Tag / theatre

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  • Circus-y disco e-luminated book

    Quite a long title for a tiny weeny book. This one was rather wonderful to make, and was programmed using a simple Arduino blinky pattern and the teeny-weeny-ATtiny. (so teeeeeeny) Here is the process: All the layers putting the pages together The lighting The control -including wonderful paper battery holder curtsy of Natalie Freed and…

  • San Francisco Center for the Book

    We held our second e-luminated book workshop at the SFCB this weekend. It was a really lovely and creative group -they experimented with light and switches and made some really beautiful tunnel books in a very short time. We’ll be teaching the same class again in the new year, and will also be teaching a…

  • Coyote Peep Show

    Oh look. I made a peep show. It is a coyote peep show where shadows of wolves howl at shadows of wolves with boobs. peep through the eye of the eye hooooooooooooooo wwwwwwwwwwww lllllllllllllllllllllllllll This is another prototype for my final project for the bookbinding class I am taking. And I am terribly excited, because…

  • Paper Cinema: West

    (photo: Paul Blakemore / Mayfest) A couple of months ago I received one of those emails you always hope for: a message from a producer asking if I’d be interested in working on a project with one of my FAVOURITE theatre companies, Paper Cinema. Of course I promptly agreed, and responded with plenty of superlatives…

  • Puppet Colony

    I had heard about a group of nomadic puppeteers who had settled in Jaipur, and was lucky enough to be introduced to Rajesh Bhat, a Rajasthani puppeteer living in the heart of the community. He invited me to his home on the outskirts of the city. He lives in a Kathputli-colony. This is a slum…

  • Oriya Puppetry

    Orissa has a history of puppetry, which goes back a few hundred years. As is the story with many of the artforms I have encountered in India, there are few groups still practicing. I went to visit one of these troupes in central Orissa. The group are led by local academic Gouranga Dash. Gouranga tells…

  • Shadows Under the Banyan Tree

    Shortly after plonking my backpack on the sofa and gulping my sweet tea, Pulavar and his son informed me of their gig in Fort Kochi. They had been booked to perform an abridged Ramayana that evening. I was quite relieved to peel myself out of the car after 8 hours wedged in between a troupe…

  • Happy New Year from India!

    HAPPY 2013 everyone! Just a quick post before I head further south to start the long anticipated residency in Shoranur. I am slowly getting used to the wonderfully full-of-colours-busy-topsy-turvy lifestyle in India. I arrived in Kolkata a week ago, and was met by my wonderful host Georgie from Sound Travels. I have spent most of…

  • Oedipus in Boots

    I made film for Oedipus in Boots, the Wardrobe Theatre’s “new mother loving panto”. I would’ve liked to have been more involved, but alas, time would not permit, so I designed the opening credits. It was a short sequence that follows Oedipus the cat’s journey along the river whilst (James Bond style) crediting the actors.…

  • Indian Shadow Puppetry

    At the start of next year I will go on a research trip to to India. I will carry out research into the history and cultural context of shadow puppetry and crafts in a number of places in India. [image: Ramachandra Pulvar] This will include spending 3 weeks with puppeteer Ramachandra Pulvar in Kerala. Pulvar is from a…

  • Spoon-Fed

    This months Spoon-Fed (a wonderful Bristol based micro-funding event) was full of creative ideas, and inventive ways of communicating those creative ideas. The night goes something like this: we all pay a fiver and get some soup and bread (delicious); 8 artists present a project idea (interesting); everyone votes the project they want to fund (democratic); the artist with…

  • Blue Puppet Peter

    Our first run of improvised shadow puppetry hosted by the Blue-Blue Peter team Making in the White Bear pub (downstairs from the Wardrobe Theatre)

  • Laser Cutting Fun

    me mdae sum farm anamals wiv a lazzzzAr cutting devish (then I went c-c-c-crazy and made a little film about it…) (these will be the puppets and set used in “flies” -the Pins and Needles show I am working on) wabbit, lama, doggy oink, baa, moo.

  • Live Animation

    I am working with the lovely ladies at PINS AND NEEDLES productions to create ‘live animations’ for their next show ‘Flies’. This morning I led a devising session for the cast with the OHP. The show is ‘an edgy black comedy about paranoia and clingfilm’ -with a tag-line like that you know it’s going to…