Puppet Rampage DVD Now on Sale

Last year I had the privilege of attending Puppet Rampage 2007, the most recent Puppeteers of America National Festival in St. Paul, MN. Over 500 puppeteers - including many of the very best in the world - gathered on the campus of Concordia University for an amazing week of puppetry performances, workshops and networking. I hadn't attended a puppet festival in over a decade and had never been to a PofA Festival before and it was an absolutely incredible experience.

The entire festival was recorded by a tireless team of videographers and now almost exactly a year later their footage has been edited in to a special Puppet Rampage 2 disc DVD set that's available to purchase from Puppeteers of America for just $20. Whether you couldn't be there last year or you just want to relive the memories help support Puppeteers of America and order a copy today!

The Rag Show Live

Tom Cruise (as Geraldo Rivera) and a monkey pundit get silly in the latest episode of The Rag (show).

The latest episode of The Rag Show was taped live at Puppet Rampage 2007 and is now up and available for you to enjoy.

Puppet Rampage Round-Up

Another PofA National Festival has come and gone (photo of the Puppet Rampage mascot by Stacey Rebecca).

Puppet Rampage 2007 has come and gone and by all accounts was one of the PofA's most successful festivals ever. The final two installments of The Rampage Diaries - click for number six and number seven - are now available. If you were at the festival and have photos to share they can be uploaded to The Puppet Rampage group on Flickr and/or tagged "Puppet Rampage 2007". If anyone has video from the festival they'd like to share please drop me a line at puppetvision [at] gmail dot com and I'll be sure to link to it as well.

More Rampage Diaries

The Amazing Ballzo was just one of many puppets entertaining at the Puppet Rampage festival on Thursday.

Sleep is in short supply, but great puppetry isn't as The Rampage continues in St. Paul with marionettes, shadow puppets and much, much more.

Wednesday Rampage Diary

New York's Drama of Works can be seen performing Warhol in the latest episode of Rampage Diaries.

Another installment of Rampage Diaries is online; this episode covers some of the diverse puppetry that was on display at Puppet Rampage on Wednesday.

Handmade Puppet Dreams 3

The third installment of Heather Henson's traveling mini-fest of puppet film and video Handmade Puppet Dreams premiered last night.

I attended the premiere of Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams 3 last night (and saw Handmade Puppet Dreams 2 for the first time the night before) and it was a fascinating presention of independent, underground and alternative puppet films from artists like Lyon Hill, Jason von Hinezmeyer, Guilherme Marcondes and many others. While there's nothing quite like seeing films screened live on a big screen in front of hundreds of people, two of my favourite films that were screened last night - Tyger and In Private - can be watched online.

Handmade Puppet Dreams programs are next appearing at the Puppets on the Sound festival in Huntington, NY August 9th & 15th. Look for Handmade Puppet Dreams 3 at film and puppetry festivals internationally in 2007-08.

21/07/07 Update: Added the information and a link to the Puppets on the Sound festival.

Rampage Diaries: Day Three

The guys from the Puppet Rampage video crew perform a little impromptu puppetry with their cameras in the latest installment of Rampage Diaries.

The latest installment of Rampage Diaries (see previous post) is available and features brief highlights from the opening day of the festival, including performances by Mexico's terrific Saltimbanque, Leonidas Kassapides from Greece and the amazing Cashore Marionettes.

Vlogging Puppet Rampage

Puppet Rampage 2007 - the biannual Puppeteers of America National Festival - kicked off today in St. Paul, MN with a keynote address by Ronnie Burkett and performances by a variety of companies, including The Cashore Marionettes, Philip Hubner and In The Heart of the Beast among others. This is supposed to be one of the biggest and best national festivals PofA has ever staged and it's even being vlogged!

The PofA has hired a company called PBC Productions to create a documentary of the festival and they'll be posting videos about the festival as it unfolds this week. In their latest dispatch they snag interviews with fest attendees Sandy Spieler, Paul Zaloom and directors Drew Allison and Bob Nathanson. If you're not attending the festival in person, follow along with PBC's adventures via their Rampage Diaries.

Stayed tuned to PuppetVision this week for more pics and videos from Puppet Rampage as they come in!