Lili at the Santa Monica Puppetry Festival

Leslie Caron with puppets Renaldo the Fox and Carrot Top in the 1953 MGM musical Lili.

The inaugural Santa Monica Puppetry Festival kicked off today in Santa Monica, California and runs through Sunday. The festival is paying tribute to actress Leslie Caron and 1953 MGM puppet-themed musical Lili (better known as Carnival - the title of the film's stage adaptation) with a special screening of the movie followed by a discussion with Ms. Caron moderated by film historian Leonard Maltin.

Leslie Caron will also be leading an audience sing-along of the Academy Award-winning song "Hi Lili, Hi Lo" from Lili as part of the festival's Celebration of Puppetry. Also appearing on the bill is Mallory Lewis (who has taken over the role of Lambchop from her late mother Shari) and three legendary marionette puppeteers - Bob Baker, Tony Urbano and Rene Zendejas.

A Celebration of Puppetry Takes Place Saturday night 7:30 p.m.; the special screening of Lili is Sunday evening at the same time. Both events take place at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Visit www.santamonicapuppetryfestival.com for more details.

Update: Check out this classic interview with the puppets from Lili with a young Alan Cook on YouTube. In it Alan briefly explains some of the history behind the Lili puppets and their original puppeteers.

Puppetry In Central Florida

PBS Channel 15 in Daytona, Florida has posted to YouTube a segment from their Faces and Places series about their local puppetry community (click for parts one and two). After after New York and L.A., Central Florida is slowly but surely becoming the third major hub of puppetry activity in the U.S. and the video features several notable members of the Orlando puppet scene, including Heather Henson and Jamie Donmoyer (co-producers of the The Orlando Puppet Festival), James Donmoyer, John Kennedy and Tom Blasco.

If you want to see the emerging Central Florida puppet scene for yourself, make plans to attend the Orlando Puppet Festival November 7 - 9 in Orlando. Watch www.orlandopuppetfestival.com for details.

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!

UNIMA 2008 Festival Wrap-Up

Puppets like this giant Gecko were proudly on parade at the 2008 UNIMA World Puppetry Festival in Perth earlier this month (photo by Hilary Talbot).

The 2008 UNIMA World Puppetry Festival wrapped up last weekend in Perth, Australia. Fortunately for those of us who couldn't attend, several puppeteer/bloggers were at the festival shooting video, taking pictures and blogging almost daily. A few street performances from the festival were recorded and can be found on YouTube. Gary Friedman was in Perth and has been posting commentary and videos on his Puppetry News blog. Also blogging the festival were Naomi and Hil, who has a nice photoset from the festival on Flickr.

Puppet Films at the Orlando Puppet Festival

Handmade Puppet Dreams Volume 3 is coming to the Orlando Puppet Festival next week.

If you are in or near Orlando, Florida next weekend you catch Handmade Puppet Dreams - Heather Henson's ongoing, traveling mini-festival of puppet films and videos - at the 3rd Annual Orlando Puppet Festival. You can also check out a variety of puppetry performances and performances from a wide range of puppetry artists including The Cashore Marionettes, Sandglass Theatre, John Kennedy and more! See the festival schedule for full details.

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.

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.

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!

Int'l Festival of Animated Objects

Holy crackers!

Canada's been in desparate need of a real international puppet festival since, well, forver and in what's got to be the biggest news of `04 north of the 49th paralell we've finally got one! The Calgary Animated Objects Society is presenting The International Festival of Animated Objects January 21 - 30 in Calgary Alberta. The line-up includes some of North America's best puppeteers so you won't want to miss it.

Just remember to pack some warm clothes; Calgary can be a little chilly in the winter.