Meet the puppets of Citizen Puppet (round 2)...

This week I met with...

Terry Smith, Puppet Reverend...

The Reverend Terry lives for God and the Church. He likes nothing more than speaking to the congregation; his flock. He doesn't have any spare time as he is 100% committed to his earthly duty. He is always on the lookout for new ways to raise much needed funds for the Church and associated buildings. He hosts weekly bingo, special interest quizzes and a bimonthly 'it's a knockout' - style assault course on the village green, for which he provides running commentary on his megaphone. He also runs the scouts and girl guides. 

Howard Box-Grainger, Puppet Aristocrat...
Howard Box-Grainger is the eldest of three brothers born into a cheese making dynasty, which imported the mysteries of Gouda production to the English countryside over 300 years ago. At the age of seven, he attempted to use a family portrait by William Hogarth to hang-glide from the roof of the family house; the painting was slightly damaged but Howie has never quite been the same. Howie's sons and ex-wives have all long since moved abroad, so Howie takes comfort in the company of his dogs Boxer and Boxer. 

Daz Mayhew, Puppet Hippie...
Daz Mayhew has been a farmer since he was young but doesn't bother much with b*llocks like that because it's boring. It's the hands-on aspects of animal husbandry that interests him: pushing cows over when they're asleep, and putting mind-altering drugs in their feed because it makes them act funny. His facial hair is all his own work, from design to execution, and he is considering a career in that direction. He also enjoys cars and girls, especially when he's popped two of the blue ones. 

5 - 30 August, Pleasance Courtyard
https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/citizen-puppet#overview

Meet the puppets of Citizen Puppet...

I decided to find out more about the puppet characters that are going to be in Citizen Puppet in Edinburgh. 

The first 3 I met with are...

Tina Henderson, Puppet Granny...
Tina Henderson (nee Maclintock) was born in Moss Park, Scotland and resides in Paisley where she is a prominent Battleaxe in the community. Tina married Ian Henderson in 1974, after 6 months of courting. Tina was a receptionist at the Abbey Medical Centre for most of the 80s and is now retired. Tina's many community commitments include Honorary President of the Ladies Non-Playing Members Association of the Paisley Golf Club and Secretary of the Scotland Branch for the Lorraine Kelly International Fanclub. She plays Bingo regularly at the Clydebank Bingo hall. 

DI Clive, Puppet Police...
The village enforcer, Clive takes no prisoners. Well, technically he does. But when he takes them, he treats them like the criminals they are. He is a black belt in all forms of puppet martial arts. He is happy to strike a puppet breaking the law. At the station, he runs a traditional operation. Sexist. Racist. Smoking allowed. He is a great believer in the philosophy that in a crisis the first thing that must be dealt with is the traffic. On the rare occasion that he finds himself off duty, he likes to relax by playing along to Jethro Tull records on the flute. 

Suki Armstrong Chain, Puppet Girl...
Suki Armstrong Chan made her stage debut in title role "Jesus Christ Superstar" in her private all-girls day school in Massiville. She is studying to go on to major in Fine Arts somewhere, abroad hopefully, and has aspirations to be a sort of art activist. She is on her own quest to find out how art can affect real people. Mostly she wants to find herself and then figure out how the world really works. She has a very positive outlook for the future despite all of the war. 

In the next blog, more characters including Terry the vicar...

5-30 August, Pleasance Courtyard, 5pm

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/citizen-puppet#overview

#CitizenPuppet

We're supporting puppet company, Humanish, with their new show Holy Presents....

We've been supporting Puppet company, Humanish, to develop their show, Holy Presents, for China Plate's First Bite Festival. They've been in our rehearsal room over the last week, perfecting 20 minutes for this weekend's performance. We got the chance to see their last run through before they left for the festival, and would definitely recommend seeing it. 

First Bite Festival invites 10 regional theatre companies to showcase new materials and works in progress, with the chance to be commissioned as a full show later this year. 

If you would like to catch Holy Presents at the festival, head to the link below to find out more...

  Holy Presents

A puppet sketch comedy bringing the gift of joy with a peak at the ridiculous, hilarious and altogether normal Christmas Day in the household of the Holy Trinity!

Saturday 2nd May, 3.30pm

Midland's Arts Centre

Tickets: http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/first-bite-festival/

We have a new floor!

We would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who helped us raise £2,800 last year for our new workshop floor, office floor and kitchen. Whether it was through our online appeal, post show donations or regular donations - we couldn't have done this without you! This work has completely transformed our spaces and made our workshop usable for many years to come. Our makers were so eager to get back in, they even came in on Easter Monday!

BEFORE

AFTER

I take a look back over the last few weeks and recount the time it took to make our office and workshop more of a home for us and the puppets...

Thursday 26th Feb
It's time for the the office floor to go down! Puppeteer Ivan helps me relocate the whole office into our new space "Next Door", where we set up a temporary camp site office for the next week. 

Monday 2nd March - Tuesday 3rd March 
The floor goes in whilst Steph & I camp out in "Next Door" to work on preparations in the lead up to Citizen Puppet's opening night! 

Wednesday 4th March
The office floor is finished and looking lovely! Ivan and I move everything back in and spend most of the day trying to untangle a heap of computer cables. 


Thursday 26th March - Friday 27th March
Facing a much more demanding job, its time for the workshop floor to go in! The state of the floor was much worse than the office: bare concrete with giant cracks, chunks of metal and remainders of years of old adhesive. Machinery, Puppets, Materials - two days to move everything out and into "Next Door". How do we have so much stuff?!

Monday 30th March - Tuesday 31st March
Bright and early Monday morning, the fitters arrive. It was pretty disgusting as they tried to clear the previous mess, with a lot of noise involved in removing the chunks of metal. After another two days, the floor is finally in. 


Wednesday 1st April - Thursday 2nd April
Ivan and Technical Manager Fergus move everything back into the workshop and the new kitchen goes in. The floor is looking amazing and with a lot of paint and a lot of cleaning, the workshop looks brand new. Finally we're finished!





Having been in the planning stages since I started at Blind Summit, it's great to see all our hard work pay off and our little home transformed. 

Brittany x

To find out how you can continue to support Blind Summit's work, head to our website:

http://www.blindsummit.com/supportus.htm

10 things to know about Citizen Puppet! Assistant Director, Fiona Clift, tells us all...

What was Citizen Puppet about?

Puppet's telling the story of the English fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk" from their perspective.

What is Puppet Verbatim?

It's the real words of actual puppets, edited together into a script.

Why Jack and the Beanstalk?

We discovered that a fairytale to a puppet, is like crime watch to a human. Specifically, we explored Jack and the Beanstalk as a possible metaphor for the banking crisis and for the environmental crisis.

What were the inspirations behind the show?

Verbatim theatre, The Laramie Project, 999 (TV Show), Documentaries such as 'Man on Wire' all came up during rehearsals

Who were the characters?

Tina Henderson - Scottish Granny

Howie and Louie - Polish Jewish bankers

DI Clive - Puppet Police

Suki Armstrong Chan - Jack's girlfriend

Helen Shepherd - Jack's maths teacher

Terry Lynch - Spiritual guide

Daz Brayhew - Farmer

What were the puppets like?

The puppets are like works of art. They have moving mouths and expressive faces, and cloth bodies, with some fantastic costumes on. 

What were the puppets like to work with?

They are great fun to improvise and find characters with. As they have moving mouths, they are more challenging to move around and at the moment they can be done with one person as they are all sitting on puppet chairs. This is challenging and freeing at the same time.

What was different about it from other Blind Summit shows you have worked on?

The piece was a collaboration between students from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, who had done very little puppetry before, and the Blind Summit 'Table' ensemble.

Who was your favourite puppet?

DI Clive

What was your favourite moment of the show?

DI Clive talking about getting a shitsu after his wife left him. Also the blackout at the beginning after Tina's opening monologue was really exciting. 

http://www.blindsummit.com/fionaclift.htm

Student Designer, Ana Maio, from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama recounts her time on Citizen Puppet...

What was your role on Citizen Puppet?

I was the set and costume designer

What is your design process that you follow?

The design process always changes according to the nature of the project. In this case, it was highly devised which meant the process didn't necessarily follow a linear path. It had a starting point and then several parallel choices that we could take and explore. A lot of it was experimentation and fun whilst keeping in mind the bigger questions like; Where are we? What time is it? Who are the characters? Why are we doing this? 

What were your most enjoyable moments of the process?

The first time I saw the 'Title Sequence' during the tech rehearsals, when the puppets appear. It was a real introduction and realisation of the place and the characters

What were the most challenging moments?

Keeping hold of everything we had discovered in connection to the main goal, whilst still experimenting and developing the piece was very challenging. 

Who is your favourite puppet in the show?

The Polish brothers, Howie and Louie. They are just delightful.

What is your favourite thing about the show?

The characters are amazing! And the puppets just look great.

What are you working on next?

I'm currently designing a project about memory to present in my course's final exhibition at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the end of April.

https://www.cssd.ac.uk/student/ana-maio

Puppeteer Curtis Jordan talks Madam Butterfly's latest production at the Perth International Arts Festival...

What is your background on the show? 

I performed Butterfly in 2008 in London and have always said it's one of the few shows I've done that I'd jump at the chance to do again. Performing Sorrow is a challenge but incredibly emotionally rewarding.

What is your role in this current revival in Perth?

I am puppeteering Sorrow (Madam Butterfly's three year old son), specifically his head and his left hand. I'm also acting as Puppet Captain, which I think means all the puppets in the show have to do exactly what I tell them. It also means I am taking a lead in training our cover puppeteer who is based in Sydney and hasn't worked on the show previously. 

What is different for this revival for you?

The main difference for me, is that when I'm not working, I'm spending my time on the beach and in the sun instead of in deepest darkest winter back home. When I do have to leave the beach for rehearsals, I'm performing with a new cast of principle singers, including a new Butterfly. The relationship between her and the puppet in both a character sense and a performer sense is pretty pivotal to what I get out of the show. 

What is your favourite thing about the show?

The main reason I'm able to revisit a show like this is because when I'm puppeteering Sorrow, I have to find some emotional connection to him as a character. When he first appears, he is onstage for about 30 minutes, which is physically taxing on my body, but during that time he runs a gamut of emotions and it's incredibly satisfying to play for me as an actor. My favourite moment to play is him looking through the telescope, it's a great exercise in subtlety and nuance.  

Who makes the decisions when the puppet moves and how do you work together?

We are all trying to make decisions together this time around. We are well rehearsed and know the blocking, but the thing that keeps it alive in the moment is making offers to each other and not always knowing exactly when something will happen. Every decision the puppet makes is heightened because there are three people making those decisions and it means the performance is intensified. The way we work together involves a lot of rehearsing, discussing, improvising and beer drinking. 

What is your favourite scene in the show?

My favourite scene sadly doesn't involve me or any puppets. At the end of act one, Butterfly and Pinkerton are married and it's time to get down to the business of consummation. There's a sort of lengthy sung foreplay between them both as they tussle with who has the power and what their relationship will be. I cry listening to it nearly every time. The music is astounding, especially sang live. It blows my mind that someone was able to express through the sung voice, all the pitfalls and complications of love. 

 https://corporate.perthfestival.com.au/About/Madama-Butterfly