Friday, September 25, 2009

Day 6 & 7







Photos: a lovely courtyard venue which reminded me of performing at Perigueux Mime Festival with my puppet Sunshine in 2006; a stilts/puppet street show; a one-person 'peep' show (very popular); the 'Annexe' venue which is the cool haunt, with cheap food, cheap/weird shows, several workshops, and couches to relax on; and finally an ice cream van.

On Weds Day 6 I saw a show I hated, and wanted to stand up at the end and shout 'where were the puppets!!??' instead of clap. Won't even name it, but was expensively-funded by the French government.

However a workshop by the Theatre of Puppets in Paris cheered me up, exploring moving a variety of puppets without worrying about how they looked- very liberating.

Saw various street shows (the good, the bad, and the amateur), but always the freedom to just walk away...

I went to 2 exhibitions: Edward Gordon Craig (look him up- only responsible for influencing Decroux mime, contemporary set and stage design, and challenging notions of actors as 'uber-puppets' of the director's will); and Jacques Chesnais (who seems to be the French marionette version of our own Richard Bradshaw), touring with his wife and troop through France, Germany, Romania, Turkey, Cameroon and Casablanca 1939-1963 (sorry Richard, I know you're not quite THAT old!

Day 7: Hand/object manipulation workshop with Swiss puppeteer/Festival circuit performer Anita Bertolami. It hurt. Both my hands and brain. Do I really have to do it every day??

However, two experiences of my personal puppetry joy: Frank Soehnle/Figuren Theater Tubingen's show 'salto.lamento', and Duda Paiva's 'Malediction'. Depth of imagery, exquisite manipulation, unexpected humour, dark moods, puppet/puppeteer interaction, and perfect comic timing. Oh to be 100th as good!

Now, I just want to dream of what could be... inspired as I am right now :o)

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