Puppeteers of America 2015 National Festival at UConn
Amy Rush brought Chris and I to the puppetry conference with her very cool project DEPICT-O-MAT. The project uses Advanced DEPICT-O-MAT Technology to combine nostalgia, improvisation and toy theater to develop and dispense several short, personalized stories. We set up the booth and performed for the first couple hours of the festival, and then we spent the rest of the festival meeting puppeteers of all ages, taking workshops and seeing performances.
Amy also organized the Fringe Festival at the festival and Chris and I dusted off and recreated An Existential Variety Hour. We were very excited to share some of our work with the broader puppetry community. Our performance of got written up in the San Francisco Puppetry Guild Newsletter - they wrote, "the show embraced the audience, sharing the innocence of childhood and the angst of adult life."
The last day of the festival we joined the puppet parade. I don't think I've ever carried a parade puppet before by John Bell and Trudi Cohen (of Great Small Works) kept things moving and showed parade newbies like me what to do. I'm holding the giant sun goddess below (Chris is on the other side of the puppet).