Yesterday the Umbrella Theatre Collective spent a simply marvelous day in the Secret Garden at Harvest Festival. As a part of the charming arts program we brought puppetry to the punters, ten at a time. The festival vibe was great with Portishead headlining and no one leaving disappointed.
The vital statistics:
Number of cops who saw the performance: 4
Number of crepes consumed: 2
Number of art installations accidentally eaten: 5
Number of puppets saved: 4
Number of puppet deaths: 13
Our little theatre nestled amongst the pines in the Secret Garden
We had an armed guard for a while. And discovered that cops are afraid of puppets…who would have thunk it??
Chillin’ with our friend Marty from the Glitter Militia
We presented ‘Save Me’, a 10 minute puppet show that we created as part of the Underbelly arts lab in 2010. The host character allows 10 audience members at a time into Umbrella Theatre and we were running shows continuously for 2.5 hours! It is the tragic-comic tale of a puppet of misfortune. Tied to railway tracks, he explains to the small audience why he quit smoking, and his hopes of becoming a father. Then a train appears, and situation becomes dire. The show takes a ‘choose your own adventure’ turn, and the audience controls the poor puppet’s fate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zezN9z2ySwY]
What goes on behind the scenes? Even a 10 minute puppet show takes hours, days and weeks to create. The collaborative process for Save Me was intensive, with myself and Natalia predominantly working on the script and performance, and the design led by Ella, Matina and Aesha. Nonetheless we all had a hand inn all aspects of the show, as you can see me pitching in with a paint job for the train below!
Here’s a few more behind the scenes sneak peeks!
