Calling all performing artists, writers, drama teachers and puppeteers! Spark your imagination and learn new skills at the Puppet Power 2018: Story, Conference on Applied Puppetry. From script writing to puppet manipulation, there are over a dozen talks and hands-on workshops to choose from by presenters who have used puppetry to shape communities and challenge conventions.
Here are just a few to choose from:
Story Development in Puppet Theatre
Talk by Ann Powell and David Powell (Puppetmongers, Toronto)
Puppetmonger’s approach to story selection and story development into puppet theatre will be explored in this 90-min talk.
Acting by Proxy: An Intro to Persuasive Manipulation
Workshop by Andrew Periale (Editor of Unima USA’s Puppetry International, Perry Alley Theatre)A 3-hr workshop for anyone interested in improving their puppet manipulation skills or in the relationship between puppet and puppeteer.
Liminal Beings and Linking Objects: What is Nobbs Suzuki Praxis (NSP) and Story?
Workshop by Glenn Taylor and students from Sir Wilfred Laurier school (Calgary)
This 3-hr workshop explores how a physical theatre training method might apply in puppet theatre. Additionally, it demonstrates how embodied practice can be a tool to create STORY as a lived visceral experience.
Scripting for Visual Theatre, from Page to Stage
Talk by Ann Powell and David Powell (Puppetmongers, Toronto)
In this 3 hr hands-on workshop, participants will collaborate in small “production” groups to develop ideas or stories that they bring to the workshop, learning how to analyze and notate them as a storyboard script. Then participants will make simple paper puppets and any necessary props and set pieces with which to develop staging and movement.
How does it Work? The Cognition behind the Animacy Perception in Puppetry
Talk by Pia Banzhaf (Michigan State University)
Explore the biological prerequisite for animacy perception of puppetry from a theoretical perspective with practical examples in this 90-min talk.