Pattern sale!
To celebrate the 5th anniversary of the site, all patterns are $5 and every purchase puts you in the running to win an iPod Shuffle! Grab one of the foam patterns here or here or the ebook on teaching puppetry to win!
Once again I have some events saved up - sadly I’ve missed most of them for April. OPEN has done all the work for me, and for those interested in some work opportunities, a few shows and workshops around Australia, some pics of the Tarrengower Puppet Festival, and an obit for a local puppeteer… download the .pdf.
In other news, Queenslander puppeteers are seeking assistance raising money for their film. Those who donate get a few prizes in exchange, like a credit in the film, and/or your own caricature puppet. Their film is based on H P Lovecraft’s short story, Pickman’s Model. If you’d like to help, or want more info, you can visit their fundraising page or their Facebook page.
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@Con Quest
... School of Puppetry on Review: Avenue Q, Australian tourIf the "it's easier to train actors than puppeteers" argument were so ubiquitous, no one would hire trained anything. I'd imagine the likes of Judi Dench would be passed over for your average grandmother, simply because it's easier to train your grandmother than Judi. If the issue is time, then perhaps they should be scheduling more rehearsals - which they should have done anyway for this show with their untrained puppeteers.
I'm not actually against untrained actors. There are plenty of films and TV shows out there that are award-winning *and* happen to use untrained actors. However, there's a reason why it's not ubiquitous: the results can be overall mixed. You have to have excellent non-performers, and a naturalistic style of filming where it suits the less polished performances. Avenue Q doesn't suit that sort of direction. Even if it did, I found the performers to be totally unready. Which is less a fault of the suitability of choosing untrained actors and more a fault of a lack of quality over all. Even Dame Judi has her bad moments.