Find out the details here.

Bunraku is an amazing form of traditional Japanese Puppetry, more properly called ningyō jōruri.

Martin Holman, is the coordinator of the Japanese studies program at University of Missouri and the director of the troupe.  He studied Japanese at BYU, and is the first non-Japanese to ever be trained in and perform ningyō jōruri in Japan.

Holman contacted us through our Utah Puppetry website. “We are, to my knowledge, the only troupe outside Japan that performs traditional Japanese puppetry,” he said.  He wanted to clarify that he was slightly misquoted in the BYU press release.

The release stated:

“Though this performance will be family friendly, Bunraku is intended for adults. Some thematic elements could frighten young children, Holman said.”

Holman clarified to us:

“I am not quite quoted accurately at one point. Kids from kindergarten up will probably be okay with the show, but it could be boring for younger kids (because they will be seated in a large theater, which doesn’t always work for little kids) or just a bit scary for early elementary age if they skittish. (We have been known to take some puppets out into the audience.)”

The performance will also be entirely in Japanese, with English supertitles, which could also be a factor for parents to consider for their individual children.  But families, including children, are encouraged to come.

Holman also indicated that if ticket sales warrant it, BYU may add a matinee on Saturday.  Tickets are $11, or $6 with a BYU or student ID, and are available online at www.byuarts.com, by phone at (801) 422-4322 or in person at the Harris Fine Arts Center Ticket Office.

Don’t miss this chance to expereince this beautiful cultural experience with your family.

The board met on September 20, 2008 to discuss guild business and we laid out plans for the coming year. As many of you already know, the Utah Wyoming Puppetry Guild is now known as the Puppetry Arts Guild of Utah, or PAGU (pronounced “pa-joo”.)Non-profit incorporation plans are on track and are being handled by Nat Reed.
Change in dues

We have reduced the cost of membership in the Puppetry Arts Guild of Utah. Emailing our newsletters has practically eliminated the need for postage, so we felt a reduction in dues was warranted. We will still mail to those without a computer if we know who they are. If you want to become a member, please send a check for $10 for your 2009 annual membership to:

Carla Schulz

P.O.BOX 115

Paradise, UT 84328

Please join before the end of this year or your name will be purged from our files. Our fiscal year begins on January 1 and runs for the calendar year.

Next meeting: October 11, 2008

We are working on a more sophisticated plan for advertising and promotion of our guild and our events and workshops, so we will be video-taping footage on Saturday October 11th between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm at the Orem Public Library. Come prepared to perform a tiny segment of your best show. A montage of guild puppeteers will be put together from these bits. We would like to keep things simple and use the stage that is available at the library. If your show has special staging requirements, be prepared to set up your own stage, but keep in mind that we will only tape about a minute of your work.

We video-taped many of you at our last workshop and that video will be available soon on our website and for use on community access television.

Puppets on display: April 3rd, 2009

This year, our annual workshop will be preceded by a month-long puppetry exhibit, beginning April 3rd at Jeff Cobabe’s gallery in Salt Lake City.

Bring your best puppets for display! All members who are current on their dues are eligible to display their puppetry art. We are evaluating the number and type of pedestals that will be available. Puppets that the public can interact with would be a welcome part of the exhibit, but is not mandatory because it is hard to monitor. It is up to you to encase your puppets in plexiglass display boxes if you do not want them to be touched. Photos or sketches should be mounted, or better yet, framed and wired for display.

Friday night, April 3rd will be the opening night of the show, and we will hold our annual business meeting to elect new officers then.

18th Annual Utah Puppetry Festival: April 25th. 2009

Our workshop will be held on April 25th and will also be held at Jeff Cobabe’s gallery space. Nat Reed will be our festival director. We are setting up the classes now, so if there’s something you want to teach, contact Nat Reed with the information: (801) 259-6040 or nat@utahmarionette.org

It takes a lot of work to put on our annual festival, so you are encouraged to help in any way you can.

So far, the following classes will be offered:

* Millicent Lewis – Urethane Foam Puppet Demo

* Susan Neidert – Talking Tube Puppets – $5

* Joe Flores – Gorilla Marionette – $1

* Nat Reed – Marionette Performance and Discussion

The guild is considering booking a big name puppet show and suggestions are welcome.

Pioneer Craft House

The Pioneer Craft House offers classes to the community, and guild members in good standing are free to offer to teach paid classes. PAGU reserves the right to monitor the content and quality of these classes. We will elect a guild liaison who will coordinate our use of these facilities.

The Craft House is available to us for guild performances as well as our regular monthly meetings. Monthly meetings will be held during the fair-weather months. Winter meetings should be held locally by each county/geographical area, to minimize having to drive in uncertain weather.

Puppets in the Park

PAGU is in the process of developing a “Puppets in the Park” event in cooperation with the Covey Arts Center in Provo. This one day event will be in June or July and will be patterned after the Storytelling Festival. We anticipate having sponsored tents, and a food court. All input should be directed to Joe Flores.

Guild Officers

o Joe Flores – President

o Jeff Cobabe – Salt Lake County VP

o Susan Neidert – Northern Utah VP

o Lorie Hawley – St. George VP

o Mark Sage – Weber County VP

o OPEN – Utah County VP

o Millicent Lewis – Secretary/Newsletter

o Carla Schulz – Treasurer

o Jonathan Max – Webmaster

We encourage all of our members to join Puppeteers of America. We are working on getting our Puppeteers of America charter so all guild officers must be P of A members in good standing.

Members in the News

Millicent Lewis was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in Denver in August and received national attention because of her Uncle Sam puppet. So much for crazy hats at conventions, puppets rule!

Millicent Lewis with Uncle Sam and Kurt Bestor at Enesco Field 2008

Upcoming Shows

TBA

Puppet announcements should be sent to Millicent Lewis

My name is Davis Kirby and I am helping Jeff Cornett and Lee Bryan, the Co-Directors of the 2009 National Puppetry Festival, with some publicity.  I wanted to see if we could get some information in your next regional newsletter  and put a link on your regional website.  Right now, we just want to do a brief introduction of the Festival, and later I will be sending you a little article once a month about the progress of the festival and the accompanying events.

I don’t know if you have a website, but I also wanted to send you a jpg you can post on your regional website and hyperlink to our own website.  The address of our website is www.nationalpuppetryfestival.org and the official launch date is September 1, 2008.   Please feel free to use the moving JPG or the static JPG to link (attached).

Here is our brief news splash:

For Immediate Release:

The 2009 National Puppetry Festival will be held July 14 – 19 on the campus of Georgia Tech University in Atlanta.  The festival organizers are in the process of finalizing performers and workshop presenters.  Anyone wishing to submit a performance or workshop for consideration should do so immediately.

Performance inquiries should be sent to Reay Schloss at reaypuppet at yahoo dot com.

Workshop inquiries should be sent to Michael and Valerie Nelson at mail at magicalmoonshine dot org.

The festival website, www.nationalpuppetryfestival.org, will include full information about registration, performances, and workshops beginning September 1.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you.

Davis Kirby
Publicity Director

Making Origami Dragon Puppets with Donna Price

Building Horse Marionettes with Millicent Lewis

There were a number of puppets in attendance

Jeff Cobabe demonstrates a puppet he has been working on

Hopefully we can get some additional photos from other attendees and post them too.

http://utahpuppetry.com/17th-annual-puppetry-workshops-variety-show/

The workshops in past years have been a blast. Watch for pictures and video from the event here on the Utah Puppetry blog after the 26th. Hope to see you there!

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Welcome to the wonderful world of puppetry in Utah!