Gibber-gabber
Interested in puppetry? Sagecraft offers incredible puppetry resources
beingzoe 2008-04-11 19:05:57 UTC

While searching for stagehand resources and sites to add to the stagehand community I stumbled on this great puppetry resource site from a company called Sage Productions. There are two main sections/sites that you might find useful:

• The Puppetry Home page

This unassuming website created and managed by Rose Sage Barone of Sagecraft Productions and Nick Barone of Nick Barone Puppets, with the help of international contributors, is a vast collection of information and sites for the field of puppetry. Everything is covered from building puppets, to the various puppeting techniques, different puppetry traditions around the world, puppetry schools, organizations, exhibits, museuems, and misc resources.

• Puppetbuilder.com

Professional puppeteer Nick Barone has put together this resource, which obviously show cases his work but reveals some of his techniques with a lot of good information on puppet construction techniques.

Why puppets?

I don’t know. Storytelling is a skill I admire and a hobby I continue to explore in my free time (not sure when that is anymore but…). And puppetry seems like a fascinating story telling medium with a lot of possibility. It allows for a level of imagination and effect on stage that seems affordable and effective. In a play I wrote and produced with friends, we used an entire human and puppet shadow/silohuette sequence with voice over to tell an ancient tale within a much larger story. Being able to travel through distant worlds through simple shapes and light was really exciting and perfect for our low budget effort.

So when I stumbled on this puppetry resource it brought to mind the possibility of producing a wildly unique show on a small budget with extraordinary effect. I’m thinking Guy Maddin meets puppets on stage.

Anyway, always thinking and brainstorming.

Have any good puppetry resources you think others might be interested in? Get your own free SPOT here at CoTradeCo and post them for everybody to see and utilize. Good resources will be permanently added to the community.

Shadow puppet/character image from the play What? produced by the e.g. theatre in Vista, CA