COUNT VON KARLOFF'S CREEPY PUPPET SHOW

Puppet Dojo will be presenting "Count Von Karloff's Creepy Puppet Show" at the Columbia Branch Library on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

Created by performer Donald J. Morrison, “Count Von Karloff's Creepy Puppet Show" is a macabre mixture of poetry, stories and songs, brought to life using a variety of puppetry styles. The pieces include the old English folk tale "Teeny Tiny" and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

The event is a family friendly, half-hour entertainment with an opportunity to see the puppets up-close after the performance.

Seating is very limited.

The Columbia Branch Library is located at 13824 W. River Road - North, Columbia Station, Ohio 44028.

For further information check out Puppet Dojo on the web at:

www.puppetdojo.blogspot.com

 

How To

Other than a hand puppet pattern posted on here a few years ago I really haven’t explored the “how to” claims of this site.

So…

I’m trying to get motivated and actually create a show that has been in the works for over half a decade. I shall attempt to post photos and commentary as I go. It’s going to be an assortment of specialty puppets that will be built as hand puppets, free-standing rod puppets, and even some animatronics built on the bases of electronic toys.
We’ll see.

Zoinks

Wow. Two years without a post.

Possibilitarian Puppet Theatre

http://ingenuityfestival2010.sched.org/event/4d234858068d020773194f17117c6100

I've discovered another puppetry event in Cleveland. I'm more than slightly ticked off that blogger won't let me just cut and paste the page long posting I wrote in word....

GRRRR!

I'm feeling lazy so just click on the ingenuity fest logo.

Puss in Boots

I was planning a theoretical trip to New York and was bummed to see that I would miss a puppet opera performance of Puss In Boots at the New Victory Theatre. Then I discovered it was in rehearsals in Cleveland before it hits New York.

There are performances next Saturday, September 18, 2010. You can get free preview tickets at the Playhouse Square website.

http://www.playhousesquare.org/default.asp?playhousesquare=58&objId=992

You can ONLY get them online or by physically going to the box office. They won’t let you order them over the phone. I had some initial problems with their site and had to TOTALLY disable my security for the site to work (ignore their advice on the MEDIUM security setting - - it doesn’t work). Tickets to the English Language performance are unavailable, so hurry before all of the Spanish Language performances are gone as well.

1.5 Years Later

Wow. It's been awhile. I actually had some puppet performances and built a new show towards the end of last year. I'll post the details and pictures soon.

Conflicted

I am so bummed that I didn’t promote Wakka Wakka Productions amazing performance of FABRIK: The Legend of M. Rabinowitz at the Mandel JCC of Cleveland last month. Truly not only an amazing pierce of puppet theatre, but one of the best pieces of theatre in general I have ever seen. Simply amazing. At the morning show I attended there were maybe only two dozen people in attendance (and more than a quarter of those were staff).

Those of you lucky enough to live near San Francisco or Princeton have an opportunity to see this work and I highly recommend it.

http://www.wakkawakka.org/

Because of work I wasn’t able to attend a workshop that was being offered with the group and to be honest I wasn’t really interested in attending. After seeing the group in action I wished I had. A local theatre company, Theatre Ninjas sponsored the workshop with the troupe.

I’ve seen some of Theatre Ninjas work at the Centrum Theatre at Coventry. I saw their production of a collection of absurdist plays the called Mad World… where I discovered that I didn’t like absurdist theatre. But I thought the performers and production was top notch…and I loved the projected penguin cartoon entitled A Video of the History of the Theatre of the Absurd that preceded the show. (click here to watch).

They have a production coming up this weekend.

Here’s their press release:

Big [BOX] 2009 opens with a double bill - puppetry and theatre combine in The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm from Theater Ninjas and artists Katherine Kurre and Danielle Hisey present their new work Kissmet! The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm is a story of about friends, cruelty and bugs. Mixing physical theater and puppetry, the show follows the duo on an epic journey that takes them to the heights of fame, the gutters of poverty, the halls of power and the kitchens of kitchens. Through all their ups and downs, they must learn to help others and get along...assuming they don't kill each other first.Taking threads from physical theater, puppetry, pop culture, clowning and improv, Theater Ninjas has crafted a series of comic misadventures reminiscent of Tom & Jerry, Laurel & Hardy and Samuel Beckett. Akin to a live action cartoon, the endearing characters find humor in the outrageous and the mundane, not to mention the sacred and the profane. It is through this child-like bug's-eye view that they encounter many of the problems and conundrums that make up daily life. Theater Ninjas was founded in 2006 and performs original works and interpretations emphasizing accessible stylistic experimentation, drawing on elements of physical theater, film, improv comedy, dance, and graphic novels. The ninjas offer a chance for up-and-coming artists to develop their craft while providing affordable experiences that entertain, provoke and excite the next generation of Clevelanders.

http://www.theaterninjas.com/.

Theater Ninjas on Facebook!

Theater Ninjas on YouTube!

Here’s where I’m conflicted.

I was actually really looking forward to this show… until I saw their You Tube promotional clip. As I suspected, the puppetry part of the “puppetry and theatre combine” seems to be a sock puppet on one of the performer’s hands. And while I’m sure it will be effectively used, I’m looking for a bit more when I seek out a puppetry performance.

I remember going to see a modern adaptation of Ubu Roi in New York… THE Puppet show of Puppet shows, and though the poster promised puppets, there wasn’t one in site anywhere - - the actor as puppet. Yeah right. I’ve used the “actor as puppet” shtick in productions of my play The Battle for Christmas (Uber-marionation!), but I also had actual puppets in the show, interacting with the cast via video monitors.

So while the clip has a fun, zany, I Love Lucy quality to it that I am sure is quite charming in the theatre (video can NEVER capture the live theatre experience), the promoted puppetry aspects were more what I was interested in so I probably won’t attend. Of course now I won’t go and the thing will end with the Beetlebug and the Bad Worm battling a twelve foot tall animatronic dung beetle.