June summary

This June begun with a successful try - out of the show for little children Hendrik and Poes, produced by Theater Savooi. Remember Hendrik? I introduced him here. You can see this show Hendrik and Poes also in July during the Gentse Feesten festival in Ghent. Check out the program here.

(Poes = Cat, but I guess it's quite clear from the photo)

Lena and Leen a.k.a. Hendrik and Poes

For more adventure I introduced this month also my good old Spaghetti Western to the Belgian public. My object theatre miniature, where two ketchup cowboys are trying to shoot each other was part of the festival of a Pedagogical center in Wagenschot. The theme of the festival was Spaghetti, so I couldn't just not bring it on there, although I am not sure now, if the audience was ready for so much blood. Some kids got bloody too... ooops :)

And in the end, June is also the month of the flea market fever. The popular one - on Lange Violettestraat didn't disappoint. Again there has been incredible choice of stuff to try, buy, take or just look at. If you are following my instagram you know what I am talking about.

Congratulations to all children who are done with the school for some time, congratulations to all of you for whom june acctually brings summer :) Any summer plans? 

For me it means a lot of work on our new Kukulu show. I can't tell you much, but there will be a bicycle, I promise. 

Crossroad puppeteers

Everyone appears sometimes on a crossroad wondering about the next direction.

By crossing the road today we spotted these two - puppeteers?  Jugglers? ... They were waiting for the short moment of red light for the cars and than they performed their little art to the waiting drivers. Green for them, red for the cars and for the crocodile.

Our language barrier didn't give us much chance to talk. They were from Spain and they were cold. Cheering up the Belgian drivers for a small change. Probably on their next crossroad, they'll go south :)

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)