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| 2/1/10 We proudly welcome you to the 20th Annual National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center. We are delighted to be continuing in our efforts to raise awareness and share our love of the Art of the Puppet. The National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center provides a venue in which to collaborate, experiment, explore and develop ideas and talents relating to Puppet Arts. Open to puppeteers, theatre designers, actors, musicians, directors, artists, producers, playwrights and students, our goal is to develop new works for the Puppet Theater, while advancing the standards and skills necessary for the puppet artist. |
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| These eight days are an intense experience of being with puppet artists committed to the art form and to the creation of new works. The conference attracts preeminent guest artists, a professional staff, and provides the physical support to assist and guide the puppet artist. This summer we are honored to celebrate and highlight the achievements of our staff, who will be creating the main stage shows for us this year. We remain committed to creating that nurturing and supportive environment in which your visions can be realized. I invite you to dream, explore, invent, express, create, learn and grow with us this summer, as we move into our next decade of creating new puppet theater. I promise you an experience that you will never forget. Pam Arciero Artistic Director |
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6/19/09 Hello from cloudy Waterford. We have gotten through the "hump day" and everyone is pushing ahead swiftly. The Emerging Artists are committing to ideas now and starting to lock them in. As usual though, there is always room for new discoveries and Bonnie, Connor, Spencer, Zach and Marsian are deep in that process. We are all rooting for them. At this point, they are no longer leaning on the staff, but on their own vision and their own points of view. It's very exciting. The Group Projects are moving along as well. Frank's piece is towing the line between being cinematically beautiful and just plain cool. Paul Zaloom's group has filled the barn with drastically different points of view. Frankly, it's a little kooky, in a good way. Okay, now to other business. Last night was Eric Engelhardt Karaoke Night in the pub. Jim Napolitano of Nappy's Puppets (book him, he's awesome) kicked the evening off with a hilarious shadow show. (Thanks for that Nappy!) He even let people look at his set up and puppets so that they could learn from him. Then, the recipients of the scholarships given in Eric's name, Jon Levin & Jamie Haas, hosted the karaoke portion of the evening and they did a great job. Everyone was up dancing and singing. The timing was perfect because many of the puppeteers needed to let off some steam. Meanwhile, down in the pub, many others were hard at work building puppets until 3AM. Really. 3AM. I must go visit some of the projects now, but more to come. Hopefully as soon as tonight. There is so much to share. Oh, and if you're in the area, don't forget to buy your tickets! They're going fast. If you're not in the area, know that we wish you were. Happy trails. |
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Jean Marie has been taking photos throughout the week. We'll also be show casing more photos from webmistress Z and Richard Termine later on. Another journal entry is on it's way, but till then:
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6/15/09 SATURDAY On Saturday, a new group gathered in the Edith Oliver Theater. It was a beautiful day and anticipation, excitement and trepidation filled the air. This first Saturday might be my favorite day of the conference because I know that each year, one of these new people are about to become a life-long friend. The gathering in the "Edith" began with a brief orientation to the conference followed by an introduction of every person in attendance. This was followed by a conference wide project. It was a great "ice breaker" and wonderful way to kick things off. The day was filled with lots of "getting to know you" type activities. At 9:15 (we were running a little late), the entire conference, including The Flock Theater of New London, gathered in the Dina Merill Theater for a performance given by a handful of the Guest Artists and Mentors. It was a true Master Class. Talk about leading by example! SUNDAY Sunday morning brought our first morning movement class with Alice Bohm. It was AMAZING as usual. Robert Smythe also taught a very important class on playmaking on Sunday morning. The puppetry conference is focusing on story this year, so Robert's lesson has laid the foundation of what we are doing this week. Bart Roccoberton and Miguel Romero taught their Master class on Puppet Design and Puppet Building which has already proved invaluable as most at conference spent Sunday night building their puppets. Everyone is now in the thick of their journey. More to come shortly. |
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6/12/09 Jim Kroupa's mechanism building group gave us all a great laugh with their closing performance in the pub tonight. They were effectively the first "pub performance" of the season and they did a great job. Kroupa's group was followed by Ron Binion's movement students. They performed a wonderful piece that one can't help but assume was written by Ron himself. They clearly listened to everything he had to share, because their performance was impeccable. Both students and teacher were smiling ear to ear at the close of the evening as was the audience. Well done all! Alissa Hunniccut also helped kick off the "pub performance" section of the conference with her version of "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animal's". It was just what the first participant directed performance ought to be. Thanks for that Alissa and cast. Finally, we welcomed Phillip Huber, Jim & Judy Rose, Frank Maugeri, Larry Siegel, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Tyler Bunch, Robert Smythe, Derron Wood, Michael Langolis and Alice Bohm (just to name a few... we're not trying to brag here) to campus this evening. They were welcomed with a staff reception. As always we had a good laugh with both old and new friends and got reacquainted with each other. In the end, new bonds have been formed and both new and old ideas have been discussed. We're all tired and most are off to bed. Still, there are those who insist (and who could blame them) to stay up and work in the shop. As always, we are sad to see the pre-conference come to such a quick end, but we are all very excited about the work that is about to unfold over the next week. Please stay tuned to find out what's happening here in "puppet heaven". I am tired and must sleep now. It's a BIG day tomorrow and there's lot's to do. Oh, and if you are a friend or family member of someone here and have not heard from them recently, please assume that they are experiencing what one can only hope is their bliss. They'll call when they come up for air. Goodnight from "puppet heaven". |
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6/11/09 Jim Kroupa's students are working hard to get their puppets to a place where they can cure over night. (Let's hope that damp weather we are having doesn't slow the process). They're puppets look so cool. When you see these puppets tomorrow, you are going to be so jealous. Really. Both groups will be offering a public performance tomorrow night at 10PM in the pub. If you live in the area, try not to be lame and stay home. Come out and enjoy the show. It's always fun and heck, it's free! We had some really special arrivals here today as well. Miguel Romero arrived on campus and everyone was excited to welcome him. Miguel will be teaching design during the General Conference. We have always been about storytelling through puppetry, but design has not been something that we have focused on too much in the past. So Miguel's presence is a refreshing gift. Jane Henson also arrived today. She is going to work on her own project over the course of the next week and we're all excited that she will be participating in this capacity. Jane's a great cheerleader and mentor, but to have work along side our participants this year is a real treat. Finally, Francis Oplyo arrived this afternoon after a four day journey to Waterford which originated in his home country of Kenya. We were all relieved to see that he has arrived here safely. After what has proved to be something akin to a long winter's nap, we intend to have Francis participating with the rest of the conference tomorrow. I have to go to sleep now. My energy is waning and some of the general conference staff members will be arriving tomorrow evening. I'll just say it, they're the one's you have to watch out for. Our staff is so excited to be coming back this year and to be working with such inspiring participants that they are bursting with energy and chomping at the bit to get here. So if you can, follow along through the week and feed off of their energy! But for now, good night. More pictures tomorrow. And please, keep our puppet artists in your thoughts. They're awesome. -Jean Marie |
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6/10/09 Welcome to this year's daily journal! Please follow along as we work our way through the next 12 days. We will be posting daily updates with images of our participants hard at work. The Pre-Conference is under way here at the O'Neill Puppetry Conference and the participants are excited to have begun their studies with Ron Binion and Jim Kroupa. Over the course of three days, the Pre-Conference participants will be taking part in either Ron Binion's puppeteering workshop or Jim Kroupa's mechanism building workshop. Stay tuned for updates on their progress. See you tomorrow! -Jean Marie |
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1/15/09 The National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center provides a venue in which to collaborate, experiment, explore and develop ideas and talents relating to Puppet Arts. Open to puppeteers, theatre designers, actors, musicians, directors, artists, producers, playwrights and students, our goal is to develop new works for the Puppet Theater, while advancing the standards and skills necessary for the puppet artist. I promise you an experience that you will never forget.
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6/12/08
Tickets for the Friday and Saturday night performances can be purchased at the online O'Neill Theater Center Box Office, Tickets are not needed for the Saturday afternoon showings. We have some more photos to share with you here:
Tech has begun and the schedule has been set. The lights will dim at 7PM tomorrow night. Everyone here has invested their hearts and souls into this show. Each day at the O'Neill seems like a week. The amount of work that has been squeezed into this week is enormous! Words can not express the excitement and anticipation felt here as we collectively look forward to sharing these new works of puppetry with the world. |
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6/10/08 Jim Kroupa led a the intensive workshop on mechanism building - participants worked ten and eleven hour days to create mechanisms, develop them into puppets and then perform them to showcase their work on the final night. Needless to say, it was intense. Robert Smythe and Martin P. Robinson led a mind blowing movement workshop intensive. Participants spent two sessions a day with Robert where they explored story lines, movement for stage and making strong choices as a puppeteer. Once a day the participants met with Martin to learn puppet manipulation for television. Both proved to be challenging and exciting experiences for the participants who are still buzzing about their time
Both workshops closed with pub time. Jim's group performed their puppets to great applause. They were awesome. Robert's group led the pub goers in an exercise that was both fun and challenging as well as a fitting lead in to the main conference which is currently in process.
The official conference has now begun here at the O'Neill Theater Center. Participants are being asked to stretch, grow, think differently and try something new. All are daring to risk, and it's so exciting! What a gift. |
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More updates to come soon! Also, if you have a question or comment, feel free to sign and be a part of our online message board. Also we now have an RSS feed on this page, so you can subscribe, and using an RSS reader, be up to date whenever we have an update to share! |
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2/29/08
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Email Mailing List - if you would like to be included on an announcement mailing list to keep informed as to all the happenings and updates of the Conference, simply Click Here and Subscribe! |
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1/22/08 The O’Neill Puppetry Conference provides a venue in which to collaborate, experiment, explore and develop ideas and talents relating to Puppet Arts. Open to puppeteers, theatre designers, actors, musicians, directors, artists, producers, playwrights and students, our goal is to develop new works for the Puppet Theater, while advancing the standards and skills necessary for the puppet artist. These eight days are an intense experience of being with puppet artists committed to the art form and to the creation of new works. We remain committed to creating a nurturing and supportive environment in which your visions can be realized by bringing in preeminent guest artists, a professional staff, and providing the physical support to assist and guide the puppet artist. I invite you to dream, explore, invent, express, create, learn and grow with us this summer. I promise you an experience that you will never forget. Pam Arciero |
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| 1/22/08 Hey everyone - as you can see the website has gotten a bit of a face lift! One of the things that I am really excited about is our new message board; a result of a request made at last summers conference that we could have a better way to communicate online with eachother. I encourage old and new O'Neill participants to sign up and become an active member of our new online community. There's even more awesome new stuff in store for our site - so be sure to check back here often for news and updates. |
2010 3-Day Intensive : June 9-11 Main Conference: June 12-20 |
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Directed by: Richard Termine, Tyler Bunch, & Marianne Kubick Dramaturgs: Lenny Pinna & Roger Danforth Design Consultant: Miguel Romero |
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Manipulation - Ronald Binion Mechanisms - Jim Kroupa Writing - Robert Smythe Design - Paul Andrejco, Miguel Romero & Paul Rudolph |
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Scott Hitz - The LIttle Prince
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Now accepting applications! |
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