice workshop by Jill Frederickson

Pup-a-Foo-Glee at Hazel Green

10 a.m.-3 p.m. (approx.)

Saturday, May 18

The Fever River Puppeteers will host the second annual Pup a Foo Glee, a day of puppets, food and fun

at the Hazel Green Opera House, 2130 Main St., Hazel Green

• “Dragon Feathers,” by the Melikin Puppets, of Chicago
• “Call of the Sea: A Mermaid’s Tale,” by Ginger Lozar, of Champaign, Ill.
•  “Punch & Judy,” by the Fever River Puppeteers
• Concessions by the Hazel Green Lions Club and the Southwestern High School Student Council. 
• Street activities:  painting, chalk drawing and make-take puppet making
• Theater games and puppet improv games.
• It’s all free, but donations are appreciated.

Afterwards, puppeteers, helpers and guild members are invited to Chez Voight in nearby Benton (5 miles) for a brat feed.

For info, call Chuck at 608-732-6404. Details to come at www.hazelgreenoperahouse.blogspot.com

The Fox Folk Marionette Troupe is offering a pair of family-friendly shows on the afternoon of Sunday, January 27th as part of Fox Valley Lutheran High School's annual Winterfest. The curtain rises on the early show at 12:30 p.m. Entitled "A Lamb's Tale," the show tells the Christmas story from the perspective of the Bethlehem shepherds and their sheep. Meet shepherds Reuben, Micah, and Caleb -- plus the black sheep of their flock: Layellah. At 2:30 p.m., the group will perform a whimsical fairy tale show called "Princess Gloriana and the Dragon." Travel to the imaginary land of Fortunia and see what happens when an evil dragon makes his lair in the enchanted forest. What will Princess Gloriana and the royal family do? And what about this new knight Sir Baldwin who has just arrived on the scene. Can he save the day?

 

 

Both show features student puppeteers from Fox Valley Lutheran High School and were written by Director Dave Payne. Featured are beautifully crafted human and animal marionettes originally built by members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Appleton in the 1960's. These marionettes were donated to FVL by the Purdy family in 2004 and have performed for over 35,000 people over the years. More info on the puppet troupe is available at http://www.fvlhs.org/Marionettes

Shows last about 30 minutes and are delightful family entertainment. After each show, there will be a chance for the audience to get a closer look at the puppets and meet the puppeteers. This year the shows will be performed in the auxiliary gym at Fox Valley Lutheran High School.

Admission for the marionette performances will be through the FVL Winterfest 2013 event. The theme for this annual showcase of student music talent is "Simply Music." Doors open at 11 am. In addition to music being performed on numerous stages around the school, a variety of taste treats are offered. Always popular are the homemade tortes and pies. Adult tickets are $3 in advance from the FVL School Office or $4 at the door. Students 11 and under are free. All proceeds benefit the FVL music programs.

 

Fox Valley Lutheran High School is located on the north side of Appleton at the corner of Meade Street and Cty JJ and is completely handicapped accessible. Parking is available on both the upper and lower levels of the school.

Potlatch was wonderful

by Sandye Voight

Chuck and I had a wonderful time -- as usual -- at Potlatch, the annual Great Lakes Region puppet gathering at the beautiful Pokagon State Park, just this side of the Ohio border in Indiana.
We were the only Cheeseheads to attend this year. We missed you guys!

We also missed our honorary Cheesehead, Ginger Lozar, of Champaign, IL, who was stuck in the Newark Airport because of Superstorm Sandy (note: without an e).
Ginger was to have performed Saturday night, but couldn't get a flight out and ultimately rented a car to drive home. We understand she had been traveling in Turkey. Anyway, we volunteered to perform in her place and at the last minute hauled our "River Critters" stage to Indiana. No time to practice, but we'd done it a lot lately, just that there were two weekend Halloween performances in between.
I was a bit nervous, but we managed not to embarass ourselves. In fact, 1 minute into the show they started applauding our scrolling scenery, so we started to feel pretty good.

We were in good company.
Other performers included Rick Morse ("Sleeping Beauty"), Dunworth Puppet Productions ("Puppet Circus"), Nancy Sanders ("Jack and the Beanstalk"), Bob Brown ("Mother Goose Caboose" cabaret style marionettes made from stuffed animals), David Quesal ("The Story of Leo and Seymore" with Folkmanis puppets) and Guy Thompson (a rollicking Punch and Judy for the Sunday Punch Brunch).
The opening ice breaker was a flash mob of puppeteers in the lodge's fireplace room, near the dining hall. We assembled with hidden puppets each and then burst into singing "Rainbow Connection." Not sure there were too many civilians in the lodge to hear us! but it was fun.

Saturday, we sat in on a lighting workshop (then hurriedly searched our tree light boxes to make sure we had blue and yellow gels for our performance that night!). It was a bit technical for me, but there was a lot of discussion about working with the new LED lights and issues about dimmers when we won't be able to get incandescent bulbs anymore.
I also took a make-take with Peggy Melchior and got some patterns for a simple butterfly puppet that could be adapted as a bat, bird or pteradactyl.

Regional News

Here is some of the actual news that we learned at the guild and regional meetings:

• The 2014 "mini-festival" (as they're calling it), will be in Detroit, probably at the end of July.
• The Detroit Institute of Art reached out to the Detroit Puppetry Guild and asked to host it. That's expected to help keep expenses down.
• The national festival in Philadelphia this summer will operate on the Potlatch model -- performers and workshop presenters will not be paid.
• Dave Herzog, our regional director, is challenging each guild to sponsor a Potlatch scholarship next fall for a young person -- even if it is only the $50 registration fee. (anyone 16 and younger would need an adult guardian).  Also, guilds could sponsor P of A memberships for young people.

• Terri Klinghofer of Indiana has volunteered to become the region's new treasurer, a position that also will include being the Potlatch registrar, for the sake of convenience.

Tidbits from the guild reports:

• Chicago: Young people are not joining but the guild tries to keep them informed about events in the hope that they will become involved.
• Detroit: Meets 4 times per year in museums and libraries, plus a summer picnic
• Columbus: Meets once per month from September through May.
• Central Ill.: Six core members and gaining. Puppeteers critique and support each others shows. The University of Illinois' Youth Literature Festival has become a major joint event with puppeteers.
• Western Michigan: Building parade puppets together for the Saugatuck Christmas parade.
• Indiana: Blooming Laps, a shared equipment space in Bloomington offers the use of expensive equipment, such as sanders and robotics-making stuff and the expertise of creative people who know how to use the equipment.