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...

Puppets of last week

Last week was an international day of puppet theatre. I was checking if google made any animated doodle with puppets, like they did on Women's day, or Douglas Adams 61st birthday. But I didn't find anything. I read the message for all puppeteers about Pulcinella and the melodies and rhythm of swazzle. By Roberto De Simone. (Who?) 

Than I tried to book a ticket to see the last show of Belgian puppet Theatre Taptoe. Apparently they are going to quit playing. But I didn't get any reply, and it seems, that it's already sold out.

So I decided, to spend some time with my own puppets and clean up a little in the atelier. (The little space, where I work and call it the Kukulu room.) And I found this guys! My very first puppets I used to play with as a child. They are somehow ugly and nice at the same time :) I think, they should get a little honour at least by appearing on this blog. 

The good guys

The bad guys

The small guys

(Made in Czechoslovakia 1988)

the magic of newspapers

One of many great materials to use in the puppetry world are newspapers. You can munch them, squeeze them, make big or small creatures out of them and they produce nice sounds... Plus, it's cheap and in the container of the local publisher (should I tell my source?) you can find a good bunch of them.

Together with these twelve girls we discovered the qualities of the material. Newspaper animals and monsters were all around. And afterwards the girls made these fantastic characters, Sammy, Lady Gaga, Smoking Guy and Gardener Lady :) Manipulating with three, they prepared short stories inspired by ... newspaper articles, of course.

Here's a little example of our work. I enjoyed it very much!! Thank you, girls, good job!