Labor Day weekend show

On Labor Day weekend we'll present a wonderful African fairy tale called,

"The Cloud Princess."

We fell in love with this quirky story when we first read it in a collection of folk tales with a preface by Nelson Mandela.

11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 4

2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 5

at the AIR CONDITIONED opera house

$5 adults and $4 children

The story, from Swaziland, which is near South Africa, is about a hare, a woodpecker and a mouse. They encounter a mysterious rainbow bird who possesses a magical feather. As often happens in African tales, animals turn into humans and humans turn into animals. The three friends embark on a dangerous adventure up in the Cloud Kingdom.

We present this story using hand, rod and shadow puppets on our dual stage (Sorry, marionette lovers. No string puppets in this show, but we know you'll love it anyway.)

This show, which we recently presented at the Great Lakes Regional Puppet Festival in Springfield, Ill., features original music composed by our daughter, Katie Voight. The other puppeteers at the festival were very impressed with our 'authentic' African music!

And then, watch for us in Benton's Labor Day parade on Monday, 9:30 a.m.

Hands 2 Grow's Fishtank Tales

Hands 2 Grow Puppet Productions is now performing their Summer 2010 show entitled "Fishtank Tales." Last Thursday the show was presented in Darboy's Harrison Buchanan Park east of Appleton. The day was dubbed Puppets in the Park. The afternoon began with playground program leaders and helpers working with the youngsters on building different types of puppets including paper bag puppets, finger puppets, and more. Hands 2 Grow Puppets were the feature performers of the day.

Fishtank Tales tells the story of Stan and Cynthia who have volunteered to keep the classroom aquarium fed and cleaned over the summer for the teacher. Unfortunately, Stan loses the instruction book and that leads to hilarious problems. Tthe fish in the aquarium -- Gil, Finn, and Bubbles -- share their opinion of the hijinks - especially when Stan tries to feed them salsa instead of fish flakes! In the photo above, the fish and a pirate are enjoying bathtub time as Stan and Cynthia try to clean the fish and the tank with bubble bath. Hands 2 Grow is based in Appleton but travels across northeast Wisconsin and the Midwest.

Happy summer to all!

Think summer!

Here's a way to chase away the icicles from your puppeting brain!

Check out the Puppeteers of America web site about the Great Lakes Regional Festival this summer in Springfield, Ill.

http://www.puppetryinlandoflincoln.com/3501.html

And now back to shoveling snow.... Must work on a robotic puppet snowplow....

Fox Folk Marionettes Update

Greetings from Appleton!

Fox Folks Marionettes had the opportunity to present at the new Apple Creek YMCA on the north side of Appleton in early December. It was a great venue and we shared two showings of our adaption of Henry Van Dyke's "The Other Wiseman" entitled "The Search." It was also an opportunity to debut our new "portable" stage. Both we and the stage survived its first journey on the road. Here's a photos of myself and my co-director Cassie...


We received great press on the show. We were on the front page of the Appleton Journal and received a whole page in the County Post East. They also gave us permission to post that page on our site.

Here's the link: http://www.fvlhs.org/resources/countypostarticle.pdf
(NOTE: It's a big page...)

Right now we are working on a brand new show we've just created. It's called Princess Gloriana & the Jewel Trees. It is a fun, fun show and will debut at Fox Valley Lutheran High School's Winterfest on January 31st. We are also reprising "The Search" that afternoon as well.

Happy puppeting!

Summer workshop in Benton

Where has the summer gone?!

I can't believe it's June since I blogged. Then again, yes, I can.

Here is a picture of the 4 fabulous marionettes that my summer mini-class at Benton Elementary School made. I taught the class as part of the summer rec program. We met for an hour and a half each morning (I arranged to spread a day of vacation across the week, so that I could do the workshop during the day.)

Only 4 kids signed up, but that proved to be just right. They had to apply Paper Clay (a papier mache product) to heads, hands and feet that I pre-cut. After a night of drying in our garage where the temperature was toasty, the body parts were dry. They sanded and painted. They chose the fabric for the bodies and I sewed the bodies (trunks), which they stuffed (with pennies in the gottom to weight down the butts). We made the arms and legs out of toilet paper rolls that we rolled tighter and covered with fabric.

They had to sew the arms and legs to the body. "I CAN'T SEW!' they wailed. But they sewed.

I made the wooden controls and then allowed the last day for the complicated process of stringing. I pre-cut the fishline and even knotted certain lengths ahead of time and that really worked well.

The end result: a Cowardly Lion and Tinman (they couldn't talk the other 2 into making the Scarecrow and Dorothy), a Princess and a Dallas Cowboy.

If they've survived the last couple of weeks (the puppets, that is), I hope they'll walk with me in the Labor Day parade.

I view the whole experience as a test run for workshops to be done at the opera house. I think adults would enjoy this project. Also, it would be good to have more time (we were pretty rushed every day) and do it as a weeklong Puppet Camp.

Any thoughts?

Summer Puppet Fun

Greetings to all!

My wife and I just got back from a fun tour of New England. Along the way we were able to see some fun puppet spots! Does anyone recognize this familiar scene?



It's my wife Joyce and me on a life-size re-creation of the Sesame Street set at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. If you are ever in that area, you have to go see this museum. This section of the museum was designed with the help of the Sesame Street people. If you are a SS fan, you will enjoy this tribute to all things Sesame Street.



Even a spot to play with the puppets!



Below is a photo of me with my new puppet friend Captain No-Eye!



He is one of the stars of the show "Everybody Loves Pirates" as performed by the Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers. My daughter and I had first seen this outstanding trio of puppeteers at the National PoA Conference a couple years ago. This time they were performing at the library in Boothbay Harbor, Maine for Windjammer Fest. Talk about working in cramped conditions! Originally the program was slated to be outside, but weather didn't cooperate. The show was awesome and afterwards I got to go back stage and experiment with the puppets.

We also were able to see a marionette performance entitled "The Dragon King" performed by the Tanglewood Marionettes in Falmouth, MA.



This 10-foot long dragon puppet comes out at the grand finale. Beautiful puppets that they craft themselves.



Their show featured marionettes, rod puppets, blacklight puppetry, and much more. Only two puppeteers, but did they put on an amazing show!

Hope your travels include wonderful puppetry like we enjoyed!

Dave Payne
Fox Folk Marionette Troupe
Hands 2 Puppet Productions

Day of Puppetry May 30

Hold onto your sockpuppets! This is going to be great.

Thanks to the Wisconsin Puppetry Guild, the Hazel Green Opera House's annual Puppet Playwriting Contest will be expanded to an entire-- 

ta da:

Day of Puppetry

9:30-3:30 (approx.) Saturday May 30

Save the date. Make plans. It's going to be great.

Events will be in the opera house (2130 W. Main St., Hazel Green, Wis.) as well as in the Methodist Church hall that is a block away.

Right now it looks like we'll use the church hall for the puppetmaking workshop as well as lunchtime concessions. We've also got village permission to block off the street in front of the opera house for a mid-day parade.

Guest performers will be Monica Leo's Eulenspiegel Puppets presenting "The Woolly Mammoth." Monica's puppet company is in West Liberty, Iowa, and she is originally from Dubuque. 

Guild member  Pam Corcoran, of Stevens Point, Wis., is in charge of the make-and-take workshop which will be a woolly mammoth puppet. 

Tim Reed, Milwaukee, will present 'Planet Protectors'. Here is the YouTube link to see a clip from this show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEo8j5LmY7c

The Fever River Puppeteers (whose home is the Hazel Green Opera House) will perform the 3 winning entries in our 4th annual Puppet Playwriting Contest.

The Best Part 

I forgot to tell you that thanks to donations from the Grant County Safe & Stable Families, admission to the contest performance is free and thanks to a donation from the Wisconsin Puppetry Guild, all other events at the festival will be FREEWILL DONATION. That means it is affordable for everyone.  You just pay what you can.  Considering the state of the economy and the number of people who have lost their jobs lately, we wanted to offer a family event that everyone can afford. Any donations received will be used to jumpstart a similar event next year.

There will be more news to come as we finalize plans. (We might even have a puppet-related garageless garage sale.) If anyone has any thoughts, hopes, ideas or comments, send them along.

Keep checking this blog for updates!