We have had a busy run between Halloween and Bonfire Night, to celebrate here is a picture from one of last years Halloween events.
Was he after the pasties or a member of staff?!!!
Paula Bear
This Thursday sees Freya & Gumph make their final appearance as part of Centre Parcs Halloween celebration. Then its off to the puppet retirement home, aka the scrap box, to live out the rest of their days. They have served us well and whilst we are sad to see them go, we have great expectations for their replacements Cornelius and Paula Bear in the Hairy Chairs.2. Cuter characters, better operating system, lighter more performable chairs with inbuilt sound and voice amplification….big things people, big things!
Similarly this Friday sees the last outing for the Goblins in their present incarnation in and around Leigh. Or if you are in Station Square, Lowestoft then keep a weather eye out for Epico and Aurelious performing their penultimate shows of the year from their groovy new tent!
Ahhhh….progress :)
If you go down to the woods today...
Its the down period, the quiet time between the close of the summer season and the opening of the winter festivities. As you can see whilst taking booking for Christmas 2014 we have been hard at work with our programme of re-invention. This October will see the final outings of our Goblins and Hairy Chairs in their current incarnations, the old characters are being retired. In preparation fur and foam have been flying in the workshop.
Austerity sucks
Just back from a week of shadow puppet making workshops in Wales. It was a fantastic project to deliver to across 5 days in four schools, using puppetry to animate the students understanding of their curriculum. We covered the Tudors, the Victorians, World War 2 and Ourselves. The students worked in teams to create projected environments and shadow puppet figures within performed scenes, colliding images, music and text to share their understanding with their class. It was an amazing week and great to be re-united with the boroughs Arts Officers who have nurtured our company for many years.
It was also bitter as the Council in question had invested £20 million in Icelandic banks prior to the crash. The loss of this money, compounded by austerity, means that their Arts Team like many others faces the axe. All over the country passionate adults who believe economically poor kids deserve rich cultural experiences, are no longer employed to ensure that all young horizons, re-guardless of background, are broadened. Government tells us this is to ensure we do not pass our debts onto the next generation, whilst across the land poor kids are being short changed because of losses that were not made in their name.
Once again it is the innocent who pay the price for others ambition.
Heres a picture of a goblin.