PuppetVision Blog
01 Apr 2013
Dogs Don’t Do Ballet
No comments - Archived in Live Puppetry
Dogs Don't Do Ballet

The Little Angel Theatre’s Dogs Don’t Do Ballet featuring Ronnie LeDrew and Andrea Sadler.

The hit British preschool puppet show Dogs Don’t Do Ballet wraps up an all-too-brief return to The Little Angel Theatre today (alas, for those of you in London, it’s completely sold out). The show is based on a children’s book by Anna Kemp that was illustrated by Sara Ogilvie and tells the story of Biff, who is  “not like ordinary dogs. He likes moonlight. And music. And walking on his tiptoes,” and features table-top puppetry.

Dogs Don’t Do Ballet was a smash hit at the Little Angel over Christmas, earning spectacular reviews (you can read some of them here, here and here) and more than one PuppetVision reader has written in to tell me that the adults in the audience laugh just as hard as the children. That isn’t really surprising given the Little Angel’s superb reputation and especially because the show is performed by the very talented Andrea Sadler and the truly fabulous Ronnie LeDrew.

Dogs Don’t Do Ballet is currently touring the United Kingdom. If you live in the UK and missed the chance to see it in London, the full touring schedule is available on the Little Angel’s web site.

Puppetry in the UKrod puppets
28 Mar 2013
Puppetry at Bootsy Bellows
No comments - Archived in Puppeteers

Half Cut Tea – a web site “dedicated to finding the artists behind their art through short documentary videos” – recently shot this profile of puppeteer Jeff Speetjens. Jeff is based in Los Angeles and is one of the regular puppeteers at Bootsy Bellows, a popular nightclub in West Hollywood that regularly features roaming puppeteers (another is Scott Land, who appears briefly in the video).

Thanks to Jordan at Half Cut Tea for sending this in!

documentariesmarionettes
25 Mar 2013
Rest in Peace Judy Brown (1941 – 2013)
No comments - Archived in Puppeteers
Bob and Judy Brown

Bob and Judy Brown, co-founders of the Bob Brown Puppets

Sad news…noted puppeteer Judy Brown passed away earlier this month at the age of 72.

Judy co-founded the Bob Brown Puppets with her husband Bob in 1964. Over the course of a 50 year career Judy performed thousands of show, including performances for several U.S. Presidents and regularly appeared on the famous American preschool series Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood. She retired from live performance in 2011, although she continued working behind-the-scenes until her recent illness. The Washington Post has a full obituary online here.

Judy and Bob’s career were documented in book they co-wrote with Luman Coad in 2009, A Pair of Cockeyed Optimists: The Puppetry Career of Bob and Judy Brown. It’s available to order on Amazon.com.

obituaries
21 Mar 2013
Saucy Chickens Promote Wings Etc.
No comments - Archived in Commercials

This is one in a series of local commercials featuring a pair of saucy Southern chicken puppets made for Wings Etc., a sports bar franchise based in South Bend, Indiana. The chickens in the ad were both performed by cartoonist and puppeteer Dan Wright, who also built them with his wife Carrie.

From the video’s description on YouTube:

This is one in a series of seven chicken puppet commercials my friend Dave Ponce and I shot for Wings, Etc…I made the puppets, co-wrote the script, and am the one performing both chickens at the same time (Except for the tag at the end, which was shot in two separate video pieces and composited together in post production.)

The puppets themselves are constructed of foam (eyes are ping-pong balls), then covered with fleece and and other sundry materials readily available at most fabric stores. My lovely wife Carrie sat in the living room and HAND-SEWED all the stitching on the puppets. (Her work is amazing).

All seven spots were shot in a makeshift TV studio in my friend Daves living room.

The TV light effect is actually one of Dave’s sons (Michael, I think) waving two flashlights taped together with a plastic bag over the lenses to diffuse the light in front of the puppets just out of frame.

Its work I’m proud of and hope to do more of.

Read on to see a few more spots from the campaign… (more…)

hand and rod puppets
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >