Call for Participation in Free International UNIMA Workshop: Paper, Puppet, People

UNIMA calls for participants for a free international workshop from September 18-22, 2018 in Charleville-Mézières, France. 

Led by Alain Lecucq and Narguess Majd, this workshop provides an introduction to paper theater and the opportunity to work with a group of artists to make selected texts from UNIMA's Young Authors Contest come to life. 

Visit UNIMA's website to learn more about the workshop and how to apply. An English version of the information sheet can be found here. Applications are due August 8, 2018. 

Apply for a Performing Arts Japan Touring or Collaboration Grant

The Japan Foundation is now accepting project proposals for Performing Arts JAPAN (PAJ) touring and collaboration grants for the 2019 - 2020 fiscal year. This program is designed to provide financial assistance to nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada with an aim to introduce Japanese performing arts to local audiences.

Deadline for applications is October 31, 2018. 

The touring Grants assists with the presentation of Japanese performing arts at multiple locations in the United States and/or Canada, with emphasis on locations outside major metropolitan areas where there is little exposure to Japanese performing arts.

The collaboration Grants facilitates the collaboration of Japanese and American/Canadian artists so that they may create a new work through research, residencies, artists' discussions etc. with the potential to develop into a touring project and further an appreciation of Japanese culture when presented to audiences in the United States and Canada.

To be eligible for an award, project must be to present Japanese performing arts and/or to conduct performing arts collaboration between Japanese and American/Canadian artists.  Grants are awarded only to U.S.-based or Canada-based nonprofit organizations. The proposed project must commence between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020.  For tours, the project must tour to at least two locations outside New York and Los Angeles.  For collaborations, the project must be a new work jointly explored and created by Japanese artists and American/Canadian artists.

For information on eligibility, grant coverage, review criteria and the application form, please visit: http://www.jfny.org/arts_and_culture/paj.html.

UNIMA-USA Membership Meeting at the International Puppet Fringe Festival in NYC

August 10, 2018 from 4pm-5pm

Join us in NYC for the 2018 Membership Meeting on August 10 at 4pm ET.

Open to all current Members of UNIMA-USA and anyone interested in joining, this meeting will explain what UNIMA-USA has been up to this last year. Our Board of Directors will be there to greet you and answer any questions you might have.

The International Puppet Fringe Festival is graciously hosting us in theAbrazo Interno Gallery at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center located on the lower east side in NYC.

Be sure to check out the schedule for the festival and buy your tickets if you haven't already!

Can't make it to NYC? Head over to our Facebook page to watch a live stream of the meeting. A recording of the meeting will be available afterwards if you can't join us live.

See you there!

Call for Proposals: Jim Henson Foundation Puppetry Residency at the O'Neill

Don't miss the opportunity to submit your proposal for a puppetry project geared towards adults.

The Jim Henson Foundation Puppetry Residency at the famous Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut offers space and support to a deserving artist/company as they work towards the completion of a new work of puppet theater. Residents receive 2-4 weeks of full room and board on-site at the O'Neill, dramaturgical support from the O'Neill literary office, and a $5,000 grant to cover expenses, 

Interested artists must submit letters of intent by Monday, July 16, 2018. Materials are accepted only via online submission. 

To learn more about submission materials and the details of the residency, visit The O'Neil's website. 

Puppets Take Over The Big Apple: UNIMA-USA at the International Puppet Fringe Festival

The Big Apple will host the 1st International Puppet Fringe Festival (IPFFNYC) August 9-12 at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center on the Lower East Side. The festival will feature performances, exhibits, and symposiums. Ticket and VIP access passes are on sale now. For more information, please visit www.puppetfringenyc.com or call 212 529-1545 for more information! 

Festival Producer Manuel Moran, who served as President of UNIMA-USA in 2016 and 2017 and who continues to serve as a Vice President of UNIMA International, is the moving force behind the event that adds to the puppet "must-do" calendar for summer of 2018  (along with the Puppeteers of America regional festivals: Pacific Northwest in Calgary, Alberta June 1-3 and Southeast Regional in Asheville, NC June 28-July 1). This  IPFFNYC offering is planned to create an ongoing tradition and, for those spending summer in the city (or traveling to join), this event promises to beat the heat with puppetry. 

UNIMA-USA will be holding its annual Membership meeting (and streaming it live on our Facebook) at the venue on Friday, August 10 at 4pm (more information will be forthcoming). At noon on Saturday, August 11 (see final schedule), Members of the current UNIMA-USA Board will be presenting a panel discussing how puppetry and UNIMA-USA linkages can open a world of art, friendship, and collaboration. Karen Smith will discuss the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts (WEPA) showing how it can alert you to the who, what, why, and where of puppets in places you might be heading. Kurt Hunter (Concordia University) will note how recent participation in UNIMA Festivals in France and Germany has fed his performance and teaching. Steven Kaplin (Chinese Theatre Works) will talk about going global with China. Kathy Foley (UC-Santa Cruz) will present on possibilities for learning and collaborating in Indonesia looking toward the 2020 Bali UNIMA World Puppetry Festival.  Colette Searls (UM-Baltimore County) will present on training she did in Brussels and how it has impacted her creative work. We invite you all to join!

Moran's Teatro SEA will present their award-winning and recently remounted/rebuilt  production, Sueño: A Latino take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, free for the community with its 25 actors, singers, dancers, and puppeteers. Teatro SEA’s “Latinized” version of this theatrical classic aims to spark interest in young and underserved audiences that do not ordinarily have the opportunity to see Shakespeare’s work. With 65 carnival puppets, stilt walkers, and masks including “Vejigantes and Cabezudos” (folkloric characters from Puerto Rico, used in festival celebrations), this production extends the presentations of Shakespeare’s work in Latin America (which dates back to the 1800s). It will allow Americans to see an adapted Latino version of the master’s play. The Clemente, Teatro Latea, and UNIMA’s Three Americas commission are venue partners.  .

Share UNIMA-USA with Your Network!

Everyone has a website these days. Whether it’s a personal website, a company website, or a blog, all websites provide a platform for connection. Since UNIMA-USA is all about connection—between puppeteers, scholars, fans, and audiences—we want to ask you to consider adding our logo and/or link to your website.

Sharing UNIMA-USA with your digital network offers exposure to help us remain strong as an organization. It also shows that you are a vital member in a global community of like-minded individuals; that you strive to celebrate puppetry worldwide, all the time.

You can share your favorite part of what makes UNIMA-USA special. Share a link to our Puppetry Yellow Pages resource guide, where your company is listed; to our Puppetry Calendar, where a festival you’re performing in is scheduled; to information about the UNIMA-USA Scholarship to study abroad; to your favorite issue in our Puppetry International index; and to the Citations of Excellence page, simply because you want to share the best in puppetry!

Below is a logo you can display on your website, along with a brief description of UNIMA-USA you can copy and paste if you wish. Help us connect with your network. We’ll keep celebrating puppetry worldwide!

“UNIMA-USA is the United States branch of Union Internationale de la Marionnette, the international puppetry organization. Founded in 1966 with Jim Henson serving as its first chairman, UNIMA-USA works to promote international understanding and friendship through the art of puppetry.”

Western New York Town is Unlikely Home to the Launch the First New York State Puppet Festival

The story of upstate New York rural towns is a common one:  shuttered factories, missing millennials, and empty storefronts. Perry, situated roughly halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, changed this script when an influx of performing artists, dancers, and visual artists moved to town and started working there.

One of these new artists chose Perry to host the first New York State Puppet Festival (NYSPF, June 14-24, 2018), a festival bringing world-renowned artists to perform, exhibit, and discuss puppetry with the public. This is the first time that this type of festival has been produced in upstate New York.

Theatre artist Josh Rice is starting the NYSPF. Josh grew up in Perry and left after he graduated from high school to pursue theatre in college. At that time, in the early 2000s, there were not many job prospects back home for him.

“Growing up I didn’t know what theatre was. After seeing comedy improv at SUNY Brockport, and getting a chance to intern at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and to really see the possibilities in theatre, it changed my life,” says Josh. “Then, theatre became my life. To be able to bring theatre back to my community, and, maybe, to other kids like me—who don’t know what is out there in the world until you are exposed to it—that feels like I’m contributing to something greater.”

Photo Credit: NYSPF Sanbaso with Koryu Nishikawa V - Ayumi Sakamoto

The artists participating in the NYSPF have made significant contributions to the puppetry field and are traveling from throughout the world to attend. Josh has worked with many of the artists featured in the festival, including Dan Hurlin, Koryu Nishikawa V, and Tom Lee, fulfilling his dream to bring his colleagues to present their work in his hometown.

New York State Puppet Festival Artists include:

·         Dan Hurlin, Winner of the Rome Prize & Alpert Award in Theatre, a Guggenheim Fellow, and Director of the Graduate Theatre Program at Sarah Lawrence College in an exhibits of his works

·         Koryu Nishikawa V, Japanese National Cultural Treasure and fifth-generation headmaster of Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Theatre Company

·         Concrete Temple Theatre presenting the internationally-acclaimed family show Gepetto: Extraordinary Extremities

·         Tom Lee & Lisa Gonzales premiering their dance/puppetry hybrid piece, Place (No Place). Tom Lee will also present a shadow puppet piece for children, Tomte

·         Sam Jay Gold presenting his new Czech-marionette and Balinese shadow puppetry-inspired piece, Untold Stories from the War with the Newts

·         Josh Rice presenting his original puppet piece, The Marooned

·         Hamida Khatri, a Pakistani-born puppeteer and visual artist, teaching puppetry workshops based on her social justice program, Project KALI

The Wyoming County Rural Arts Initiative, a policy initiative from the Wyoming County Industrial Development Agency, Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, and Arts Council for Wyoming County, also helped bring in an influx of artists.

Josh was a recipient of a grant from this program, which offered funding to artists to start arts-based businesses in the community. He started his own storefront theatre, Theatre@37, on Main Street Perry, which will be the main performance venue for the New York State Puppet Festival. His neighbors include the Genesee Dance Theatre, a pre-professional dance company, the Arts Council for Wyoming County, and several visual artists who have studios in a former department store building.

Jackie Hoyt, the Executive Director of the Arts Council for Wyoming County says “The impact of arts projects like the New York State Puppet Festival on communities like ours is profound. We now can say that our communities can see works of art never seen before in the entirety of the state, right here in our communities.”

For more information about the New York State Puppet Festival, please visit www.newyorkstatepuppetfestival.org. Tickets, festival ticket packages, and a schedule of events will be announced on the website in May 2018. If you have any questions on tickets, please email nyspuppetfestival@gmail.com.

The program is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Arts Council for Wyoming County. The Perry Main Street Association served as the fiscal sponsor for the NYSPF.

Observations of a School Performer

By Drew Allison of Grey Seal Puppets 

As a puppeteer who does a lot of performances in schools, I’ve noticed distinct changes over the last ten years in the atmosphere associated with elementary school audiences. 

There are the obvious, disturbing, new-normal practices of background checks, fingerprinting, driver’s license name tag stickers, and being buzzed into the office. 

But I’ve also noticed less perceptible changes as well. 

Drew Allison. Photo by Debbie Page. 

This is a quirky one, but a certain one. School assemblies are less of a “happening” now than in the past. There are many attributable reasons for this, but the fact remains that often the office front line has no idea I’m coming, custodians rarely set up chairs for teachers, teachers often don’t open associated Study Guides and the obligatory pre-show fly-by from a school administrator is often a super brief, out-of-breath handshake as they hurry on to the next task that they’re late for in their overstuffed days. 

Teachers have traded in the practice of sometimes grading papers during a performance to sometimes being on their phones or other devices. I understand the pressure and duress teachers are under. However, our performances are often the first real theatre experience that students are a part of. As an adult, being on a device is not the right theatre etiquette message to send to your students. 

There have been changes in the students themselves as well. Most noticeably for me is the practice of verbalizing what they are seeing.  Often, I’ll find points in a performance that in the past were quiet, listening moments have now morphed into the audience murmuring scene descriptions with unrestricted glee. A product of being flooded by so much visual content coming from a device in their hands, maybe? I’m not sure.

On a more positive note, students’ perception and understanding of stories and theatre techniques has sharpened.  Younger students have a comprehension and attention now that I did not see in the past. 

Sometimes I stand onstage and look out at the faces of my audience and wonder if they wonder if they’re going to be attacked today, if they’re going to be shot today. I wonder if they wonder if I’m going to attack them. These are thoughts I never imagined having. 

These are just a handful of the changes I have seen. But perhaps these can be a catalyst for discussion. If you perform in schools, have you seen similar things? Different ones? Or am I off-base with these observations? 

Watch the 2018 UNIMA Council Meeting Online!

Starting Sunday, May 13, the 2018 UNIMA Council Meeting begins in Bochum, Germany at the 60th FIDENA Festival. For the first time ever, you can follow the Council Meeting live on the UNIMA Internationale Facebook.

Materials for the meetings, including agenda, reports, motions, and more, are located here on the UNIMA website. Council Meeting activities will take place Monday, May 13 to Wednesday, May 16. Wary of the time difference? The live broadcasts should remain on UNIMA's Facebook to watch at your leisure (and in your time zone)!

Thanks to UNIMA for offering this exciting look into the international workings of our organization!

Puppetry International Wherever You Want It

Starting here: Starting now! As an added benefit of your UNIMA-USA Membership, you can now access the current issue of Puppetry International on your phone, tablet or other connected device. Just go to the Current Member Portal on our website and enter the annual password.

Members, be sure to check your email for the current portal password. 

At last! You can leave your printed magazine on the nightstand, or stored in your Acme Safe in pristine condition, and still have all those pithy articles with you on your Uber ride, in the café, or backstage at the next Puppet Slam. As long as there’s WiFi, PI is there!

A big thank you to Editors Andrew and Bonnie Periale, Webmaster Donald Devet, Ads Liaison Honey Goodenough, and Publications Committee Chair Kurt Hunter (along with the rest of the UNIMA-USA staff and Board of Directors) for making Membership in UNIMA-USA more valuable than ever.

Bonnie Duncan from The Gottabees on Performing in Izmir, Turkey

Bonnie and Squirrel being mobbed by fans after a performance. 

I’ve just returned from Izmir, Turkey where I performed Squirrel Stole My Underpants at the 12th Annual Izmir Kukla Günleri – Izmir International Puppet Days.  During the 18 days of the festival, 50 companies from 26 countries performed all over the city – at theaters, art centers, schools, shopping malls, refugee charities, and even on sidewalks.

I performed Squirrel four times (with lights and sound run by my husband, Dan, who also directed the show) – twice for families who brought their children, and twice for hundreds of wonderfully raucous school groups who came by bus to the theater. After each show, I was mobbed by fans wanting to meet Squirrel.  I felt like I was at home – sharing my own giddy, absurd delight in the world with both children and adults. 

Each evening, we’d return to the hotel for “Puppet Dinner Time.” Although this irresistibly conjured up images of tiny little tables with tiny little place settings, it was in fact a very simple concept: feed the guest artists at the hotel at the same time each day.  This one simple act opened our adventure up in wonderful ways.

We met puppeteers from the UK, Iceland, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, India, and Italy.  We all shared tips on what to do, how to travel within the city, and how to get ourselves outside of it.  We organized evenings out.  We talked about contemporary puppet theater and our own approach to puppetry.  We talked about what is happening in the world and in our own lives. 

It’s where we connected, communicating in multiple languages, with hugs and laughter and depth. Our conversations flowed both easily and with some jolts, ranging from: puppeteers we admire; EU and US politics; family dynamics and experiences; corporate ownership of beloved stories and music; experiences touring to Iran, Japan, Palestine, and elsewhere; how we all struggle to make a living and define success; how our shows or workshops went each day.

I will admit that I was afraid of this trip – the US news is very quick to frighten us.  I looked to others who have traveled to this festival and to Turkey in the last year for thoughtful insight and a boost of confidence.  I am so glad I did.  

UNIMA-USA’s mission statement is to promote international understanding and friendship through the art of puppetry.  In keeping with that mission, I want to encourage us all to seek out opportunities to perform outside of the US.  I want to encourage us all to meet puppeteers from around the world and bring them to share their work in the US. 

Let’s share our love of puppet theater.  Let’s work harder to soften the borders that feel as though they might close us off to the world out of fear. 

We are the perfect representatives of the US – we work hard and we do what we love. We try to make sense of the world using common materials transformed into exquisite moments and stories.  We share the stuff of life together with a community of people we don’t know when the theater lights dim, but with whom we are connected by the end of the performance.

- Bonnie Duncan, The Gottabees

Bonnie AND Dan with the many puppeteers they met in Izmir.  

Announcing the North American Tour of The Puppet Master: The Complete Jiri Trnka

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Comeback Company announce The Puppet Master: The Complete Jiri Trnka, the first complete U.S. retrospective of the works of Czech animation master Jiri Trnka (1912-1969), April 20-25. Learn more at filmlinc.org.
 
Revered as the pioneer of a remarkable new genre of animation that utilized puppets, Trnka conveyed the drama and psychology of his characters through his figures’ body language, expressive lighting, and camera movement. The director’s approach to puppet film as a serious art form was borne out of the lively Czech puppet theater tradition, which helped preserve the language over centuries of Hapsburg rule when there were no Czech schools, theater, or books published in the language. Already a prolific artist, author, and beloved book illustrator in his country, Trnka made films that had enormous impact on the development of Czech animation, and he inspired the careers of generations of filmmakers and animators around the globe. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream, courtesy Czech National Film Archive 

Trnka’s body of work as a director—18 short and six feature-length animated films in total—was rivaled only by Walt Disney Studios in output and brought him international acclaim, from Cannes to Venice and beyond. With his puppet animation studio, founded in 1946, he helped lay the groundwork for Czech animation predominance alongside stop-motion animation masters Karel Zeman, Hermina Tyrlova, Jan Svankmajer, and Jiri Barta. 

This essential series will present all 24 of the artist’s films, including 11 newly translated works and the U.S. premieres of two new digital restorations: Trnka’s Venice Film Festival prize-winning first feature The Czech Year and Old Czech Legends, a breathtaking collection of Bohemian myths. The lineup also features Trnka’s Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night’s Dream, narrated by Richard Burton; his subversive, absurdist, anti-authoritarian trilogy The Good Soldier Svejk; and three distinct shorts programs featuring the filmmaker’s unique early work in hand-drawn cartoons (including Cannes Film Festival prize-winning The Animals and the Brigands), his magical family-friendly works, and his later, more formally and politically defiant films (featuring his final masterpiece, The Hand, about the plight of artists toiling under the restrictions of a totalitarian government). Also included is a two-program sidebar dedicated to Jiri Brdecka, a screenwriter and animation director whose close friendship with Trnka occasioned a number of short- and feature-film collaborations. 

After originating at the Film Society in April, the series will continue on in variations to tour North America. Trnka’s films will screen at the American Cinematheque (Los Angeles, CA), George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY), Cleveland Cinematheque/CIA (Cleveland, OH), Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge, MA), Lightbox Film Center (Philadelphia, PA), The Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago, IL), The Cinematheque (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Cornell Cinema (Ithaca, NY), Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY), and more to be announced. 

The touring retrospective is produced by Comeback Company, with support from the Czech Film Fund. Organized by Irena Kovarova with Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson. Films provided by the Czech National Film Archive. 

Tickets go on sale April 6 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+); $8 for kids under 12; and $10 for Film Society members. See more and save with the 3+ film discount package or All-Access Pass. Learn more at filmlinc.org.

Acknowledgments:
Alex Zucker; Martina Raclavska; Marketa Santrochova, Czech Film Center; Michal Bregant, Katerina Fojtova, Tomas Zurek, Michaela Mertova, Czech National Film Archive. Special thanks to the Czech Center New York.

Open Call to Young Writers- Send Your Puppet Theater Scripts to UNIMA

Deadline: April 15, 2018

2019 marks the 90th Anniversary of the creation of UNIMA. To honour this date, UNIMA is holding an open competition for young writers aged 18-35 interested in authoring a script or concept for puppet theater. The script will be performed as part of the UNIMA 90th Anniversary celebrations.

Photo courtesy of https://writix.co.uk/blog/narrative-papers

UNIMA is in search of a special script/concept for the puppet theater. This creation will be workshopped into four distinct productions that will be performed in four separate geographical regions of the world: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.

Authors are asked to use as theme, subject matter, point of departure, or inspiration for their work the values that UNIMA has sought to uphold throughout its almost 90-year-long history: namely, international friendship and a spirit of openness and cooperation across borders, social, cultural and religious affiliations or partisan beliefs.

The foundation of UNIMA in 1929 took place a decade after the devastations of World War I in a spirit of reconstruction between a Frenchman, Paul Jeanne, and a Czech, Jindřich Veselý. Twenty-eight years later, in 1957, and again in Prague, the first post-World War II UNIMA Congress elected its Presidium (now known as the UNIMA Executive Committee). The German-born Max Jacob was appointed UNIMA’s president and his two vice presidents were the Soviet, Sergei Obraztsov (a former combatant in the war) and the Italian, Vittorio Podrecca (an anti-fascist). The Frenchman, Jean-Loup Temporal, who also fought in the war, would also become a member of the executive branch of UNIMA along with other committed international members of the organization.

These foundational moments in UNIMA’s history are open to your individual interpretation. The stories and themes they evoke can be adapted to any period and to any historical or fictional characters. Keep in mind as you conceive your play/concept that we also wish to promote both UNIMA’s core values as well as the puppetry arts.

The selected author will receive an award of 2,000 euros.

The awardee will also have the opportunity to have his/her script or concept performed, as described above, forming the basis for four productions that will be presented in an international network.

More information can be found here. 

Call for Entry: International Puppets Festival in Lugano, Switzerland

Interested in performing in Switzerland? The International Puppets Festival in Lugano is from October 13th - November 4th, 2018. 

The festival organizers are looking for children or family shows with little to no dialogue, or with Italian dialogue. Send your applications in to festival@palco.ch by April 30th!

Click here to learn more about the festival. 

The Jim Henson Foundation Collection of Puppet Theater at the New York Public Library, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive

"The Jim Henson Foundation Collection of Puppet Theater is located at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theater on Film and Tape Archive.  The collection has over 70 performances from the 1992, 1994, 1996 & 1998 International Festival of Puppet Theater."

You can see what this exciting collection holds on The Jim Henson Foundation website, as well as a step-by-step guide on how to view the collection. 

Call for Proposals: Micro-Festival of Unfinished Puppetry

Deadline for proposal: April 1st, 2018. Click here to learn more about the festival!

The 11th edition of the Micro-Festival of Unfinished Puppetry, organised by Les Sages Fous,
will be held from 20th to 27th of October 2018.

If you have an unfinished puppet project that needs to confront an audience, we would be delighted to know more.

Types of projects that can participate:
 
- An unfinished theatrical form, lasting 2 to 30 minutes, using puppet or object theatre

- An exhibition or installation project which revolves around the object or the puppet

-  A short film still in development using puppet, object, or stop-motion.

- Unusual proposals are also welcome!

Please send your projects to this address:
contact us by email: info@sagesfous.com
or by mail to:  LES SAGES FOUS, 
80, Saint-François-Xavier, Trois-Rivières, QC, G9A 0A6

 

Nottingham Puppet Festival, March 22-25 2018,

A first for Nottingham, the Puppet Festival is a celebration of the artistry of puppets and puppetry along with the communities that inspire the stories they tell. The Festival has been put together through a partnership between Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham, City Arts and Nottingham Trent University and made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England and additional support from Nottingham City Council, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature and Midlands3Cities.

Local, national and international artists, both upcoming and old-hands, will be bringing their talents and demonstrating their skills at locations across the city including the National Videogames Arcade, Nottingham Lakeside Arts, Broadway Cinema, Dance4 and the Malt Cross Caves as well as the partner venues.

The mix of shows includes the multi award-winning National Theatre production of War Horse, late-night puppet cabaret, political satire, as well as the retelling of classic stories, and family fun which includes imagined trips into space, a talking mushroom and a menagerie of cardboard animals. The performances will run together with talks and workshops for both aspiring puppeteers and professional practitioners. Jamie Anderson, son of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson and Spitting Image’s Pete Sinclair, Philip Pope and Steve Nallon - the voice of Mrs Thatcher - will be amongst those talking about the artform of puppetry and the many different roles it has to play.

As well as bookable events, there will be lots of free events including Pinocchio Puppet-Making workshops, drop-in talks and a host of sights, sounds and fun at the Pop-Up Puppet Village which will make its home in the Old Market Square from the Friday to Sunday of the Festival, and the closing spectacle of the puppet parade.

The full programme, Festival information and booking for tickets can be found here, where there is also a sign-up to the e-newsletter

Apply for the 2019 Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes!

The 2019 registration form is now open. Click here to learn more! 

Call for participation at the 58th International Children's Festival in Šibenik, Croatia

Want to perform at the 58th ICF in Croatia? Click here to learn more about this international festival and the application process! The festival lasts from June 16th- 30th, 2018. Applications are due February 1st, 2018. 

“The first festival was held in 1958, the result of the initiative and efforts of several children arts enthusiast. During the years Festival has turned into a big complex multidisciplinary multimedial cultural event, which not only displays but invites participation actively. It is a review of the best works for children as well as of the best works by children.
The basic cultural and pedagogical justification of the festival is that it promotes aesthetical education of children and young adults, and develops all artistic forms of children creativity. The festival not only initiates but also stimulates many ideas in art forms for children and by children: dramatic and music arts, puppetry, film, literature and visual art. The festival has the full support of UNICEF and UNESCO and continuing patronage of the Croatian President.”

— Ivana Badzim, Festival Manager

Sesame Workshop & International Rescue Committee Awarded $100 Million for Early Childhood Education of Syrian Refugees

Exciting news! Sesame Workshop has partnered with the International Rescue Committee to receive the first-ever 100&Change grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Their project will implement evidence-based, early childhood development intervention designed to address the “toxic stress” experienced by children in the Syrian response region—Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. The project will improve children’s learning outcomes today and their intellectual and emotional development over the long term.

You can learn more about the grant and the project here.