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The Rumpelstiltskin Society |
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The Rumpelstiltskin Society |
2010 Scholarship recipient Stan Gulick had this to say about PuppetFest Midwest 2010:
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Trenton Missouri is not the first or even the second place that comes to mind, when I start thinking of going on a vacation. However, if vacations were judged by the fun you had, the people you met, and the things you did, then the time I spent in Trenton was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had.
The people I met, who were attending the festival were great. They were all friendly and very talented. My roommate is a good example. Dan is a puppeteer from the Phoenix Arizona area. He travels with some of the biggest entertainers in the industry; Dolly Parton, May West, Elvis and a very talented monkey. These are all beautiful marionettes that he built himself. Dan spent a lot of his down time (not that there was much) loading music for other performers, for the late night shows.
Peter and Debbie Allen have done a great job of selecting the staff members. While the staff are some of best puppeteers in the industry, they made me feel welcome, not as beginner but, as a fellow puppeteer. When you sat down for a meal, you never knew who would be sitting with you. But usually there was a staff member in the group. The conversations ranged from interesting, to informative, to very funny. All of the staff was very friendly, easy to access and informative.
Being part time a puppeteer for two years, but intending to do puppets fulltime, I was lucky enough to attend Nick Barrone’s workshop on building and manipulating talking mouth puppets. We not only learned how to build foam talking mouth puppets and practiced manipulation, but Nick shared his knowledge of being a professional puppeteer. We learned about lighting, sound, stages, and more. I have attended a Puppeteers of America, National Puppet Festival in Atlanta. I enjoyed it greatly and learned a lot, but I learned much more from the PuppetFest Midwest.
For my puppet, I chose to build an ogre using Nick’s basic pattern. According to Nick we were one of the faster classes at building these foam puppets. This gave us the opportunity to practice for the demonstrations we would be giving at the Hoover Theater. I gave an adaptation from my Little Red Riding Hood wolf monolog. My sense of humor seemed to go well with the crowd (which was a big relief considering who was in the audience). Our class had a lot of diversity and everyone contributed ideas and information.
The facilities at the college were very good. While the beds in the dorm room were typical, the food was not. It was excellent and plentiful. The food servers were friendly and talkative. They seemed to be having a lot of fun being around a bunch of unique people that make up the puppet community.
The Jeopardy game with Drew Allison as the host was hilarious! With so many talented people, it was fun to watch everyone let go and interact.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get better, there were the late nights at Pam’s place. The ambience at the late night starlit bar (Christmas lights) matched the people attending. It was really nice but a little quirky. The staff had taken a vacant store front and completely converted it to this delightful space. The late night performances, the conversations, the food and drinks, were a few of the highlights that made the PuppetFest Midwest 2010 so memorable. Oh, when the toilet started having problems at
Pam’s Place, the staff amazingly found a plumber at that time of the night (me).
The PuppetFest Midwest was a great experience and I plan on coming back next year. I really appreciate having the opportunity to attend through the scholarship program. Thank you!
P.S. Peter, thanks for the toothpaste!
Stan Gulick