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PUPPETEERING FOR TV – with Frank Meschkuleit. In person at Puppetmonger’s Studio – Sunday February 18th.

LOW TECH VIDEO & SHADOW – with Tim Gosley in association with Theatre Inconnu. Two Sessions – Saturdays February 24th and March 2nd.

MASK MAKING – with David Powell.  In person at Puppetmonger’s Studio, March 3rd.

AND STILL TO COME

PUPPET FILM MAKING!  – with Robin Pulfus of RoRo Arts.  Two sessions: May 5th 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in-person at Puppetmonger’s Studio, and then May 12th online, with a.m. and p.m. sessions. Enrollment $220

Planning, Shooting and Editing; How to Make Movies with Puppets. Learn the ins and outs of making movies with puppetry, from story boarding to editing – by DOING IT!  The first Sunday is in-person, there will be some homework during the week, the second Sunday will be online, and you’ll make a short puppet film!

Robin is a whimsical storyteller, puppet builder and performer at festivals and events.  She makes short films, organizes online and in-person Puppet Slams, and teaches puppet building & performing workshops.  RoRo Art is her toy-making business, and Puppet What What is the irrepressible sock puppet who bosses her around.  www.youtube.com@sockpuppety

A Ritual Puppet Workshop performance led by Afsaneh Zamani, for adults and youth 14 +  Duration: 30-40 Minutes, October 22^nd, at 3:00 p.m. at Puppetmongers Studio (Carlaw and Dundas East).

Reservations only – no walk-ups please.  All tickets $15

The Rain Bride is a rain ritual from west Iran, traditionally performed with puppets, based on latent themes of femininity and fertility. During drought, young women build a wooden cross and adorn it with colourful fabrics to make it look like a young woman whom they call “The Rain Bride.” Afterwards, they walk her through the town, singing and encouraging onlookers to give money and food to the bride as an offering for her holy marriage to Heaven.

This workshop performance is the first development phase of an immersive project in which participants will take part in a journey to create their own” Rain Bride” and share food.  Please bring some food, such as fruits and snacks, as the offering.

Afsaneh is an award-winning theatre director, puppeteer and performer. She has created and performed numerous interactive theatre and puppetry works focusing on rituals and folk stories. She has performed in international festivals across Asia, Europe and North America and received acclaimed international awards. She has experience being a board member of Mubarak UNIMA (the Iranian branch of UNIMA). “The Rain Bride” is her new project, exploring puppetry and recreating rituals.

Emilia Nechita

She remembers being on the scene “from the beginning”

She started her carrier as a prodigy child, and all the bets were that she would become a great drama actress.

Accidentally, or not, immediately after high school, she took a job in a Puppet Theatre and then knew she wanted to become a puppeteer. All this happened during the communist regime in Eastern Europe, in a world dominated by fear but where Puppetry was treated as a significant art.

After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, where she was an active participant, she continues her journey into the puppetry world: she finished the National University of Theatre and Film with a Bachelor’s in Animation Theatre, took a Master’s Degree in Directing Animation Performances, and completed her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts with a major in Digital Technics in Animation Theatre; she founded her puppet theatre where over time more than 100 actors worked under her direction in thousands of performances all over the world from Europe to Asia and North America.

During her 35 years of career, she explores the puppetry world as a Writer, a Builder, an Actor, a Director, a Teacher and, of course, as part of the audience, celebrating with all the puppeteers in the world this magical profession.

A program teaser – not the scheduled sequence

For tickets please click here

ONLINE AFTERNOON

Bakster and Bird – A Puppet Film. Wendy Passmore of WP Puppet Theatre – Calgary.  A puppet film about a bird named Bird, who has lost her song, and Bakster, a philosophical mouse who dreams of flying!  The presentation will include film excerpts, behind the scenes stories and a demo of the interactive website.

Puppets for Sahar, a play-in-development about Afghanistan.  Kathy & John / Rag and Bone – Ottawa.  Clay sculpted heads and shadow puppets will animate iconic historical moments in this play, including the story Malalai, Afghanistan’s Joan of Arc. Characters representing various countries at war over Afghanistan are blocks of wood, with faces and costumes inspired by Punch magazine illustrations of the time.

AND STILL TO BE SCHEDULED FOR THE AFTERNOON

DiSCoVeR with Viktorija Kovak / Cosmic Fishing Theatre – Kitchener-Waterloo

And more to come…

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ONLINE EVENING

Excerpt from EPIDERMIS CIRCUS – Ingrid Hansen / Snafu Dance – BC.  “Imagine lambchops puppeteer Shari Lewis’s soul got possessed by David Lynch. With dark, deadpan humour, Hansen employs video projection to provocative, cinematic effect, incorporating apocalyptic imagery, and the occasional erotic frisson. ★★★★★” – Winnipeg Free Press. 

Carbon Copy Kid – A dark and dirty tale – Pire Espece – Montreal.  Terryy cannot describe his family’s origins rationally. His idiosyncratic family is larger-than-life: How else could his mother have given birth to 57 children without any divine intervention? But above all, he is fed up with his vacuous, half-bovine father and seeks some explanation for such cruel and inhumane punishment. Terryy desperately needs to understand.

El fill de mar (The son of the sea).  In the collaboration of the Catalan shadow theatre company Olveira Salcedo and Mallorcan musician and composer Jaume Tugores, the moving images of the shadow play illustrate the song and tale written by Tugores. The special feature of the film is that it was made with a single, uncut shot.

And more TBA….

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IN-PERSON AFTERNOON

Toy Theatre Delights: Two Old Librarians Revive the Art of Playing with  Miniature Puppets on a Small Stage – Mariella Bertelli & Mary Anne Cree.  Mariella and Mary Anne have developed a style of “storytelling in a box” using the 19th century tradition of Toy Theatre. They will share their approach to creating and performing a miniature show, focusing on the story. Join them as they deconstruct and reconstruct old tales for a new audience.

Pictures at an Exhibition – Jesse Wabegijig.  Pictures at an Exhibition is an anti war story that follows a reimagined trickster by the name of Modest on his journey to Kyiv. He faces fairytale characters and conflict with joy and humour.

PUPPET SLAMS!  What are they and why should you go to them? – Robin Polfuss.  What is a Puppet Slam? Robin Polfuss has been participating in and organizing Puppet Slams for years, but not everyone is familiar with them.  She’ll talk about what they are, and why you might want to go to one, maybe even why you might want to be IN one!

AND STILL TO BE SCHEDULED:

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IN-PERSON EVENING

Malachy and the Elephant – Kate Hemblen & Glyn Thomas / Strings Attached.  An ageing Irish prisoner reminisces about his time “outside” the Don Jail, building the Riverdale Zoo. Princess Rita, an elephant he cared for there, drew crowds and revenue to the Zoo – yet lived a life of cruel isolation. Theirs is a linked story of incarceration, confinement and connection.

My Lovely Frenemy – Afsaneh Zamani.  The napkins are expected to be ironed neatly and uniformly to look great and the iron is there to do its best! However, a small napkin resists ironing and…  The show will be performed with objects on the ironing board.

Pin-Pin the Eggsplorer – Catherine Maleikova / Twisted Dog Theatre. An immersive and heartwarming theatrical adventure for kids aged 0-6, featuring talented actors, colourful shadow puppets, incredible music and original rhymes by Storyteller Sally Jaeger.

GARBAGE: the Entrée of the Ballet of the Otters – Honeyball Puppetry /   Lindsay Lee, Maiko Taku and Robin Polfuss. A  performance in development about how people are becoming desensitized towards the impending disaster if we don’t clean up what we do to our planet. This is a work in progress, opening scene, introducing a playful otter, in their beautiful environment, but something is amiss…

Wrens Recipes – Shawna Reiter & Ginette Mohr

For tickets please click here

David Lane – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – May 26^th  27^th  & 28^th – 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. 3 days for $250 + $50 materials = $300

Please note that the cut-off date for registration has just moved to Wednesday May 10th.

David Lane is a two-time Jim Henson Foundation Grant recipient, and was a founding member of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. He is the co-Director of the New England Puppet Intensive and teaches a yearly workshop in puppet carving at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.  www.davidlane-theatre.com

This process is adapted from the traditional Italian Cartapesta technique, where specialty papers are tamped into a plaster mold. We’ll start by exploring notions of character design on paper before rendering our ideas in clay, from which molds are made. The weekend will conclude with playful performance explorations with our new creations.

Materials/what to bring: All materials provided. Please wear studio clothes as some of the process can be a little messy. Also, bring an N-95 mask for personal use when working with dry plaster.

Mike Harding – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – May 14^th – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1 day for $100

Mike Harding of Applefun Puppetry has been performing for over 20 years. He has conducted thousands of shows at libraries, schools, and birthday parties. Mike studied Improvisational Comedy at Second City which adds a unique and spontaneous flavour to his shows. Applefun Puppetry Puppet Shows are characteristically interactive with a high degree of audience participation. www.applefun.ca

Description: Learn to write a puppet show that can be performed by just one person. Find out how to organize your puppets and props. Discover how to manage an audience by yourself. Decide what type of puppets will work best. Uncover tips about creating a stage that is portable and easy to set up.

Materials to bring: Writing materials, construction paper, cardboard box – shoe box size or larger, scissors, any other craft supplies.

David Powell – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – Two evening sessions June 20 and Jun 27, 5 to 7 p.m. for $100 (+ $80 materials per lamp).

Halogen lamps project crisp shadow images and add amazing cinematographic effects to shadow puppetry works.  With these as your light source, you can zoom from longshot to close-up, layer multiple images, create negative or light images, travel through landscapes, and much-much more.

Here is a link to Shuttle Dreams, a halogen shadow show made with two musicians and Mark Keetch.

On June 20th we will experiment with the different types of halogen lamps, so that you gain an understanding of their capabilities, and choose which sort would best suit your needs and of you want one or two.  From this we will know what components to buy for the building evening.  On June 27th you will build your own lamp(s). Please note that if you request building two lamps, we will bill you the additional $80 materials cost.

With Puppetmongers, David has toured world-wide since 1974, and received many awards in Canada and the USA. He co-founded the Toronto School of Puppetry in 1996, and has taught puppetry arts at many universities, colleges and schools across Canada.  Always drawn to shadow puppetry, halogen lamps have opened great creative vistas.

Brendan McMurtry-Howlett – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – April 23^rd – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1 day for $100

Brendan is a theatre artist who has worked across the country and internationally. Introduced to puppetry 20 years ago, Brendan continues to incorporate puppetry into his theatre work as a director/creator. He created Macbeth: Walking Shadows for Shakespeare in the Ruff, and will direct the Shaw Festival’s Christmas Carol.

When working with puppets, the performer must be simultaneously “in it”, and observing. This is what makes puppetry a great actor training tool. Working with the key principles of puppetry (breath, movement, impulse work, and finding energized relaxation), we’ll explore how techniques can inform your work as an actor, and how acting techniques can inform puppetry.

What to bring: Comfortable clothes and footwear for movement. A short piece of memorized text or monologue (classical or contemporary).

REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED

Alexandra Montagnese – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – April 2^nd – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1 day for $100

Registration now closed.

Alexandra Montagnese is a Dora award winning director, performer, puppeteer, and arts educator. She is co-curator of Toronto’s experimental puppetry cabaret: Concrete Cabaret and has taught puppets with many groups including Toronto School of Puppetry, Tarragon, Wee Festival, TMU, Glendon College, Shaw Festival Ensemble members, and various private high schools.

This class will explore the basics of performing object puppetry. Through various movement and narrative exercises, we will transform everyday objects into live performing puppets. We will look at the ways the object selection and all of its qualities inform imagination and storytelling to help build a unique style and expression in performance.

What to bring: Please contact ann@puppetmongers.com for details

Mike Petersen – In-person at Puppetmongers’ studio – March 26^th – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1 day for $100

Mike Petersen has performed around the world as a puppeteer, with such companies as Mermaid Theatre, Shaw Festival, Theatre Direct, Teatr Arlekin, YPT, and Theatre Beyond Words. Television credits include Fraggle Rock, The Mighty Jungle, Toopy & Binoo Vroom Vroom & Zoom, and the Emmy nominated pre-school series Miss Persona.

Explore your puppet’s physical vocabulary with the basics of silent expression. We’ll find a puppet’s thoughts, its feelings, its relationships with other characters, and we’ll unlock that all-important secret ingredient: a puppet’s relationship with its audience. Let’s find the tricks that puppeteers need so their puppets will be clearly understood.