HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 29, 1994TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
M. Rebecca Loader, Library Director
Marsha Tubbs, Children's Librarian
July 29, 1994
National Puppeteers Festival
I attended the "Mini National Puppeteers Festival" on July 15. This regional session was held on the
St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota.
Attgr re0i~toring at 8:00 I proceeded to my first session selection which was Plaster Mold Making.
I stayed approximately 40 minutes but left when the facilitator described the next step as "extremely
dangerous and required a ventilating mask and must be done outdoors". I split the next hour between
two sessions. Making Mannequins Easy w~ very interesting and consisted of body;parts from
styrofoam and pre-cut wood purchased at a lumberyard. Mannequins would be great fun sometime
in the future, but much more difficult to operate and direct. The most interesting session of the morning
was Puppet Movement and Manipulation was conducted by a woman from Houston, Texas who used
a puppet table rather then a stage. Her puppets were stuffed bodies on sticks and operated as if they
were mannequins without strings. ! picked up some useable tips on puppet construction and repair
here.
The afternoon sessions proved very worthwhile. Believe it or not, I skipped the Puppetry in the
Library session. After evaluating the display, which consisted of finger puppets and glove puppets.
I decicled I wanted to see something "more creative" so I attended the workshop Hand Puppet
Construction by Karen Backes. Karen has been doing puppetry locally for 10-15 years and has a
pattern available for 17 clifferent animal puppets. I picked up some tricks on construction of eye, ears,
and mouths. ~ also was able to locate a company as supplier for Tempo Fabric. Hopefully we can get
a catalog and begin our own puppet/book prop construction this fall. Karen's workshop then moved
to TV Puppetry 101 where we spent the next hour practicing the use of puppets for TV taping. A
variety of techniques were demonstrated and everyone was given a chance to "try" the technique. I
believe that at some point in time given some new equipment we might be able to produce some
puppet plays or storytimes with puppets to air on the Library Channel. But everything in good time.
The day closed with a presentation by the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre of _Hansel and Goosel. Very
well done. I had cokes with some of the other people attending and discussed'the pervious days
sessions. One individual gave a detailed description of a shadow puppet workshop that everyone
agreed was the highlight of the day. I took notes and made drawings as this sounded like something
we could use with storytime this fall.