The louse

Do you remember when I posted this one? Meanwhile I got to know the animator of the louse puppet Basluis and I finally went to see the show - "Erwin Blik en the Expedition Zero" by theatre group De Waancel. The Basluis didn't disappoint me, the story did confuse me a little bit though :) 

Here are some details from behind the scenes, specially for you.

Basluis after the show

Basluis' poo

Basluis and the baby

Master Jakob and his puppet

Garbage for Plums

I know it's been a long time. My new year resolution to make a post three times a week - total fail!

But I had a very nice experience this afternoon, which I'd like to share with you. And yes, it's about garbage and plums and puppets. 

What fascinates me most was the pure accident, that I found out about this puppet show just yesterday by searching for something completely different. But here we go, Bulgarians in Ghent, I couldn't miss it! :)

Bulgarian theatre PRAC (Pro Rodopi Art Centre) is right now on a tour in the Netherlands but they also had one show programmed in Belgium, here in Ghent.

Garbage for Plums is a story inspired by an old Bulgarian folktale. It's about a man, who travels on his donkey (turned magically into a special garbage disposal car) and he is looking for a wife, who would be very  pretty and also very handy and would love to clean the house. (ok, ok it's folklore...) :)

The audience had the pleasure to meet three funny candidates. A fat opera singer who exchanged her garbage for a plum jam, but the man didn't like her very much. Than the old lady, who got for her garbage a bottle of plum schnapps, but no, the man also didn't like her so much. Than came the third girl, young, blond, wearing traditional white dress and she loved to clean up! She didn't have any garbage to dispose, so she got only a one single plum. But she won the heart of the man and got also one shiny diamond ring and the promise of never ending love.

Joyful story, full of energetic traditional music, which made almost all of us join the wedding party and dance with the actress at the end. 

Here are few pictures for you. I left the kids to sit in the front, so I didn't have the best view. But we were introduced to three interesting puppets, all of them attached to the body of the actress. And one super cute donkey. Check out more pictures and more information about theatre PRAC here.

Aliens and Monsters

I traveled with the kids from Alveringem to another planet. On our little adventure of a three days workshop we met all kinds of inspiring beings. Some aliens were part of our small final puppet show. Some of them just told us, where they live or what they like to eat, but were too shy to join. Still they were present on a picture in the gallery. The outdoor monsters got washed away by rain too soon... But here are some of them for you to check out. (Ok, a lot of them, but it was hard for me to make a choice.) 

Have a good intergalactic weekend! 

*(workshop provided by zZmogh - artistic projects for children and youth in the Flanders)

The Nose

Once a year all puppeteers from Belgium (the Flemish part mainly) get together. This time, there was a Puppetry Forum in Mechelen, where the expertise center for the cultural heritage of the performing arts in Flanders - Het Firmament, is active. (uff, what a sentence...)

Among other things, this meeting offered an installation by Niké Moens called "The Nose". She is an all - round artist, stage designer, puppeteer from Antwerp. She works for example with Co Frieda and Theater Froefroe. "The Nose" is an interactive exposition according to Gogol's short story. 

Moens installed Walkmans (yes, playing on cassettes!) on small tables and while listening to the story, you could make the puppet of Major Kovalyov or his NOSE alive. You  could try to fish it in an aquarium, or even exchange it for sweets (a Belgian traditional candy called "the nose"). 

This enjoyable, refreshing and poetical installation made us all happy and inspired, believing again, that puppets make sense :)

work in progress

The Easter weekend wasn't only about chocolate eggs. 

The European Figurentheater centre (EFTC) was opening the festival "Poppenspelstad", which means something like The Town of Puppetry. Every last Saturday in the coming five months there will be a puppet show in the streets of Ghent. You can find the full program here. 

After the opening Punch and Judy show by Simon Moers (Be) under the new Town hall, people could see the work in progress of a hip hop dancer Mike Alvarez (Be) in the area of EFTC in Patershol. 

In the private sphere of the EFTC friends followed a belated New Years reception. Well, the weather was just like in January, so nobody protested.

Mike Alvarez - Entre 'Moi' et J'e'

What a shame, that EFTC is loosing their amazing location in the Trommelstraat. They were allowed to use it for 25 years. But now the time has run out. For the last time this summer, you can visit their Puppetbuskers Festival during the Gentse Feesten in the old and charming place. Afterwards they will need to find a new space. 

Good luck with that! Life is a change...