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The Rumpelstiltskin Society |
2010 Scholarship recipient Marianne Mettes had this to say about PuppetFest Midwest 2010:
This is what PuppetFest Midwest was for me:
It was much more then inspiring. It was watching world class performances each night seeing the different styles of puppetry and watch the puppeteers at work in their element. It was being on an equal level with such artists which was both humbling and encouraging. It was picking the brains of so many other puppeteers and hearing stories and experiences from so many perspectives. It was the support network of 50 puppeteers who believed in you and laughed at all the right places. It was the friendships I made where age had no barriers and who Ixll keep in my heart forever. It was the immense laughter I shared, where your belly and your cheeks would never recover.
It was the 'something' that was missing from my life to make me feel complete. It was the longing for knowing there was something out there - but didn't quite know what it was. It was realising there are a group of amazing, loving, passionate people who had devoted their lives to puppetry.
This was something I could have never even start to imagine if I hadn't have experienced it first hand.
For my 'intensive workshop 'I took Randel McGee's ventriloquism class. On the first day of the workshop, I honestly have to say I felt a little overwhelmed - and we hadn't even picked up our puppet yet! I had no idea ventriloquism was so complicated! It's almost like learning a whole other language!
The most important thing I learnt in Randel's class was about the interaction you must make with your puppet, i.e. you are no longer one person - you are two and you have to think for two. We also spent time in developing our puppet characters, puppet performance techniques and professionalism, script writing and also just lots and lots of insight into Randel's 30 years of experience performing with his puppet Groark and the amazing support of his wife.
By the end of the festival, I had put a 3-4 min skit together to be performed with my puppet, Suzie the Dinosaur. Randel had mentored me with my performance techniques and gave me directions of how to be on-stage, polished my script writing and my interaction with Suzie and even helped me with my comedy skills. With some practice in class and in my downtimes between classes - I did start to feel a little confident at the end. Although I knew I still had so much to learn - I was confident with what I had achieved in order to pursue my new found skills on my own. I must say, it also greatly helped that we were all ‘ forced' to perform our little skits on-stage, in front of the entire festival for both the highly experienced and the total beginners like myself.
I have to say I was rather nervous, but to my surprise - everyone was laughing! And not laughing at me - but laughing at all my jokes in all the right places and loudly too! I couldn't believe it! I couldn't have been prouder.
The hardest part of the festival was leaving it. I felt like I had found my family, my people - but I already know I'll be back next year and I'm counting down the days!
Here are the individual posts about the festival:
http://mariannemettes.blogspot.com/2010/07/puppetfest-midwest-first-day-at.html
http://mariannemettes.blogspot.com/2010/07/puppetfest-midwest-overview-of-6-days.html
http://mariannemettes.blogspot.com/2010/07/lovely-little-town-called-trenton-in.html
http://mariannemettes.blogspot.com/2010/08/puppetfest-midwest-last-day-at-festival.html
http://mariannemettes.blogspot.com/2010/07/puppetfest-midwest-some-thoughts.html
Marianne Mettes