Atlanta Puppet Press June 2004 The Atlanta Puppet Press The Newsletter of the Atlanta Puppetry Guild June 2004 What's Inside Meeting Information Page 2 NDOP 2004 in Atlanta When: Sunday, June 13th at 4 PM Page 3 NDOP 2004 in Other Cities Page 4 Regional Festivals Where: Lee Bryan's House Page 5 Puppeteers of America Page 1314 LaVista Rd, NE Page 6 News, Events, Online Corner Atlanta, GA 30357-2937 Page 7 Meeting Minutes, Websites Page 8 Officers, Membership Directions: From Cheshire Bridge Road (Tara Your Ideas Are Needed! Shopping Center), count six houses up on the left hand side. You This is the first edition of the will probably have to park on the Atlanta Puppetry Guild newsletter street just before (Citadel) and from your new newsletter editor, walk over since parking is Kevin Pittman. The Atlanta Puppet limited. Press has the potential to become a great newsletter, but I can't do it What's Happening: alone. You can help by submitting short puppetry related items that SWAP MEET - A chance to clean would be of interest to other guild out your closets and swap your members. Here are just a few trash for others' treasures! Bring possible ideas: your old bits of fur, fabric, foam and anything else (puppet related) News and Events How-To's you want to get rid of and swap Book & Show Reviews Helpful (not sell) for other stuff you Tips might need. If you would like to be a regular STAGE SHOWCASE - This will columnist, there are many topics also be a chance to share stage that you can choose from. Also, if ideas and show off your stages. you can draw or paint, I would love Bring your stage(s) and set them up to have some original puppet in the driveway. Lee will have related artwork to use in the several of his stages set up. newsletter. COOKOUT - Lee will provide I also need your feedback, so burgers and grilled chicken. Please please do not hesitate to let me bring a side item. know what you like or dislike about the new newsletter. What's Your Preference? Please send all questions, comments, or submissions to Kevin Starting this month, the Atlanta Pittman at Puppet Press will be primarily klp@moonshade.oit.gatech.edu and distributed electronically on the start your subject line with Internet. By default, all members `APGNL:' will be sent a link to the newsletter file, allowing them to download the file from a web site at their convenience. However, if you wish, you can have the newsletter PDF file sent directly to you. Just email the newsletter editor if you would prefer this option. National Day of Puppetry 2004 On Saturday, April 24th, 2004, members of the Atlanta Puppetry Guild gathered at Discover Mills mall in Norcross, Georgia to celebrate the annual National Day of Puppetry, and for one day, all corners of the mall were filled with the sights and sounds of puppetry. A small collection of pictures from the event can be found on the web at http://moonshade.oit.gatech.edu/ndop/ From noon until six o'clock, guild members and other volunteers performed twelve different shows on three stages in the mall. Many thanks go out to the following groups and individuals who graciously volunteered their time and skills: American Red Cross - F.A.C.T. (First Aid for Children Today) Tricia and Bob Berrett / Paper Moon Puppets - Lion Tales Elaine Black / Gwinnett County Public Library - Three Favorites for a Spring Day: Henny Penny, The Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood Lee Bryan / That Puppet Guy - The Zany Zoo & The Critter Carnival Carol Daniel / Piccadilly Puppets Company - Butterfly Ballad Barbara Goltz / Pocket People Puppets - Mother Nature and the Tree Reay Kaplan / Curious Moon Puppet Theater - A Grand Expedition Gail McKay / Creative Communication - Who's in Rabbit's House? and The Hungry Caterpillar Kevin Pittman / Solo Pawpeteer - The Tale of the Wolf and the Rabbit and What is a Puppet? An Exploration of Puppetry While the shows were the highlight of the event, many other puppet-related activities were also going on in the mall throughout the afternoon. In an empty storefront, Jeff Cornett, Sandee Carder and volunteers from Gwinnett County 4-H PALS (Puppetry and Life Skills) group ran free workshops teaching basic puppet manipulation. Once Kevin Pittman's shows were finished, he began wandering through the mall with his blue bird, wolf, and pony puppets, entertaining anyone who wanted to stop for a moment and interact with a live puppet character. Out in the food court, children were able to make their own talking flower and bird puppets, thanks guild member Claire Ritzler, who designed the puppet patterns, Discover Mills, which paid for the supplies and provided volunteers to staff the tables, and Lee Bryan, who shopped for the materials. At six o'clock, the festivities concluded with a grand parade, featuring many giant puppets, a roller-skating marionette, and a six-foot-tall dragon named Raxor. The parade circled half of the mall and then ended at the food court stage, where guild president Lee Bryan congratulated everyone and presented a gift basket to Jayne Madigan, the Discover Mills event coordinator. Even though the celebration only lasted one day, there was a touch of puppetry in the mall throughout the whole month. A large number of puppets, many loaned out by guild members, were put on display in storefront windows around the mall at the beginning of April. There was even a puppetry scavenger hunt created that let children use a page of clues to try to track down all of the puppets in the mall. Thanks again to everyone who helped to make this year's National Day of Puppetry celebration a huge success! National Day of Puppetry in South Florida Provided by Dave Goboff of the Puppet Guild of South Florida On Saturday April 1 7, 2004 The Puppet Guild of South Florida once again partnered with The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale for our National Day of Puppetry event. The Goboff family presented their original show, Yeh Shen, a Chinese Cinderella Story, to an audience of about 70 kids and parents. It was a big hit, especially since Lauren Goboff is a member of the Brownie Troop that made up almost a third of the audience. They came to earn their Try It badge in Puppetry. Immediately after the show everybody went up to the classroom in the museum to make some puppets! The Guild was represented by Nancy and Bob McLane, Dave, Debbie, and Lauren Goboff, and Ellen Weiner. They, together with the museum staff, docents and volunteers, helped the Brownies and the rest of the kids and parents construct paper finger puppets, paper lunch bag marionettes and a jointed frog shadow puppet. All the girls were able to earn their Try It badge by seeing the puppet show and making all three different kinds of puppets! After the puppets were completed there were two stages, set up by the guild, where the new puppets could give their first performances. Everybody was invited to have refreshments (cookies, pretzels and drinks) provided by the museum. The museum docents were also available to lead guided tours of the exhibits. It was a wonderful day for everybody! We are very fortunate to have a great working relationship with Fran Mulcahy and Lyn Kurpiewski from the Museum's Education department. We thank them very much for helping us celebrate this year's National Day of Puppetry! National Day of Puppetry in the Twin Cities Provided by Karen Backes, Puppeteers of America Vice President The Twin Cities Puppeteers Guild celebrated the annual National Day of Puppetry, for the fifth year in a row, at the Southdale Library in Edina, Minnesota, on Saturday, April 24, 2004. Wayne Krefting, guild program director, and Laura Krentz, children's librarian at Southdale, organized the event, which included a display case of puppets, and a schedule of shows. First on the program, was a show, "Les Voyageurs", performed by Wayne Krefting and Tom Davis, which was an amusing romp through the Northwoods in a spoof of the North American fur trade. Wayne made several moving mouth animal hand puppets for the show. The children enjoyed Laura Krentz's performance of "The Magic Spectacles" and "Monster Reads" performed on the library's puppet stage. Next on the schedule; Wayne and Tom performed their show, again. At noon, there was a lunch break for the next hour. During this time, a video of "Pinocchio" was shown. Kurt Hunter brought several of his wonderful marionettes. He operated them and answered questions between shows. The afternoon of performances started with; Christopher Fehring and a group of children in his puppet team, "Torn Curtain Puppeteers". The audience laughed as "Henny Penny Lester", a comical puppet guy, tried to encourage his assorted friends to help him make potato salad. No one would help him cook, but they all came to eat the meal. Diane Rains gave an Indonesian shadow puppet demonstration, showing us beautiful puppets that were traditionally used to tell stories about life, death, romance, and religion. She brought them to life as she operated a number of them on a shadow screen. Paul Eide and Karen Backes performed "Little Red Riding Hood", with hand puppets that Paul made over 30 years ago. In the last scene, Red took the Huntsman home to meet her mother. The wolf was left to take care of Grandma, but went in the woods and found Paul (a puppet made in the likeness of Paul Eide) to do the job. The wolf was left with the goodies, and happily bowed at the end. Rhonda Maas and Leah Jean Hills performed "Rainbow Connection" and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", with their children's puppet team "Handz Up Puppeteers". The puppets and props were very colorful, and everyone enjoyed the music. We took snapshots, videotaped the event, and had a great time! Puppets on the Ridge - The Southeast Regional Festival If you have not registered for the next Southeast Regional Festival, "Puppets on the Ridge" in Ashville, North Carolina, now is the time to do so. Information is available on the website, http://www.puppetsontheridge.com/ regarding the Saturday performances, as and tickets will be limited, so act now to be sure you can see the shows you really want to see. The entire four-day schedule is now posted as well, so go check it out to see what will be happening. If you have registered, don't forget to reserve your hotel room. Rooms are available at the conference hotel, the Holiday Inn Sunspree resort (http://www.sunspree.com/) for $99 a night. To reserve a room, call 1-800- 733-3211 and ask for the Puppeteers of America Convention rate. POTPOURI: Now's your chance to do a five-minute puppet bit in front of a live audience. Anything goes, as long as it's five minutes or less. If you'd like to sign up, see the Puppets on the Ridge website or email Drew Allison (drew@greysealpuppets.com) PUPPET NIGHTMARES: Start writing down your scariest, most humiliating experiences in the Puppet World, to be shared in a late night experience at the festival. E-mail your stories to Lisa Sturz (redherring@brwm.org) or Drew Allison (drew@greysealpuppets.com). Other Regional Puppetry Festivals PuppetFest Midwest : July 13-18, 2004 in Trenton, Missouri Full details at http://www.puppetfestival.org Pacific SW Regional Fest: "Puppets for Everyone!" : June 24-27, 2004 in Chandler, AZ Full details at: http://azpuppetfest.com Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional Festival : "Bridges-Linking the Past to the Future" : July 22-25, 2004 at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Full details: http://www.regional2004.com Puppet Fest 2005 The next national festival of the Puppeteers of America will be an event not to be missed. Make your plans today to spend July 24 - 30, 2005 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The facilities of Concordia University and the Four Points Sheraton hotel provide unique opportunities for this festival. You can choose to stay in a dorm room or a hotel room. The modern and well-maintained facilities on Concordia's compact campus will be wonderful settings for the workshops, exhibit, store and especially the performances. A state of the art theater with perfect puppetry sight lines and a comfortable, acoustically marvelous concert hall will host some of puppetry's finest national and international performers. Because of limited theater seating, we can accept a maximum of 600 registrants. Reserve your spot today. A no risk deposit of $150 will hold your place. Deposits are fully refundable until January 1, 2005. Now is also the time to apply to perform or present a workshop. The performance application deadline is September 1, 2004. Workshop applications are due October 1, 2004. Mark your calendar or, better yet, apply today. Registration, workshop and performance forms are available for download on the festival website, http://www.PuppetFest2005.org. If you have suggestions or questions, feel free to contact any of the festival staff listed below. We hope to see you at Puppet Fest 2005. Kurt Hunter, Festival Director Puppeteers of America Scholarships Join the Puppeteers of America! Youth and adult scholarships are To find out about the many benefits available for the 2005 Puppeteers of Puppeteers of America of America, Inc., National Festival membership, including consultants to be held in St. Paul, Minnesota in every area of puppetry, visit (Concordia University) July 24 the Puppeteers of America website: through 30, 2005. Deadline for http://www.puppeteers.org/ completed applications is February 1, 2005. For information and/or If you do not have Internet access, application, please contact: you can also request information by U.S. mail: Aretta Baumgartner P of A Scholarship Committee The Puppeteers of America, Inc. 5097 Sumter Ave. Joyce and Chuck Berty Cincinnati, OH 45238-3824 PO Box 29417 513-471-2579 Parma, OH, 44129-0417 hensonfan@fuse.net 888-568-6235 Kevin's Online Corner In fitting with the new online format of the Atlanta Puppet Press, I will be using this section to provide a link to an essay or show critique that I have written and posted to my puppetry website. From time to time I will also provide links to other interesting puppetry web sites and articles that I come across in my online travels. In this edition, I am including links to an essay I wrote a few months ago and a recent puppet show review: Why Puppetry: Find out a little more about me in this essay on why puppetry is now my first love: http://moonshade.oit.gatech.edu/puppets/bio/why.shtml My review of David Simpich's marionette show, The Hans Christian Anderson Tales: http://moonshade.oit.gatech.edu/puppets/reviews/anderson_tales.shtml Puppet News and Happenings Curious Moon Puppet Theatre will be performing their adult show, Snip! Snip!, as part of "Evolutions" at the Center for Puppetry Arts June 12 and 19. They will also perform the same show at the South East Regional PofA festival, "Puppets on the Ridge", in Asheville. This past April, Virginia Peterson attended the International Ventriloquist Association (IVA) Convention at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Barry Gordemer, an award-winning puppeteer, did a workshop on soft figure manipulation, and Kerry Summers (an Elvis impersonator, amongst other talents) lead a workshop on making puppets from soft toys. Showing in June and July at the Center for Puppetry Arts (http://www.puppet.org/): Beauty and the Beast adapted by Jon Ludwig Mainstage Theater June 1st through 20th Cinderella by Tanglewood Marionettes Mainstage Theater June 22nd through July 11th Mr. Ug, Caveman by Leon Van Weelden Mainstage Theater July 13th through August 1st Evolutions (Ages 18 and up only), Downstairs Theater Saturdays in June Congratulations to the Broadway show Avenue Q, which just won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical, beating out some pretty tough competition. If you are not familiar with Avenue Q, which features a mixture of puppets and live performers, see the show's website at http://www.avenueq.com/. Atlanta Puppetry Guild Schedule of Events Guild meeting at the home of Lee Bryan Sunday, June 13th @ 4 PM South East Regional Puppeteers of America Festival Thursday - Sunday July 29th through August 1st Asheville, NC (See page 4 for details) Guild meeting, location TBD Saturday or Sunday, September 11th or 12th Guild meeting, location TBD Sunday, November 7th Summary of Minutes of the Last Guild Meeting March 28, 2004 Elections: The guild Vice President and Secretary are elected in even years during the spring meeting. The guild President and Treasurer will be elected during the spring meeting of odd numbered years. Carol Daniel was elected as Secretary and Gregg Wallace was elected as Vice President Kevin Pittman took over the position of Newsletter Editor Thanks to outgoing officers Jeff Cornett, Betsy Stark, and Evy Wright for all of their hard work Newsletter: A discussion was held regarding the fate of the guild newsletter. The newsletter will be published online as an Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) file. A motion was passed that members wishing a printed copy of the newsletter sent through U.S. mail must pay $5 per year (total of four issues). A limited number of printed copies will be available at each meeting for free. A second motion was passed that the newsletter will be published one week before each meeting. Meeting Reminders: We will continue to use e-mail reminders for all meetings, and will try doing phone call reminders as well. For the fall meeting, we will send out postcards, then a phone call. Meeting Locations: The vice president will check with the Center for Puppetry Arts to see if we can have our September meeting there. The November 7th meeting will be a spaghetti feast at Rosemary Glenn's home, pending confirmation. Alternatively either Evy or Virginia may host it. There was discussion on whether we should continue to meet in people's homes or in a theater. The general consensus was to try to do some of both for now. Guild workshops: Gregg will call Andy regarding a puppet-making workshop; A Verna Findley workshop and a stage sharing workshop were also discussed Guild Website: The officers will discuss the website at a later time National Day of Puppetry Update: Jeff is the official National Day coordinator for our guild for 2004. He will have a final schedule soon. We have lots of performers, both from our membership and from outside organizations. The guild is providing puppet making for kids in the form of bird and flower puppets. Discover Mills is paying for all of the materials Atlanta Puppetry Guild Officers President Vice President Treasurer & Lee Bryan Gregg Wallace Membership Director 404-315-1363 greggwallace@compuserv Tricia Berrett lee@puppetguy.com e.com 404-633-1575 tbberrett@aol.com Secretary Carol Daniel Newsletter Editor ppuppets@bellsouth.net Kevin Pittman klp@moonshade.oit.gate ch.edu Guild Related Web Sites Atlanta Puppetry Guild: http://www.atlantapuppetryguild.com/ Puppeteers of America: http://www.puppeteers.org/ UNIMA-USA Website: http://www.unima-usa.org/ About The Newsletter and the Guild The Atlanta Puppet Press is published four times a year by the Atlanta Puppetry Guild. A new edition of the newsletter will be available approximately one week before each guild meeting. Chartered in 1974, the Atlanta Puppetry Guild is dedicated to bringing together artists, educators, librarians, hobbyists, professionals and everyday people who share an interest in the art of puppetry. Current activities include potluck socials, field trips to view and discuss adult puppetry presentations, occasional workshops, and participation in the National Day of Puppetry on the last Saturday in April. Members receive notifications of meetings, new newsletters, and other local puppetry events via e-mail. They also receive discounts on tickets and in the gift shop at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Midtown Atlanta. The cost of a membership is $10 for an individual or $15 for a dual membership. The membership year runs from May 1st through April 30th. Please send membership application and a check payable to "Atlanta Puppetry Guild" to: Atlanta Puppetry Guild, 2510 Sunset Drive NE, Atlanta, GA 30345 Atlanta Puppetry Guild Membership Form Name/s E-mail Address City, State, ZIP Telephone number (home unless you prefer to be contacted at work; please indicate which number you're listing): Also member of [ ] Puppeteers of America [ ] UNIMA-USA Special interests or other information: