This message comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Lynne Jennings. She
forwards an email from Bobby Box, Associate Producer at the Center
for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta:

I wanted to share a link to a really neat video clip that's gotten a lot of praise on the list.  It's called "Muppets Overtime" and it's sort of an homage to Jim Henson.

  http://www.joeytomatoes.com/muppetsovertimeoriginal05.htm

The video was done in 3-D animation, but I still think it looks
remarkably good.  Make sure you have your speakers turned on and up,
because the audio really makes the experience complete.

This link below provides some background on the the makers of
the video:

  http://puppetvision.blogspot.com/2005/01/over-time.html

Enjoy!

Lee

Permanent link to this entry.

This message comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Nina Dees:

Puppetry book for sale!

The World of Puppets, from Ancient Egypt to Modern Day America, by Rene
Simmen, hardcover pub 1972 $30

Nina Dees
Deesigns & Associates
DESIGN MARKETING SERVICES
Bus phone: 650/348-5100
Fax: 650/348-5102
Email: DEESIGNSCO aol dot com
Permanent link to this entry.

This message comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Elisheva Hart:

FRED NEWMAN Saturday, February 26 at 7 p.m. Newman will discuss "Mouthsounds: How to Whistle, Pop, Boing, and Honk...for All Occasions and Then Some," the book perfect for extroverts, office cut-ups, actors, storytellers and practical jokers.

Book Passage is at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Call 415-927-0960 www.bookpassage.com

This message comes from SFBAPG Newsletter Editor, Michael Nelson:

Hello SFBAPG members,

This next week we will be preparing the March issue of the Guild newsletter. Are you doing any public performances in March or April? Do you know of non-members who are doing public performances? Please send any calendar listings or other newsletter items to Michael Nelson! Send the dates and locations and any short, informational blurb to mail magicalmoonshine dot org

Free Classifieds for members: Do you have any puppetry related items you want to offer to guild members? Send them along, and, space permitting, we will share them with the membership.

As space permits in future newsletters I would like to run some puppet making (or similar) workshop ideas that guild members can use with children (or adults). If you have a workshop project that you wish to share, especially with clear instructions and drawings/photos, let me know what you have and how much space might be needed to share it in the newsletter. Also, how about local tips on where to find hard-to-get items, etc.

Thanks,
Michael

This message comes from former SFBAPG president, Sean Johnson:

Naked Angels in association with Fox Broadcasting Company presents Naked TV. An evening of One-Act plays which all serve as television show premises, held together by a wacky through line of puppetry.

Puppet segments directed by Henson director David Gumpel (Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam), and performed by Sean Johnson, Patrick Johnson, and Victoria Lee.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 pm, Sunday at 7:00 pm. Previews April 2,3 and 7. Runs April 9 - April 24, 2005. Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica - parking across the street in public lot #11. Tickets are $20.00. For more information please visit http://www.plays411.com/nakedtv2005 or call (310) 392-7327.

Hope you all can make it.

Sean

P.S. Please don't be fooled by the presence of puppets, this show is not for children.

This message comes from fellow SFBAPG members, Talib and Olivia Huff:

Here is information on the workshop that Talib and I have attended
for two years in lovely Morinesio, Italy.

>
>4th Annual Pageant Puppetry Workshop in Northern Italy!
>June 18-26, 2005
>Morinesio's Midsummer Pageant
>
>Join us for a one-week workshop in pageant puppetry, culminating in
>a community procession for the Summer Solstice and the Feast of St.
>John the Baptist. Collaborate with international participants and
>local residents to enact age-old traditions of ritual celebration in
>Morinesio, a remote village in the Piedmont region of the Italian >
>Alps.
>
>Master Puppeteers Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles will guide you
>through the production of the pageant. As a group, we will draw
>inspiration from the lives, history, and folktales of the village as
>we design and construct giant puppets, lanterns and musical
>instruments. At the end of the week, local villagers will join in
>helping bring our creations to life, for two events - an illuminated
>Midsummer's Night procession and a Pageant of the Solstice the
>following day.
>
>The workshop will be hosted by Christa Gaebler at Casa dei Fiori, a
>newly restored complex of traditional stone houses. An international
>chef, Christa will introduce participants to the delicate tastes of
>Italian summer cuisine, with gourmet meals prepared daily with
>fresh, local herbs, produce, and mountain cheeses.
>
>The workshop runs from Saturday June 18th to Sunday June 26th.
>The cost per person for the week is 1350 - 1850 Euros (depending on
>accommodations), and includes the following:
>
> * Workshop tuition and materials
> * Transfer from Bus/ Train station in Cuneo
> * Apartment in Casa dei Fiori or shared rooms w/shared bath
>in adjacent B&B * Daily traditional breakfast, lunch and
>dinner
> * Guided tour of local cheese farm
> * Bread-baking day at the village's communal oven
>
>*For current exchange rates from Euros to US Dollars, go to
>http://www.xe.com/ucc/
>
>*** Sign up by February 15th and get a 10% discount! ***
>
>
>For more information or to make a reservation, contact:
>
>Pia Petruzzi
>(212) 3five2.nine598
>pia superiorconcept dot org
>or visit our website (and see pictures of past workshops):
>www.superiorconcept.org/Morinesio

This comes from Kurt Hunter, the Director of the 2005 National Festival for Puppeteers of America:

Greetings,

It's time for another update on Puppet Fest 2005, the Puppeteers of America's next national festival. More exciting details have been firmed up. Attached is an article that you can use in your guild newsletter to let your members know what is in the works.

The opening of the festival will take place Sunday evening, July 24, in the enormous, athletic field house on campus. In keeping with the setting, we are planning to include an Olympic style "Parade of Guilds" as part of the opening. Picture the ceremony of the Olympic's Parade of Nations as all the athletes parade into the statium along with their fellow country members. We hope this will be a fun and creative way to recognize the guilds as the heart of the Puppeteers of America. Each guild that chooses to be involved will have a delegation parade into the opening as a group. If you have a guild banner, your standard bearer can use that to lead your guild. If you have guild t-shirts, that would be a great way to identify your guild members as a group. A parade puppet or walking theatre would also be fitting. We hope you'll have fun coming up with a creative way to make your guild shine.

We hope to see you in Minnesota next summer.

All the best,

Kurt Hunter, Festival Director

Puppet Fest 2005

www.PuppetFest2005.org

Job notice for puppeteers:

>
>To Whom It May Concern:
>
>Pershing Square Concert and Event Center in downtown Los Angeles is
>seeking puppeteers to perform during our three-day children's program
>in March.
>
>This is our second year running this program for the downtown Los
>Angeles community and we are affiliated with the City of Los Angeles,
>Department of Recreation and Parks. You can visit our website for some
>more information regarding the park at:
>http://www.laparks.org/pershingsquare/pershing.htm . Or you can call
>Louise Capone at: (213) 847-4970 for more details.
>
>If you do not have a traveling show, but know of some other groups who
>may be able to assist us with our inquiry, please forward this
>information.
>
>Thank you,
>
>--
>Jenny Arzate
>Pershing Square Concert & Event Center
>City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation & Parks
>532 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
>ph: (213) 847-4970 fx: (213) 485-0985

Dear fellow puppeteers,

Dr. Mark Courey, renowned otolaryngologist at the UCSF Voice and Swallowing
Center on Post Street (Mount Zion), San Francisco, has asked me to help him
recruit a female puppeteer for an interesting voice project.

The volunteer will undergo flexible endoscopy through the nose (usually not
painful, nose can be sprayed, too) while reading THE RAINBOW PASSAGE, a
short text, using three different puppet voices. The second task will be to
produce a sustained /ah/ also during endoscopy and with the same three
puppet voices.

Procedures will be videotaped and recorded and then evaluated (DLS voice
analysis, analysis of vocal cord changes with regard to mobility, shape,
etc.). Along with the exam, the candidate will be able to see what is
happening in her larynx on a monitor (which is really interesting!).

I will help out Dr. Courey for the male puppet voices and have already
undergone flexible endoscopy in the past. Fascinating procedure.
Would be great if some of you could step in for the female voices.

As the results will be presented on a Californian conference in mid-March,
the recordings need to be scheduled before that, preferably on a Thursday or
Friday afternoon or based on your availability and Dr. Courey's.

If you are interested, please e-mail him at mcourey ohns dot ucsf dot edu or leave a
message at the Voice and Swallowing Center at (415) 885-77OO.
Thanks in advance.

Herbert Lange,
puppeteer and speech pathologist

This comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Lettie Schubert:

From Muppet Central comes this description.

"Ten Muppet characters will share a sheet of stamps with a single stamp for their creator, Jim Henson. The Muppets honored include Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Statler and Waldorf, Animal, Rowlf the Dog, The Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker, Camilla the Chicken and Gonzo. Below the single Henson stamp is a larger photo in the sheet's selvage showing Henson in silhouette sitting on the floor, back to a wall, knees drawn up, and talking to Kermit."

There are important, exciting developments regarding your new SFBAPG newsletter:

Now you may find the newsletter online!  It is posted on the official SFBAPG web site, www.sfbapg.org.  Past newsletters will be archived on the web site, so if you are looking for information that was published in previous months, it is right at your fingertips.  Also, the online calendar will update frequently.  Go check the colorful layout!

More important news:

At the January special guild meeting, the guild voted to offer both a printed and an email newsletter. Members who do not have email will continue to receive their newsletters by post.

Those of you who have email will have two choices:

(1) You may elect to receive your newsletter by post.  If this is your preference, then you need to email Mary Decker at marydeck earthlink.net, or call Michael Nelson at 707-257-8OO7.

(2) Otherwise, you will receive your newsletter via the internet.  Each month, you will receive an email notice directing you to the guild web site, sfbapg.org.  There, the newsletter (complete with colorful photos and active weblinks) will be downloadable as a pdf file which you may read on your monitor or print out on your home printer.

Remember, the online version will have more updated information.   And it saves the Guild the cost of printing and postage, and saves lots of volunteer labor.

This message comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Herbert Lange:

"After more than two years of successful touring with my fabulous German
puppetry partner and the original versions of the GRIMM fairytales, I,
Herbert Lange from Berlin, am looking for an additional experienced, open,
flexible, bilingual (?) and creative fellow puppeteer, preferably in San
Francisco or close-by. I'd like to start a new project with regular
rehearsals for a show in fall and would love to brainstorm fun ideas and
develop a new play (maybe for this Halloween). If interested, please drop me
a line at lange.herbert gmx dot net or call (415) 566-O416. Thanks."

*****

And, yes, another show:

Do any of you speak German???

The Fairytaletheater(.net) proudly presents another performance of THE
BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS on Sunday, February 13, 2005, at 3 p.m.
in Menlo Park.

This show is in GERMAN.

Location for those that might be interested:
TREFFPUNKT DEUTSCH
c/o German-American School of Palo Alto
275 Elliott Drive, Menlo Park, CA
(close-by HW 101 south, exit University Avenue)
tickets: $ 4 per child, $ 6 per adult
For reservations please call (650) 85seven-9121 or mail to lange.herbert gmx dot net

Hope to see all of you on February 27 in Napa.
Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Herbert