PCT LATEST NEWS - WINTER 2005


MOVING WORDS PROJECT - 5th October 2005 (l to r) Steve Tiplady, Andrew Muir, Maximum Humphries, John Wright, Rachael McGill, Nina Steiger, Gavin Skerritt and Ramon Abad

A YEAR IN THE PUPPET CENTRE
2005

It would seem a shame not to take advantage of the traditional end-of-year retrospective mood with a brief overview of some of the crucial puppetry moments of the last twelve months.

2005's highlights must include the dazzling array of festivals on offer, including the newly instated large-scale Dynamics festival in Birmingham, the phenomenally successful Skipton festival in the North East and Norwich’s excellently programmed Spanish-themed 25th anniversary celebrations (for more information on this year’s festival glut see our special feature in the next Animations Online). The loss of Visions from the artistic landscape in the South East however was keenly felt.

There were some notable developments within companies and in front of new audiences: The Little Angel was invited to take on Broadway (and win!) with The Mousequeen; the puppeteers of the Puppet Barge took matters into their own hands, staging Shakespeare adaptations in the early summer evenings on the Barge, whilst Movingstage Marionette Company received ACE funding for their adaptation of Heart of Darkness, subsequently invited to Pakistan. Blind Summit took on a high profile collaboration with Anthony Minghella at the ENO, a tremendous move in the increasing ‘high art’ recognition of puppetry so stimulated by The Little Angel’s RSC Venus and Adonis last year (further established by the exciting appointment of the RSC’s Gregory Doran to the theatre’s Board last month) and theatre-rites installed themselves at the British Library.

It’s been a great year too for new productions with new work premiering from big-hitters Faulty Optic and Green Ginger as well as DNA, Babbling Vagabonds; Horse and Bamboo’s innovative pPod; Gavin Skerritt; Full Beam Visual Theatre; Idolrich and Figure of Speech multimedia to name just a few. And with ever- increasing art-form recognition, formal training opportunities have proliferated, with new courses run by Royal Holloway University; the Central School of Speech and Drama, Wimbledon School of Art and ACE South East, who have also supported a unique opportunity to investigate the work of Basement Theatre of Tbilisi through two residential courses offering greater provision for those who wish to develop skills in the art-form.

This year has seen the complete renovation of PCT’s space into a bright airy studio alongside the continuing renovation of our activities. Animating the Animators has gained pace, with a series of workshops run across the country and masterclasses from artists renowned as Neville Tranter and Stephen Mottram. The reinstated bursary scheme is now in Year 3 investing in artists of outstanding potential and supporting a unique development period. Moving Words, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, has commissioned two new collaborations between writers and puppeteers and will see puppetry on the main stage at the Soho Theatre for the first time. Our website has been entirely redesigned and Animations Online has received support from the University of Winchester and the Arts Council to invest in the critical infrastructure of the art-form over the coming year.

And we’ve been locally busy too, despite the loss of our Wandsworth grant at the end of this year; we remain committed to plans for the Borough. The new studio offers reduced rate space for local arts and community groups (see Space) and PCT has been consolidating its programme of holiday workshops for young people, now booking for every school break and drawing from a range of artists as diverse as the different forms of puppetry explored. Ongoing project collaborations with local groups such as the St Johns Hill Estate continue and we are now planning longer term projects for 2006 and 7.

We will shortly be sending out the first of our company newsletters. Most of the information we send goes out electronically – so please do make sure we have your correct contact details on file. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback on all of our activities: PCT exists as a resource, advocate and agency for all those committed to the puppetry in any form and your voices and ideas are as important a part of our planning as our own. So for 2006, let’s make it our New Years resolution to keep in touch - it’ll probable be the easiest one we make!

Wishing you a warm and very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Beccy Smith, Director, Puppet Centre Trust


* commissioned artist