Mary Thornton, hard at work (as always) earlier this week at Famous PEOPLE Players (image source: The National Post)

I began my career as a professional puppeteer with Famous PEOPLE Players (FPP) a really acclaimed black light theatre company that’s toured around the world and performed on Broadway. I spent almost four years there in the late `90s and it was a really remarkable formative experience for me. It’s safe to say that not a single day goes by that I don’t make use of something that I learned while I was working there and the name of the woman who I learned a lot of that from is Mary Thornton.

Mary is the mother of FPP’s founder Diane Dupuy. Her life story is pretty incredible. She was born in Canada, but was classically trained in dressmaking, tailoring, and ceramics in Italy before returning to Canada, getting married, starting a family and opening a popular dressmaking shop in Hamilton (near Toronto), Ontario. She later became Wardrobe Mistress to the Hamilton Opera Company and when it was discovered at age 44 that she had a tremendous singing voice she studied Opera in New York before returning to the HOC to sing in operas like La Boheme, Carmen and Madame Butterfly.

That would be enough for most people, but Mary was just getting started.

When Mary’s daughter Diane founded the Famous PEOPLE Players in 1973, Mary devoted herself to the company full time and she’s been the head of the company’s Visual Effects Department (FPP’s puppet and prop shop) ever since. I have no idea how many puppets, props and costumes she actually designed and made over the years, but it numbers well in to the thousands; FPP’s puppet shop is easily one of the most prolific in the world. Mary’s work has been on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall and graced stages around the world from Toronto to Tokyo and back again.

By the time I worked at FPP Mary was in her 80s and she was almost always the first person to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night. According to yesterday’s National Post, it sounds like nothing has changed:

But sitting around is not for Mary Thornton. Neither is retirement. Not at 65. Not at 75, and not on Thursday, at 95-years-old, just a day shy of her 96th birthday on Friday.

We are sitting — although that is not often the case with Ms. Thornton — in her office at Famous People Players supper theatre, where you can find the nonagenarian six days and some 60 hours a week, one of Canada’s oldest working taxpayers.

You can read the full article here.

I have many fond memories of Mary, many of which involve the times when I would hang around the company’s puppet shop late at night after work. Mary would inevitably set me to work, folding napkins for the company’s restaurant or ironing laundry (I never got very good at ironing, but I can still fold one helluva napkin). I think my favourite memories of her though are the times when she would suddenly emerge from the wings on stage mid-rehearsal to chastise the cast for not handling props correctly, or tell one of us what we were doing wrong with a puppet. This was often to the annoyance of whoever was conducting rehearsal, but it really didn’t matter; in the end Mary is almost always right. To this day I have a long list of “Mary-isms” about building and performing puppets that I use all the time.

Mary is one of a kind and they’re not exaggerating when they call her a Canadian National Treasure. I have much better appreciation of art and performance because of her and she has been a huge influence on my work. There are dozens (if not hundreds) more people who have passed through the doors of FPP over the years who will tell you the same thing. I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to learn from her about life, puppetry, ironing and even the proper (Italian) way to eat spaghetti.

I have no idea if you’ll ever see this or not, but Happy Birthday Mary.

If you want to learn more about Mary and Famous PEOPLE Players I highly recommend picking up one of Diane Dupuy’s books, Daring To Dream and Throw Your Heart Over The Fence, which detail a lot of the company’s history. Both of them may now be out of print, but you can often find used copies online or order directly from FPP).

I don’t usually write posts about live/local puppetry here, but the next month or so is such great time to see some great puppetry in Toronto that I couldn’t resist. Not only is Ronnie Burkett (who chats about his new show in the video above) debuting Penny Plain at Toronto’s Factory Theatre, but an original production of Avenue Q just opened, the Famous PEOPLE Players are prepping a new show called Funkytown for a run at their dinner theatre in the city’s West End and the Toronto production of WarHorse begins an extended run on February 10th.

Come visit Toronto, we’d love to have you!

The fundraising campaign for PuppetVision: The Movie is coming to a close and as of right now, unfortunately, the campaign is falling short of its goal. If you would like to contribute, now is the time…there’s just a couple of days left. Every contribution – no matter how large or small – is a huge help and will be used to help pay for the film’s post-production and licensing expenses.

Not only that, but contributing to the campaign will get you some nice perks, including:

$10+ A Big Thank You!

Everyone who contributes $10 or more will get a thank you shout out on Twitter as well the PuppetVision Blog and Facebook Page with an optional link to their web site. You’ll also have your name listed in the credits of the final film.

$25 Digital Download & Party

Contributions of $25 or more mean that you get to see the film before anyone else! You’re entitled to a digital download of the film once it’s complete, plus if you’re in (or can get to) Toronto, New York, or Los Angeles you’re invited to attend a special screening party where you can meet and mingle with some of the puppeteers who appear in the film!

$50+ Signed Poster & DVD

Contributions of $50 or more get you get all of the perks listed above, as well as a DVD of the finished film and a copy of the film’s poster signed by several of the puppeteers who appear in the film.

$75+ Awesome Taiwanese Hand Puppet

Contributions of $75 or more will receive a Taiwanese Potehi hand puppet, hand crafted in Yunlin, Taiwan by artists who appear in the film. And of course you’ll also get all the perks available at the $50 level and below too!

$100+ Bonus DVD – Exclusive Footage

Everyone who contributes $100 or more gets not only the perks listed above, but will also receive an exclusive bonus DVD featuring hours of original interviews, outtakes and puppetry performance footage that does not appear in the finished film (this DVD will be exclusive to supporters on IndieGoGo and will not be made available publicly).

If everyone who reads PuppetVision today contributed just $5 or $10 the film it would be fully funded in just 24 hours! Help maske a great film about puppetry possible and contribute right now at IndieGoGo.com/puppetvision

I hope everyone had a safe, warm and wonderful Christmas. In the spirit of the season, watch Ruffus The Dog’s Christmas Carol, a really wonderful brand new Christmas special that was funded via IndieGoGo and is based on the Ruffus The Dog television series from the 1990s.

You can watch more Rufus The Dog at www.ruffusthedog.net.

In typical Krellant style (see previous post), Frank Feltman tells a story of holiday mishap, and his rescue from one unlikely cat…in verse!

I’ve been writing PuppetVision since 2004 and during that time puppetry has undergone an incredible renaissance. My original goal for this site was simply to share and help promote some of the incredible work that was being done by puppeteers all over the world. I am very proud that over the past seven and a half years close to half a million individual people have been able to discover and enjoy thousands of puppet films, videos and performances by hundreds of different artists thanks to this site. I don’t want to be immodest, but I think that’s pretty cool.

What I want to do next is take this to a whole new level.

For the past several years as I’ve been filming interviews with and performances by puppeteers in different cities and different countries literally all over the world. This is all going to come together in a documentary next year called PuppetVision: The Movie that will feature interviews with and performances by over sixty different puppeteers from about fifteen different countries.

My goal is to create a film that will be screened at film, puppetry and animation festivals around the world and showcase some of the incredible work that puppeteers – both famous and not-so-famous – are creating around the world, but I need some help to make this happen.

Making a film like this is expensive and time consuming. When it’s finished next year, this documentary will have taken five years and approximately $65,000 to produce. Up until this point it’s been funded by a combination of private grants, donated airfare and accommodation and out of my own pocket, but $12,500 is needed to finish the film and tonight I’m launching a campaign on IndieGoGo to finish PuppetVision: The Movie.

I’m just in the early stages of putting this film together, but if you like this blog I think that you’ll love this film. Some really amazing puppeteers – some whom you can see in the video above – have been incredibly supportive of this project, sharing not just their passion and knowledge, but also films, photos and video from their personal archives, including material that’s never been seen publicly before.

So if you’ve enjoyed the PuppetVision Blog for all these years, please support PuppetVision: The Movie. You’ll get some great perks and I’ll work very hard to not only make a great film, but also introduce you to some incredible puppeteers and show you some things that you’ve never seen before.

Tonight is the fourth installment of One Night Slam, the semi-regular evening of short, live puppetry performances and puppet film and video in Toronto. The performers scheduled to appear include the always-entertaining Mike Harding, Jan-Bo’s Puppets, Grey Muldoon of The Bricoteer Project and improv puppetry by Unraku. We’ll also be screening short films from The Krellant, Noah Ginex, Joel Brubacher, and Mathieu Rene.

If you’re in/near Toronto and want to get in on the fun, One Night Slam 4 begins at 7 p.m. at the Ralph Thornton Centre on Queen Street East. Check the Facebook event page for more information.

I saw The Execution of Margot Rumebe last week and fell in love with it. It was made by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop (see previous post) in collaboration with filmmaker Simon Dekker and Michael Green of Calgary, Alberta’s acclaimed One Yellow Rabbit Theatre.

The film is an excerpt from Michael’s play Zertrummerung, which was inspired by the horror shows of the Grand Guignol theatre in France  and early experiments with the use of the electric chair. Like just about everything that the Old Trouts touch, it’s a little quirky, a little weird and a lot wonderful.

I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Mathieu René (see previous post) – better known online as “Creaturiste” – off and on for past few years thanks to our mutual association with Unraku. He’s one of the most knowledgeable and innovative puppet and mask makers working in papier mache anywhere in the world. You can see some of his papier mache work in his incredible online portfolio, but photos don’t really do his work justice. It’s simply beautiful.

Mathieu is now offering online courses in papier-mâché mask making; he’s also willing to custom tailor the workshop to your specifics needs and interests. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to work in this medium you should sign up for one of his online workshops (or in person, if you live in or near Montreal).

To learn more or sign up for a workshop, contact him directly at creaturiste@gmail.com. You won’t regret it.

This edition of One Night Slam probably features our most diverse line-up of acts yet. Scheduled to perform live are The Brothers Gromm (hand and rod puppets), Nick Fox-Gieg (digital puppetry), Puppet What What (sock puppets), Miss Cherry Temple (Burlesque and puppetry) and as usual Unraku (Bunraku-style puppetry). We’ll also be screening some great puppet films, including Yamasong, SPöD, and our special guests will be Monster Factory, who will be screening epsisodes of their web series.

The slam is pay-what-you-can ($10 suggested) and he show starts at 4:00 p.m. (Please note the early start this time!). If any PuppetVision readers can make it, please be sure to say hello!