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Office man’s near demise

December 3, 2013 //
4

us as well

I thought everything is honky dory in my studio. All the puppets are delighted about the latest film. Even Lil’ Sculpture came down from his shelf last Saturday to take a minor part in “A Dede day @ the bank”. He hasn’t had this kind of attention for ages. The visitors didn’t tire to tell him what a cutie he was, and of course he was extremely cheerful when he climbed back onto his shelf after everybody had gone.

Much to my surprise I realised today that Office Man must have been terribly despondent. I found him hanging upside down on his strings. No idea how this happened. He was very much in disarray and couldn’t speak after I rescued him. Lil’ Sculpture must have seen everything (after all he is sitting right next to Office Man) but he keeps mum.  I hope Lil’ Sculpture wasn’t to boastful about his reception by the  crowd. It could have made Office Man feel inadequate. I promise, once he had a bit of a rest, I will get to the bottom of the story. I won’t let him off the hook.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network, workshop

A Dede day in the bank

December 1, 2013 //
6

A day at the bank

Hurrah, the Dedes are happy again. Yesterday we had some people around for another workshop. The highlight was the visit by their old mate Punch too. (He was one of the puppets who found a new home at the exhibition.) Unlike the first workshop, we had no idea where the story would take us this time. In the previous workshop we had a theme: we knew from the outset, that one of the Dedes will recite a Dada poem, and we had a long discussion about the sense and nonsense of Dada poems. Yesterday we started with an blank canvas (except for the few puppets who had held their hands up to take part. They were eagerly waiting on stage to get started). Of course when Punch too entered the room, he jumped straight onto the stage and wanted to play with his old mates. He has a different dress and you will know who he is, when you watch the video. The final piece ended up to be more Dada than the previous one….

I absolutely loved the process. As usual, when you don’t have anything to go by, it was a sluggish start. To kick-start I asked everyone to say one word that popped into their mind without thinking. But of course Rob D Light with his hankerchief across his face  was hanging out on stage waiting for the filming to start and it wasn’t a surprise that we very quickly agreed to set the scene in a bank. From there on there was no holding back. In the end we were laughing so much I even forgot to take images or I wasn’t looking carefully and had all sort of human body parts in the pictures. I couldn’t use a good chunk of the footage. This will teach me a lesson.

I am not directing during workshops at all, and the storyline is entirely driven by the participants. I am just an observer and what I see flows into post-production. The session yesterday was three hours and with easing in and post mortem, there is not enough time to finish everything. So I completed the film this morning.

Thanks to everbody who helped making this flash drama and I hope the final product finds your approval.
Enjoy our master piece, we certainly enjoyed making it!

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Puppet meeting

November 22, 2013 //
2

conference

Admittedly, communication between the Dedes and me hasn’t been so hot lately and I sensed there is a lot of uncertainty about what is going to happen; what I have lined up for them. I have a history of doing new things and just presenting them with what they have to do next. But I strongly believe somebody has to make the decisions around here. Personally, I am not a big fan of decisions by committee: when you try to please everybody you always end up with something boringly average. The majority of the Dedes, on the other hand, are a comfortable lot and are not very keen on change. So to debunk their fears I thought I would invite them to a full Dede puppet meeting and explain what I am up to, even though it only marginally affects them.

Would you believe it? A mere five puppets showed up. Out of how many? 63, 64. Isn’t it pathetic? Behind closed cupboard doors they whisper and complain. You would think they are planning a mutiny. But when they could come out and have their say, hardly anybody showed up.

They had their chance, and not showing up is not my fault. I still went ahead and told them what I have planned for next year and why all these strangely constructed actors have shown up. These are samples for a puppet workshop I am holding at a community artschool in Auckland in the beginning of next year. The course follows my own path into puppetry from the visual arts perspective, rather than from a theatrical point. I am keen to convey the self explorational properties of puppet making and it’s magical uses as a problem-solving tool. In one session I will use the Dedes, but ultimately I want the students to unleash their own creative thinking when it comes to puppet making. And by the end of the course we will have made a stop motion film. I am quite excited about this project.

But wait, there is more. I was invited by the manager of Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa (just north of Auckland) to co-curate a puppet month in July next year. We envisage a festival of puppet making, story telling and performance, and not just for children. This week I put an EOI note on Big Idea. It would be amazing to bring a bunch of puppeteers together and further object theatre in New Zealand. Needless to say I am equally excited about this project.

So, fingers crossed, I can find enough students for the course to run and enough puppeteers to make puppet month happen…

The Dedes didn’t say much. They just wandered off when they realised my plans really didn’t involve them. I guess they didn’t know what to think about all this and have to confer with the other lot that stayed in the cupboard.

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion, Relationships, workshop

Another newbie

November 18, 2013 //
2

biirdie and devil-4

On the weekend another new thingummy arrived on the scene. Of course, Devil came barging in and wanted to shoo the little thing away. He definitely wants to put a stop to all these new and strange creatures. The wonderful studio is supposed to be a Dede only space. Much to his surprise he’d found his equal this time. The Whateveritis was not intimidated by Devil‘s browbeating behaviour.

biirdie and devil-3

biirdie and devil

He was a bit shaken by the treatment he got, but I didn’t want to get involved. Let them fight it out. That will teach him a lesson!

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Here comes trouble

November 12, 2013 //
6

alien office manThe Dedes are terribly upset with me again. They are still elated about our film making. We even have set the date for the next Dede Workshop. It will be on the 3oth of November. So we were on the road to happiness together and then this little man came along.

This is Office Man. The Dedes say he looks like an Alien. He is different and they don’t like him. End of story! They believe he will need too much attention and is far too difficult to work with. And then Devil demanded I explain why I spent time making him, when the Dedes were waiting for me to do things with them. I had to remind Devil, and all the others, that our relationship was never meant to be exclusive. I am so disappointed about the Dedes, as I had invited Office Man to announce some great news to them. But as he waived his friendly hello, the Dedes just took one look at him and scuttled back into their cupboard and left him standing there. No wonder Office Man is sad.

I went after them and said they won’t hear the news until they remember their manners and are a bit more welcoming towards the new arrival! I guess there will be a long period of silence again, unless their curiosity gets the better of them.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

The sequel

November 3, 2013 //
2

Cash Cow didn’t move from her place after Professor’s performance last week and has been pondering about the sense of Dada poems ever since. I now proudly present to you the sequel to the Dede Dada Do and yes, I can resist calling it Dede Dada Dodo. It is simply called Dede Dada Do 2, or Art for Art’s sake.

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Miss Viwi, who kindly allowed me to use her Dada poem.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Flash Drama

November 1, 2013 //
4

All the Dedes had so much fun doing the little films that they definitely want to continue doing more. We are not short of ideas. They were surprised to find out their art form even has a name. “Flash Drama”. I came across the term on Wikipedia and I thought it describes what the Dedes are doing to a tee. So I researched a bit more. A flash drama is a short play, as short as several seconds and up to 10 minutes in length. It is played out by a single character or very few characters. The drama genrally unfolds in one act, though blocking and lighting may be used to imply jumps in time or between locations. The set is minimal or non-existent. In German there is a similar thing called Mini Drama or Dramolett (I love the word Dramolett), but this can be up to 20 minutes. Does this mean the Germans are more longwinded? Just kidding!

pirouette1

Anyway, I will do something today that I usually steer clear of. I will explain the moral of the “Elephant in tutu” dramolett. It is sad, but the drama depicts the year I have had! Yes, apart from the Dedes I had a pretty shoddy year. I danced my little heart out, admittedly I  sometimes misjudged the situation and missed the beat, but in general I thought I did a relatively good job.  But the critiques didn’t like it. No explanation needed, just a simple and resounding NO! Like Push Push I felt like chucking it all in, but I know very well, when I drop my tutu, someone will pick it up and continue. Everybody is replaceable. Dropping the tutu should be a considered action. Generally you don’t get it back! Though sometimes it is worth chucking in the tutu and taking up singing instead.

Safe landing everybody!

pirouette2

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Behind the scenes

October 29, 2013 //
0

pig camera

Last year when Pig was on stage at the Super Dede competitiion, he got terrible stage fright. I am happy that he has finally found his calling: He loves to work the camera and vowed to leave the stage in future to his mate Professor. Now that they both have found something to do, I hope they will move out of my liquor cabinet and find another place to live. Having them squatting there got rather expensive for me.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Return of the tutu

October 24, 2013 //
0

mouse and push push

This morning Mouse walked up to Push Push, tutu in hand, and said “You shouldn’t give up. I had a go, it is not as easy as it looks.”

“I try and try and try so hard. I don’t seem to get anywhere” Push Push replied. “You know, at one stage you just run out of steam.”

“That is a common, but true tale. If you do something unusual, you get knocked back more often. You have to admit we are more used to dancing fairies than elephants” said Mouse when she handed over the dress. “I’d say, stick to your guns girl! And maybe compare yourself with elephants, not fairies, for now.”

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Cash Cow’s Plan

October 15, 2013 //
5

cash cow corriander

Cash Cow is good mates with Witch and I see them hanging out in the kitchen together a lot. Cash Cow loves watching Witch trying out new recipes and of course she doesn’t mind doing the quality control when a batch is finished. Yesterday I overheard Cash Cow saying, “You really should have your own cooking show on the blog”. If Witch was listening, she wasn’t interested. “We could do something together,” Cash Cow carried on. “I could do gardening tips on the blog and you could do some recipes. Let’s talk to her. Maybe she could give us a day each week, where we can show off our skills!” Witch continued concentrating on her work. She is not one for the lime light. Cash Cow chose to ignore that Witch obviously wasn’t interested in her proposal and went on and on about how successful cooking shows seem to be and she would like to have a piece of that cake. Together they would be such a good team and Witch would be such a draw card with all her knowlege about herbal potions.

Finally Witch turned around and said, “Gardening tips, eh! No way,… you only have to look at the poor corriander, it  looks just as sad as you, love.”  Then she quietly continued her work. Even though she was sort of right, I thought it was uncalled for when I saw good old Cash Cow fighting back her tears.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network
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