As posted previously I had the privilege of travelling down to the home of Puppetcraft in Devon to take a week long marionette carving course with John Roberts. This is my second training course with John, the first being in 2016 which took place at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington, London. This time there was a class of three – my colleagues being both fun to be with and wonderfully supportive – last time there was a class of six. Although almost a month ago the experience is very much in my head. I am itching to get back to making once the wonderful Edinburgh Festival has packed up for another year.
Ada and Little Toy are bringing their stories to Beacon Arts this Sunday. Ada is going on an epic adventure to find her seven brothers and Little Toy is risking life and limb on the high seas in search of best friend Gem. Don’t miss them! Little Toy is at 11 am and Ada’s story – The Seven Ravens – is at 1.30. Click on the links to book! #puppets #stories #fairytales #families #storytelling #objecttheatre #beaconarts
Last week was glorious, so very sunny and also extremely challenging. Me and my wee van travelled down to Totnes in Devon to spend a week woodcarving with John Roberts of Puppetcraft. There were two other woodcarving students – lovely folk – and we spent an idyllic, if very hardworking, week designing and making our own marionettes. This was the second time I had done this course with John – the first being in May 2016 at The Little Angel – and it was really good to revisit the processes and to approach the week with a better understanding of puppetry and even a little bit of wood carving experience under my belt. Very happy.
Taking a coffee break to update the show script and record any changes in the Celtx file. Then add all (!) the rehearsal notes from Stacey Mitchell and we are good to go. Final days rehearsal tomorrow at Edinburgh Acting School’s Studio – can’t wait!
Here we have the empty space, an invitation to Tragic Carpet from Edinburgh Palette for the entire month of March. The invitation is to reconnect with the work of the company and with each other and to find out what our next steps will be.
So what will be happening?
We will be getting things out and dusting them down. We will be looking at different ways we might approach the exploration of the Grimm’s fairytale, The Seven Ravens, revisiting work already done, seeing which ideas stay and which have to go.
This process – which is an open one (and we are learning what this might look like) – will help us to talk to people who are interested in this piece, in Tragic Carpet and its work or just curious about puppets! We hope to rekindle relationships, meet new people and work out our next steps. We have a list of questions we want to ask ourselves and also our visitors.
So on Tuesday 1st March that empty space will have some things put into it, props, puppets, some techy stuff, the makings of tea and coffee, a comfy chair or two and we will see where it all goes.
We will be making coffee for visitors every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 11am. We have also invited lots of people to visit at other times – artists who might be interested in the work, venues, festivals – and are really excited and looking forward to meeting them.
An empty space, G16 at St Margaret’s House (Photo by Panna)
tragic carpet 