This message comes from Sean Johnson.

Puppet Up! for adults only. Featuring the Henson Puppet Improv Company June 21, 8:30 pm, June 23, 8:30 pm, and and June 24, 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm. at the Improv Theater in Hollywood, CA.

Patrick and I will be performing in the show on Saturday. I’ll be in the 8:30 show and Patrick will be in the 10:30 show.

From the company that for fifty years has celebrated irreverence, creativity and performance comes PUPPET UP! (for adults only), featuring The Henson Puppet Improv Company, a demonstration of what happens when the perilous and provocative forms of traditional comedic improvisation are mixed with a bunch of puppets. With a motley group of characters brought to life by the world renowned puppeteers of The Jim Henson Company, this is not your average night at the improv and it is definitely not for children. But all others are welcome to enjoy the uninhibited anarchy of live puppet performance as never seen before.

Click here to buy your ticket:
http://www.symfonee.com/Improv/hollywood/home/index.aspx

Hope to see you there.

Sean

http://www.swazzle.com Bringing Live Puppetry to You.

I have commenced writing a biography on the artistic genius puppeteer
Burr Tillstrom, creator of the Kukla, Fran and Ollie show and The
Kuklapolitan Players.

I seek interviews with anybody who knew Mr. Tillstrom and has personal
or professional reminiscences.

I am a longtime freelance writer based outside of New York City.

Many thanks to you for your consideration. Please make contact.

Jay Blotcher
845-687-22eight4
jblotcher hvc dot rr dot com

This note is for SFBAPG members who are also members of Puppeteers of America.
This message is also for non-members. So, I guess that covers everyone in the SFBAPG... and it also covers everyone in the whole world, but I didn't
mean that...

To the PofA members: You should have received your membership
renewal notices by now. Yes, they were sent late -- very late. Don't worry
that you received your renewal after the deadline had passed. It's
a long, unfortunate story, but I'll skip to the punch line: If you have not renewed yet,
please do so right away.

To the non-PofA members: Have you thought about joining PofA? You
would receive the Puppetry Journal, a quarterly magazine that keeps
members updated on what's happening in North American puppetry. You
also would get the Playboard newsletter which comes every two months.
The biggest benefit is the discount you would receive on festival
registration.

If you are interested in joining, please go to www.puppeteers.org and
click on Membership, then follow the instructions. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact me.

Mary Decker

ORANGE COUNTY PUPPETRY GUILD NEWS SPLASH

EXTRA

SCOTT LAND IS IN A HOSPITAL IN HONG KONG WITH A BROKEN RIGHT SHOULDER BLADE AND DAMAGED ROTARY CUP.

Scott Land has been in Tibet on an assignment for the Dalai Lama. His driver went over a cliff and Scott was injured. He is now in a Hong Kong Hospital. Rene,who has been filling in shows for Scott while he is gone, was called on Thursday by Scott's friend to let him know. We will keep you informed.

Scott recently had some puppets stolen from his house, See attachment. If you hear anything of these puppets you can E-mail him at greatpuppetshow aol dot com.

Dear Guild members,

Three important items in 1 email:

1. The guild newsletter deadline is approaching (June 25). I believe that the next (July) newsletter will be prepared by your new editor, Jeff Pidgeon, but as we have not totally worked out the transition yet, you may still email items to me (mail@magicalmoonshine.org) until further notice (and I will make sure they are passed on to the appropriate person.)

2. I am willing to help facilitate car pooling to the regional festival in Washington. If you are planning to drive and want to carpool and save gas and driving (about 13 hours from the Bay Area, depending on where you live) send me an email saying whether you are interested in sharing a ride (ecological and economical choice) and whether you have a vehicle that can make the journey (and number of available seats) or whether you are looking to ride (and share costs and possibly driving.) Email: mail@magicalmoonshine.org - Phone: 707-257-8007.

3. Before you hear it from the Swift Boat types and before our guild election nominations close, I must disclose to you all that Valerie (your current guild treasurer and candidate for treasurer) and I (candidate for president) have to move from our home in August and as yet have no place to move to. We are considering many options, and one of these options, unfortunately, is moving out of the Bay Area (or state, or country.) We hope to stay somewhere in the Bay Area, but the membership should know that that is not 100% certain at this point, and should take that into consideration when deciding how to vote for guild officers and whether to run yourselves. Please know that should other candidates wish to come forward (nominations are still open) and should the guild decide it is wiser to put their leadership in more settled hands I will whole-heartedly support that choice.

Yours,
Michael Nelson
current Newsletter Ed.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked on the Memorial Tribute to
Lettie Schubert:

The folks who arrived early to help set up the Exhibit Room and front
hall: Blake Maxam, Luman Coad, Pam Brown, Alan Cook, Kathy Foley,
Elisheva Hart, Bruce Chesse, and Mary Nagler.

The generous people who offered puppets for the display: Bruce Chesse
(Brother Buzz puppets), Blake Maxam (Vagabond puppets), Lewis
Mahlmann, Kevin Menegus, Randal Metz, Gary Busk, John Stackpole, and
the Conservatory of Puppetry Arts.

Michael and Valerie Nelson for setting up their sound system, making
signs for the display, helping to tear down, and supporting me in
so many ways.

The Exhibit Guards: Kathy Dodge, Pam Brown, Ronna Leon, Talib and
Olivia Huff, and Pam Wade.

Nick and Rose Barone for compiling the booklet of Lettie's
contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild
Newsletter.

Patty Wick for making tons of extra desserts.

Elisheva Hart, Tia Smirnoff, Pam Brown, Michael and Valerie Nelson,
and Kamala Portuges for helping to tear down.

Luman Coad for spending a whole day cutting, gluing, taping, peeling,
sticking, and tying.

Lee Armstrong for receiving all the photographic material for the
video montage, for providing the large-screen projection equipment,
and for being such a communicative supporter on the phone.

Rhys Wade for managing the sound system and video equipment.

Forrest Patten for compiling the wonderful music for the video
montage, including music from Lettie's Vagabond years and the Brother
Buzz show.

Anita Coulter and Sam Hale for providing film footage of the
interview they did with Lettie.

Randal Metz and Lewis Mahlmann for preparing and performing the
revival of "Mrs. Witherspoon's Busy Day." What a treat!

Huge, enormous, gigantic, colossal thanks to Lynne Jennings and
Kamela Portuges for spending days and days and DAYS preparing their
contributions to the Celebration of Lettie's Life:

Lynne hunted for information about Lettie like a bloodhound, and she
created the fabulous Memorial Wall which will now travel to several
puppet festivals. She even bought a new printer for the occasion.
Thank you, Lynne!

Kamela spent untold days with the Final Cut Pro computer program,
editing the marvelous video montage which celebrates Lettie's
wonderful life. Not a dry eye in the house. Thank you so much,
Kamela.

And personal thanks to the SFBAPG members who made monetary donations
toward the rental of the hall.

Now, onward with LIFE until we meet Lettie again someday. In the
meantime, let's make the most of our time here.

Mary Decker

Thank you, Take II

In my previous "thank you" email, I forgot to mention that Kathy
Dodge stayed to the end to help tear down the exhibit. Thanks,
Kathy.

Mary Decker

Monday, June 5, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Puppets make for a wooden 'Windsor'
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Comedy. By William Shakespeare. Directed by
Sean Daniels. Through June 25. California Shakespeare Theater, Bruns
Amphitheater, Gateway Blvd. exit from Highway 24, between Berkeley and
Orinda. Two hours, 20 minutes. Tickets $15-$57. Call (510) 548-9666 or
visit www.calshakes.org).

The wives are truly merry, but "The Merry Wives of Windsor" that opened
Saturday at the Bruns Amphitheater is not. Meant to be an audacious blend
of live action and innovative puppetry, the California Shakespeare
Theater's season opener simply proves that -- whatever he achieved in
other branches of the dramatic arts -- Shakespeare didn't write very good
puppet shows.
It also demonstrates how empty "Merry Wives" can be without Falstaff.
Which is not to say that the fat knight is physically absent from director
Sean Daniels' production. The huge but oddly weightless Falstaff puppet --
with its bulbous nose, almost toothless mouth, fringe of white beard and
spiky-stubble hair -- is the biggest thing onstage. He's also played by
one of the Bay Area's finest comic actors, Ron Campbell. But Campbell is
so completely hidden within the puppet that even his line readings are
muffled. And the puppet is so inexpressive that Falstaff is reduced to an
occasionally comic prop.
However unlikely the oft-told tale that Queen Elizabeth was so entertained
by the witty, roguish knight in "Henry IV, Part 1" that she commanded
Shakespeare to write a comedy about Falstaff in love, the story holds a
kernel of truth. There can be little doubt that "Wives" was written to
take advantage of the character's immediate popularity. That said, it's
also true that this Falstaff is a pretty pale shadow of the "Henry IV"
creation, mostly a foil for the comedy of the wives' revenge against him.
There's a lot of other comedy in the play, some of which comes through in
Daniels' production.
It couldn't have opened more auspiciously. The weather was unusually
balmy, a rare shirtsleeve evening for comedy at the Bruns. Scott Bradley's
storybook set looks like an open invitation to humorous creativity, with
its Windsor houses concealed within an arch of cutout trees and shrubbery
The puppet designs -- by Jon Ludwig, Chris Brown and Jason Hines of
Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts -- are delightfully outrageous and
varied: rod puppets, full-body puppets, marionettes, Bunraku and hand
puppets, ranging from the thick, bright yellow cross for the Welsh parson
Hugh and giant-pill-bottle Dr. Caius to the antique-pistol-headed Pistol
and small-mailbox messenger Simple.
But the creativity doesn't run very deep and often works against the
play's strengths. This is Daniels' second attempt at blending Shakespeare
and puppetry, after a problematic "Comedy of Errors" a few years ago. In
that case, the principal roles were essentially double-cast, each played
by an actor and his or her puppet-double, but the actors weren't
particularly capable puppeteers. This time, Daniels divides the roles
between actors and puppets and pushes for an animated cartoon effect, with
lots of puppet-slapstick and a heavy use of cartoon-style mood music,
rim-shots and sound effects in Dave Malloy's soundscape.
The flesh-and-blood actors stand out like breaths of fresh air. Catherine
Castellanos' Mistress Page and Delia MacDougall's Mistress Ford are
delightfully smart and broadly comic as the wives Falstaff tries to
seduce, as they plot and execute his due comeuppance. Anthony Fusco is
hilarious as the jealousy-plagued Master Ford, his body contorting in
tortured spasms that make the puppets seem inanimate. Liam Vincent is
congenially upbeat as the happily married Page.
Of the actors hidden within puppets, only Danny Scheie manages to make his
characters come alive. He delivers a tour de force of verbal comedy in a
wild French accent as the fulminating, English-mangling Dr. Caius and
manages to make the rantings of Falstaff's hotheaded follower Pistol
pretty funny as well (aided by the pistol puppet's hair trigger).
None of the other puppets, mostly handled by Puppetry Arts veterans,
demonstrate similar depth. Lorna Howley's Mistress Quickly, the would-be
clever matchmaker, has a comic broom-like hip swing but speaks her lines
as if she were explaining the plot to children. As clever as the designs
look at first -- the lovely Anne Page floating on her romantic dreams with
rose petals fluttering from under her dress -- almost every character has
been reduced to a one-line joke.
Little of the comedy of the three-way rivalry for Anne's hand remains, not
just because the script has been severely cut but because the puppets
aren't capable of exploiting it. The same is sadly true even of the
usually hilarious scenes of Falstaff's wooing of Mistress Ford, with
MacDougall working hard for laughs against an almost inert, if oddly
cuddly Falstaff. Given Puppetry Arts' reputation, it's hard to understand
why this primary puppet is so awkwardly handled and inexpressive.
There are some wonderfully inventive puppetry bits throughout the show --
a deep-sea gambit is particularly funny -- though few of them have much to
do with the play. Much more of the production seems to aim no higher than
a puppet equivalent of animated cartoons -- and not classic animation but
the third-rate, Saturday morning, made-for-TV variety. It may be that
there's a great puppet show buried within "Merry Wives" waiting to be
born. This isn't it.

This message comes from Sean Johnson.

Puppet Up! for adults only. Featuring the Henson Puppet Improv Company June 21, 8:30 pm, June 23, 8:30 pm, and and June 24, 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm. at the Improv Theater in Hollywood, CA.

Patrick and I will be performing in the show on Saturday. I’ll be in the 8:30 show and Patrick will be in the 10:30 show.

From the company that for fifty years has celebrated irreverence, creativity and performance comes PUPPET UP! (for adults only), featuring The Henson Puppet Improv Company, a demonstration of what happens when the perilous and provocative forms of traditional comedic improvisation are mixed with a bunch of puppets. With a motley group of characters brought to life by the world renowned puppeteers of The Jim Henson Company, this is not your average night at the improv and it is definitely not for children. But all others are welcome to enjoy the uninhibited anarchy of live puppet performance as never seen before.

Click here to buy your ticket:
http://www.symfonee.com/Improv/hollywood/home/index.aspx

Hope to see you there.

Sean

http://www.swazzle.com Bringing Live Puppetry to You.

Much Ado About Puppets
Summer Puppet Festival

Presented by the The Pacific Northwest & Pacific Southwest Regions of the Puppeteers of America

August 4th Through 7th, 2006
University of Puget Sound Tacoma, Washington

www.muchadoaboutpuppets.org

Wonderful Shows!
Great Workshops!
Late Night Potpourri!
Exhibit!
Store!
Great Food!
Scads of Puppet Folks!

Registration is limited -don't miss out on a great experience!!!

PERFORMANCES
Harlequin's Cloak: Coad Canada Puppets
Mallory Lewis and Lambchop
The Tall Tales of Paul Bunyon: Snapdragon Puppet Productions
Frog Lake: Thistle Theatre
The Wacky Adventures of Lewis & Clark: Zing Productions
Mutiny on the Bounty: Little Blue Moon Theatre
Scott Land Marionettes
The Singing Turtle: Parasol Puppets
Shadows: Janaki Rapurna

WORKSHOPS
Behind the Scenes with Shari Lewis -by Pat Brymer
UNIMA SYMPOSIUM: Asia and America: Puppetry Gone Global-John Bell, Dimitri Carter, Karen Smith, Kathy Foley
The Puppetry of TEAM AMERICA: Behind the Scenes-Scott Land, Tony Urbano and other puppeteers from the film
The Artistry of Wayland Flowers and Madame -Thom Fountain
Marionette Manipulation -Tony Urbano
"There's No Business LikeŠ" - A Round Table With The Professionals
Scriptwriting for the Dramatically Challenged -Luman Coad
PLUS
Working with Closed Cell Foam (L200)
Marketing Your Puppet Theater
Masks and Movement
Lightweight Marionette Bodies Using Paper Mache
Puppet Repair and Restoration
Character Development for Puppeteers
The Ventriloquist Storyteller
Beginning Ventriloquism
Theatre of the Hands
Limberjacks
Performance Workshops
Puppet Creation and Character Design
And More!

Here is a PDF that has some of Lettie Schubert's contributions to the newsletter throughout the years.

What a great memorial for Lettie Schubert!
I felt her loving spirit all over the place.
Thanks to Mary Decker, the puppeteers, the friends and family who helped organize this extraordinary event!
She must have had so much fun watching us "from cloud nine."

In the spirit of Lettie (I'm 1000% sure she would have recommended that, too):

Go see "THE GLASS MENAGERIE," currently playing at Berkeley Rep - until July 2, 2006 (2nd extension already).
Tragedy wrapped into the bubble of poetry and magic, starring Rita Moreno and an amazing cast.
Every word on stage rings so true.
The show sparkles like a "piece of unicorn glass."

Love to all of you & a�wonderfully relaxing�summer!

Herbert

I don't want to be an obnoxious beggar.. but maybe a gracious beggar... If any of you feel inclined to help cover the expenses for Lettie's Memorial, your check would be warmly welcome.

The Memorial is being funded by private donations. Gage Schubert has generously offered to cover all the catering (an enormous bill), but the cost of renting the hall is on us. (Well, OK... mostly on me...) So far, I have a few private donations, but there is still a $500 deficit. Donations are welcome. But absolutely no pressure...

-Mary Decker

Well, it finally happened. As of June 1st, there is no longer free
parking on the Fort Mason grounds. So, if you are coming to the June
11 Memorial Tribute to Lettie Schubert, please be aware that you must
pay for parking unless you can find a free spot on the street. -Mary
Decker

*****************

Parking Rates :

First hour
Free

1.0-1.5 hours
$1.00

1.5-2.0 hours
$2.00

2.0-2.5 hours
$4.00

2.5-3.0 hours
$6.00

More than 3 hours
$8.00 per day

***********************
Here is a link to the Fort Mason parking information:
http://www.fortmason.org/aboutus/parking.shtml

Hello Guild Members,
Your June 2006 Newsletter is on the guild website and ready to download! Click here to go right to the download area: http://www.sfbapg.org/newsletter/archives/000619.html

Find out WHO IS RUNNING FOR GUILD OFFICERS (I know I was surprised!)
Also:
Guild members winning awards
Lettie Schubert Memorial
French Festival Report
Iranian Puppeteers
Animatronics in Film
Jon Ludwig (Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts) and Basil Twist have shows in Bay Area
Regional Puppetry Festival