A big thank you to our 2009 scholarship recipients for lettiing the staff work them during breaks and for writing such wonderful reviews that the webmaster took forever to upload (sorry about that).

Now let's hear what our scholarship recipients had to say about PuppetFest MidWest 2009...

My name is Matthew

Well, now that I have been to my first (and probably not the last) PuppetFest Midwest, a significant experience has been contributed to my young life. I am so thankful that, because of your scholarship, I was able to come and join in your world; the realm of puppeteers. At the risk of sounding melodramatic I can say with sincerity that this experience has assisted in my career decision. By experience one can determine one’s likes and dislikes, interests and non-interests, thank you puppeteers for helping me find more of these.

I found several aspects of the Festival particularly compelling. One of the first facts I appreciated about the Festival, was that Peter and Debbie wish to keep it small. That is the way this one should stay. I was also impressed at the assembled talent in the evening performances. Although not all of the same caliber, it was intriguing and educational to watch the variety of shows put on by different individuals.

I found everyone at the festival to be very welcoming and friendly, sincerely interested in me and becoming acquainted with me. The Festival atmosphere was very different from what I expected despite my having looked over the schedule and the details of what to anticipate multiple times. There was much more conversing among friends than I had expected. Overall I think a good balance and pace was struck between all the workshops, performances and meals. It was a very pleasant surprise; Debbie’s joke at the Festival opening about the week being more like a dinner party with puppets was correct. More research and exploration is definitely required on my part even with the reading I did before coming. However, as I have learned with other arts, experiencing it and the people involved with creating it directly, is irreplaceable.

Nick was a great teacher, wanting each of us to take home a puppet that we were satisfied with. He kept the process moving quickly as to have time to add extra features that lent each of our creations more character. Nick was quick to share with us the tricks and techniques he had learned and developed over the years.

Those of us with little experience with this sort of construction process did not have any difficulty under Nick’s guidance. Nick obviously enjoys what he does and has a wealth of knowledge and a talent for sharing what he knows. As my fellow students and I prepared for Show and Tell several of us were feeling quite nervous about appearing onstage. To help remedy this, Nick took us on a field trip of sorts to visit the other workshops and see what they were working on. (This served as a distraction, somehow knowing everyone else would also take a turn onstage and the decision that the four of us would go together made all of us feel more at ease.)

From Nick’s explanation of how he arrived at the particular size and shape of his puppet patterns, I can say with confidence that in the future I can recreate them for whatever application that I need. I had never worked with foam before but now that I have, I am anxious to explore this material’s potential with new ideas.

I am very excited about the vast opportunities I now see available to me with this experience and knowledge of puppet construction. I was told by some of my new friends at the Festival that I would never look at some things in the some way ever again, viewing everything as future puppet building material. Fabric, foam, and a variety of other materials are now evaluated for their puppet potentials. Prior to attending I was already a terrible packrat and now I have the perfectly legitimate excuse to collect materials I would have passed on before. Ah well, new skills and friends are certainly worth one bad habit.

I hope that puppetry shall be a lifelong craft, practicing it not only for myself, but for the enjoyment and teaching of others in the future. I am very grateful that the scholarship committee chose my application out of all those they must have received. They chose me; some crazy blacksmith that they had never met or heard of before, to come and join in on the fun, the adventurous art of puppetry.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Matthew Burnett

Trenton: A Foam-iliar Place
by Benjamin R. Peterson

Answer me this: What do you get when you cross: feedings every two hours, a small town in northern Missouri, a theatre in a library with more names than Liz Taylor had husbands, a Wild Onion, a group of artists/performers willing to share their craft, and a flock of eager students ready for workshops, mingling, and last but not least...evening puppet shows?

Don't give up; you can solve the riddle. I have faith in you. What did you say? Ok, Ok, do I have to go in and pull out the wrong answers just like the vet that pulled animals out in “Bark, George?” I do not want to do that, so I'll just tell you. PuppetFest Midwest! That's the answer.

I'm supposed to write a 500 word description of my experience at PuppetFest Midwest, so here goes...
1. Awesome
2. Cool
3. Educational
4. Extraordinary
5. Brilliant... need I get out the thesaurus?

Although the words I list are the truth, I wrote that bit only for the laugh. Did I get one? Nod your head.

I became interested in puppetry as a hobby (so far) a little more than a year ago. I did some research and got pointed in the direction of the Twin Cities Puppeteers Guild. As I kept exploring and wanting more education, I looked for gatherings of other puppeteers, otherwise known as festivals. Since I couldn't afford the national festival in Atlanta, I asked my guild president if there were any other festivals closer to home (Minnesota). His answer led me on the path to Trenton, Missouri, where PuppetFest Midwest is held. As far as this festival goes, I believe it to be a crown jewel of puppet festivals with the casual atmosphere, the great shows, the focused workshops. This festival was my first; I am no longer a puppetry festival virgin.

The experience started with a six hour car ride. It was nothing compared to some participants, coming from places such as Arkansas, California, Connecticut, and even Hawaii and South Africa—though I am pretty sure they didn't drive, unless they were beamed in by Scottie. I carpooled half of the trip, which meant the “shop talk” started before the actual event; it continued throughout the event with new faces, old faces, or with PuppetHub.com friends seen non-digitally; conversations included show ideas, comments, opinions, hints, tips, questions, answers, current projects and such. Shop talk surged as the gallery opened for a wonderful display (curated by none other than Phil Huber—great job!) of puppets performed by festival goers, or built by festival goers, some of both persuasions, and some just needing to see the light of day after being stored in someone’s collection. Even if you were not directly in a conversation, simply walking around provided a variety of information to be soaked in. Throughout the day, I kept getting the feeling of a family reunion; or maybe rather meeting your family for the first time.

I now consider the people I met my extended puppeteer family in the sense that I can share memories of the nine-second (as timed by the Peter Allen Timing Association) collapsible stage of Nick Barone, or the Pix Smith clock, Cherries Jubilee night in the cafeteria, the commode key, the “Drew Allison: Live Puppeteer” exhibit and its magical power to relieve the town of Trenton of its supply of M&M's, and who could forget how wonderful the Wild Onion food was to wrap up each night.

As for the workshops, I learned ways of: focusing hand puppets’ eyes; cheating when a lip-sync would otherwise require movement that of a polygraph needle with a habitual liar attached to it; I learned a great deal about which adhesives work best for certain materials, and some handy sewing stitches that I will definitely use.

The overall experience gave me new tools to develop ideas and make them become puppet reality. Unless my glasses are crooked like Bo Peep's, I see that the abundant advice, the shows – examples of what can be done – and great new connections will all aid in my growth as a newbie in the art of puppeteering. Thank you PuppetFest Midwest for setting such a great example.

 

Review for Puppet fest Midwest
8/16/2009

“As noble Art has survived noble nature, so too she marches ahead of it, fashioning and awakening by her inspiration. Before Truth sends her triumphant light into the depths of the heart, imagination catches its rays, and the peaks of humanity will be glowing when humid night still lingers in the valleys.”

Johann Friedrich Von Schiller 1759-1805, German Dramatist, Poet, Historian.
“Snore”, Kareth Bodman Moore 1953-?

“Snore” is not a word that describes any of the company or events of Puppetfest Midwest in my opinion. Snore only comes into the picture after a full day and evening brimful of high-spirited participation. In other words I enjoyed every minute of the 120 hours spent at the festival.

Myself, husband George, & Katy, his service dog made a mini-vacation of our trip to Trenton on our drive up from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our first stop was the fort at Ft. Scott, Kansas. (Well, you might call that a ‘snore’) The next stop was a field trip to the Puppetry Arts Institute, in Independence, Missouri. This proved a wonderful prelude to the week at Puppetfest. Executive Director, Nancy Clark lead us a personal tour of PAI’s facility and introduced us to the inhabitants, collected across the globe, from many times and cultures. At Puppetfest check-in, we found we were two of the lucky ones who had a microwave and a blanket, albeit of the light-weight nature, in our suite. I remedied the weight by returning to our truck and pulling out a quilt we’d had in the rear seat for snow and ice season (Procrastination does pay off, eventually!) Then we were off to the reception to meet our fellow festival goers. Several old friends and lots of new friends-to-be gathered and chatted until dinner was served, then off to the Jewett Norris Library’s Hoover Theater for our first evening’s entertainment and demonstrations. Paul Mesner and Mike Horner presented a short piece, “Daddy Mountain,” in table-top style puppetry. Jules Feiffer‘s “Daddy Mountain” is about a precocious little girl scaling from her daddy’s feet to his shoulders as if he were a mountain. When one of the little girl’s legs began to act independently Paul ad-libbed through the malfunction hilariously, adapting to the puppet’s action by giving the little girl a leg-cramp, folding the mishap into the show by massaging it smoothly into the program.

Paul and Mike segued right into another Jules Feiffer story, my favorite: “Bark George.” George is a ravenous puppy who eats nearly anything that piques his puppyosity. The introduction was excellent, how better to portray an exuberant puppy than practically bring down the stage around his ears?

Wednesday morning after breakfast I was off to class: Rod Puppets with Paul Mesner. Van Tran, another scholarship student, saw me struggling with my 40 pound sewing machine outside Geyer Hall and volunteered her youthful strength to assist me to the second floor agricultural room that was soon to become a real barnyard. Professor Paul and students got so involved immediately that we all forgot to take our coffee break. (This is a sign of good things happening). What a roomful of engaging and ingenious people! By the end of the week we had birthed chickens, cows, worms, and assorted other farm creatures. I bet that agriculture class room had never seen such a concentration of creativity. Old MacDonald would have been proud.

Back at Hoover Theater that evening, we were treated to the Nick Barone Puppets’ “Puss ‘n Boots.” The introduction of the “scary” Ogre was a very thoughtful application of ‘child skills’ on Nick’s part. The after-the-show tour of his awe-inspiring stage was great. After a short trip to the Wild Onion and a refreshing Mike’s Lemonade, we went back to the theater to see Nichols & Wolf’s lively romp, “Little Bo Peep” and her naughty sheep presented by Once Upon a Puppet. All the Open Space performances were memorable.

Thursday was group photo day; in the afternoon we were delighted by Eulenspiegel Puppets’ “Little red Riding Hood,” and Pam Corcoran’s “The Special Guest.” The evening performance was by Nappy’s Puppets: “Christmas In July.” Nappy is a master of shadow puppetry, and his interpretation of the story is great fun. After the performance, there was one of the wildest question and answer periods I have ever heard involving a lost hat and a lost key. Question-and-Answer periods can be a real snore, but not with these wild-witted characters! Friday included a field trip to the local thrift store. I found plenty of treasure, but my purchase of a bucket for my cow puppet was an udder loss. Our ‘lunch with the teacher’ was very tasty. I try to avoid anything fried but, weakened by peer pressure; I ordered the fried chicken special. Oh, my, toothsome indeed! Afterwards, it was back to work, rehearsing our Show and Tell pieces. Then, on to the Hoover for my week’s highlight.

As I stated much earlier, (Oh, she does go on!) this week’s prelude was at the Puppetry Arts Institute. Displayed there is a “History of Punch and Judy,” a beautiful collection of Punch stages, props, paraphernalia and puppets. I had never seen a real Punch and Judy before. Only have I watched snippets of performances on television or observed photographs in historical collections and coffee-table books. For myself, time was about to stand still.

“Pulcinella”, with Paul Mesner was pure magic. Only once before have I have seen such a visceral performance of any type. The action, sound, and rhythm of this mesmerizing performance drew me in like a trance. The only time the trance was broken is when someone in the audience reacted negatively to Pulcinella’s violence and Paul’s own voice reassured us by saying quietly, “It’s only a puppet!” I could go on and on, but my first reaction is my truest; HOLY SMOKES! I have witnessed the art, tradition and history of storytelling and puppet theater at its finest. Thank you, Paul Mesner.

Later, Friday evening Puppet Art Theater performed “The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, Art Grunenberger’s delightfully retold tale, with a modern twist with lots of audience participation.

Saturday morning was last-minute rehearsal for show-and-tell. After a quick lunch, I picked up our puppets from the Dorris Rider Gallery exhibit. I returned to the raffle room where I volunteered. Mary Susan wandered in, and we had a “spirited” conversation while watching over the contents up for raffle.

Saturday evening our aspiring young chef; George Moore, put on his own show for Puppetfest diners with flaming Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee for desert. What fun, what a ham, what camaraderie? The evening’s performance was “The Emperor’s New Clothes” with the Grey Seal puppets. Drew Allison is so talented the giggles and laughter never stopped the entire show.

Sunday morning the raffle was fast, furious, and fun. Then we were on our way home with box/bag lunches from the Wild Onion. Lessons were learned, great experiences were had, ideas abounded and new friendships formed. I would like to end, (it’s about time), with a quote: “You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

Jim Rohn, American Businessman, Author, Speaker, Philosopher. A huge thank you to Debbie Lutzky Allen and Peter Allen and their most excellent festival staff. And lest we forget: Mary Susan has a cat at home!

Kareth Bodman
Garage Door Players, Tulsa, Oklahoma
July, 2009