This Pinocchio is a fantastic, frenetic retelling based on the Collodi classic text. Found-object puppet characters are constructed from various recycled things like kitchen utensils, baskets and tennis rackets.
In addition to the found-object puppets, this original one-man "tour de farce" combines authentic Italian music, Commedia-style mask work, and plenty of audience participation!
How To Grow A Pickle whimsically illustrates the process of creating a
pickle from planting the seeds to pickling and jarring the cucumber. It will
both entertain and draw attention to where our food comes from and the benefits
of eating and growing food locally. After its premier, the show will
tour to other community gardens and neighborhoods in the Maryland
region.
Nana Projects is a non-profit company of visual alchemists creating
innovative artwork and pioneering a groundbreaking blend of shadow puppetry and slide
performance. Gorgeous hand manipulated cutouts bring to life stories on big
screens that mesmerize audiences. Custom tables hold the overhead projectors
and the puppets to allow various animated tricks. This is a unique form of
puppetry that in spirit and technique blends the manipulation of objects with
the tricks of Victorian Magic Lantern slide shows and brings a modern twist to
pre-cinema.
Stageworks Youth Theatre
"The Reluctant Dragon"
A boy who "reads too much" encounters a dragon who is "most undragony." The boy overcomes his prejudices about dragons when he discovers that this one would rather write poetry than fight and breathe fire. Their secret friendship flourishes until St. George, the famous dragonslayer, comes to town.
Since its first appearance in 1898, Kenneth Grahames "The Reluctant Dragon" has readers and audiences of all ages. Stageworks performs this story with Bunraku-style puppets.
One Frame at a Time: The Stop Motion Animated Films of Michael Granberry
Stop-motion animation artist Michael
Granberry, formerly a celebrated actor/director
in Wilmington,
presents a selection of the stop-motion puppetry he has created over the
past
several years. At turns funny, frightening, and inspiring, audiences
are
invited to have a peek into the depth of Granberry’s imagination and
talent. A brief Q&A with Granberry follows the screening. Recommended for teens and adults; some content not suitable for
children.
Read the interview with Michael Granberry on the Festival Blog!
Film Selections:
MYTHIC JOURNEYS: THE BONE ORCHARD Starring the voice talents of Tim
Curry, Mark
Hamill, and Lance Henriksen and featuring original puppets created by
Brian and
Wendy Froud. The Bone Orchard is an adaptation of a 1000 year old Indian
myth
"Vikram & Betal", set in an old burial ground where a King sent
on a quest by a mysterious sorcerer meets a not-so-dead corpse. The
mischievous
spirit challenges the noble King to a series of riddles where his very
life
depends on the answers. (running time: 27 mins)
THE NAUGHTY LIST Three precocious elves get banished from the North Pole
but
wind up making some new friends and saving Christmas! (running time: 4
mins)
FROM BEYOND An award-winning adaptation of the spine-tingling short
story by
H.P. Lovecraft, in which an unsuspecting man finds himself trapped in a
room
surrounded by strange creatures from another dimension. (running time,
10 mins)
GEORGIE'S WISH A young boy makes a birthday wish that comes true...with
unexpected results! (running time: 3 mins)
THE CHRISTMAS FLIP-FLOP Music video for The Dan Band ("The Hangover",
"Old School", The Jay Leno Show) from their holiday music album
"HO: A Dan Band Christmas" in which one poor slob's Christmas eve is
turned around by the appearance of a very special visitor. (running
time: 3
mins)
VALLEY OF GWOMBI When their time machine
malfunctions, a family of hapless time-travellers find themselves lost
in a
prehistoric wilderness amongst some very hungry dinosaurs. This
twistedly-funny
short film would later be transformed into the internet web series,
"ADVENTURES WITH THE AMBERSONS" on Turner Broadcasting's comedy
website, SuperDeluxe.com. (running time: 5 mins)
Tickets $12/Adult, $8/Youth (Under 18)
Ticketed Shows at Cameron Art Museum
Schedule & Ticket Information coming soon!
Peter Allen Parasol Puppets
"The Amazing Mysto's Magic Show!"
This hand-puppet magic extravaganza is performed in a “bag stage,” a puppet stage that the puppeteer actually wears. The stage itself turns, jumps and moves while the Amazing Mysto- with the help of Jojo the monkey, Rover the dog, and a surprise visit from an alligator-performs feats of magic no one would want to repeat. Volunteers selected from the audience are asked to assist Mysto, the puppet magician, in this hilarious blend of puppetry and magic.
This popular show is puppeteer Peter Allen’s oldest and favorite show.
Cameron Art Museum
Thursday, July 15
Paul Mesner, Paul Mesner Puppets
"Pulcinella"
Paul Mesner brings his own personal touch to this production of Pulcinella, an Italian puppet tradition over three centuries old. Pulcinella is part Saturday morning cartoon, Three Stooges, the slapstick and physical comedy of WWF, with a lot of hand puppet ballet. Pulcinella is the hero of this story; however, he is all but pure innocence. Pulcinella is the predecessor of "Kasper" (Germany), "Jan Klassen" (Netherlands), "Vasilache" (Romania), and the most famous "Punch" (Great Britain).
Paul Mesner uses hand puppets built in the Neapolitan style, the traditional method taught to him by Bruno Leone, a pulcinella master from Naples, Italy.
Cameron Art Museum
Thursday, July 15
John Bell
Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, UCONN
John Bell is a puppeteer, theater historian, and Director of theBallard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of
Connecticut. He is a founding member of Great Small Works theater
collective in Brooklyn which produces
puppet-friendly shows of all shapes and sizes, and whose
Terror As Usual toy theater serial is now on display at the Queens Museum of Art in New York. He is a contributing editor to Puppetry International and the
author of numerous books on puppet theater history, including American
Puppet Modernism and Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects. The Ballard Institute is organizing an International Puppet Research Conference at UConn in April 2011.
Cameron Art Museum
Thursday, July 15
Dr. Bell is presenting a brief Gallery Talk focused on the work of Bread & Puppet.
Later in the evening, Dr. Bell will give a special presentation for Festival Registrants and Cameron Members only-
"Playing
with the Eternal Uncanny: Puppet
Performance and the Life of Lifeless Objects"
Shadow Film Stream
Enjoy short films from the work of Hobey Ford (pictured), Kristen Jarvis, Johannes Nyholm, Molly Allis, and others! This film stream runs all evening in the film room at the opening reception.
Cameron Art Museum
Thursday, July 15
Performances for Registrants Only
Lyon Hill-Mermecolion
"Junk Palace"Film Debut!
Registrants Only
Homer and Langley Collyer were two of the world’s most infamous hoarders. Packed floor to ceiling, their New York brownstone became a labyrinth of tunnels and traps. They were utter recluses who might have passed away into obscurity were it not for the bizarre circumstances of their deaths.
Using elaborate paper puppets, "Junk Palace" takes you into the Collyer’s strange world and imagines what life was like for these unique individuals.
Lyon Hill lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their son, Oliver in Columbia, SC. He is a puppetmaker and performer for the Columbia Marionette Theatre. His previous videos have been included in Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams film series which is shown around the world.
Sarah Frechette
"Snowflake Man"
Registrants Only
Sarah Frechette presents the story of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, the Jericho, Vermont native who attracted world attention with his pioneering work in the area of photographing and studying snow crystals, commonly known as snowflakes. Sarah plays alongside the cast of string puppets in the show. This production was brought to life through a collaborative effort among several artist friends and family members, as well as, support by a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. This show honors two Vermont spirits, that of Snowflake Bentley and Sarah's Grandfather Walter.
Kimi Maeda
"The Crane Wife"
Registrants Only
Weaving together the stories of the artist and her mother, this traditional Japanese folktale is a shadow-based performance piece which is a tale of sacrifice, love, and secrecy. Structured as a letter from a mother to her child, the performance provides several re-readings of the tale, tying it to the experiences of the artist's mother-who emigrated from Japan as a grown woman-and the artist-who grew up with a bi-cultural Japanese/American identity. This piece attempts to bridge the gap between the bi-cultural identity of an immigrant with that of a native born, but ethnically foreign, American. Where the struggle of the immigrant is often centered upon the effort to integrate old cultures and customs in a new setting, this piece also focuses on the challenges of being born in that very "in-between-ness," and not being fully accepted in either the old or new settings.
"The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik:
Deep Sea Explorer"
Registrants Only
The seas have risen, billions have died, and those who remain live on farms on top of skyscrapers, on top of mountains. The scientists have tried everything. Floating islands sank, space probes found nothing, and the giant sponges, visible from the moon, are now rotting icons of failure. Now science and humanity are turning to the oceans themselves. It is up to Alvin Sputnik to venture through the mysterious depths to find a place for the human race to live in peace once more.
Winner "Outstanding Solo Show" New York International Fringe Festival 2009
Eric Bass of Sandglass Theatre
"Autumn Portraits"
Registrants Only
Since its creation in 1980, this celebrated solo performance has won awards in Australia, Hungary and a Citation of Excellence from the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA).
"Autumn Portraits" is a compelling evening-long solo puppet-and-mask performance, a series of five interlocking vignettes, each exploring one puppet character and its interplay with its manipulator, who might appear as a masked figure, or simply a voice from the sky. Eric Bass' handcrafted rod puppets are characters in the "autumn" of their existence who act out their stories in precise and evocative gestures as they meet their pasts, their selves, their deaths. In 1999-2000, "Autumn Portraits" celebrated its 20th anniversary season...the festival is honored to offer this performance in its 30th year.
After several tours and festivals in Spanish speaking areas of the
Americas, Calliope Puppets were inspired to share stories found in their travels. "The Singing Tree," found in a bilingual (Spanish and Quechua) book in Guatemala City, is a beautiful myth explaining the origin of Guatemala's national instrument, the marimba. Then, learned from Patagonian master puppeteer Rafael Teixido is a well-loved tale from Argentina's famed writer and puppeteer, Javier
Villafañe: "Juancito y Maria". And finally, found in a book of folk
tales in Mérida, with inspiration from a wild young puppetry group met
in Culiacán who uses this name, comes “Tlacuache,” the Mexican trickster
opossum.
Presented with traditional hand puppets, along with a six foot
tree, and featuring Guatemalan marimba, Argentine tango, and Mexican La
Banda music, this show is offered in love and appreciation of the wealth
of puppetry and storytelling traditions south of our border.
To see this performance, follow the Parade down Front Street on Saturday, July 17 at 9:00 am!
This performance plus puppet-making & puppet store at the Thalian Hall/City Hall Ballroom, 9:30 am-Noon.
The Hellblinki Sextet & Puppet Rampage: The Slam
"The world influences on this Asheville, NC sextet are absolutely staggering; everything from Russian folk to Italian concerto to Americana (and most everything in between) all find themselves present and accounted for, albeit all of the above given a more than punk edge aesthetic. Appropriately enough, the group itself describes its sounds as a Threepenny Opera meets Sesame Street, with punk rock experimentation and a southern drawl...
Think Gogol Bordello, with an emphasis on European cabaret. The Hellblinki Sextet is without question one of the most unique, gifted, and flat-out fun bands to come out of the region in a long time." Southeast Performer, Atlanta
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