We are pleased to announce the collaborative production workshops for Summer 2001

• Internationally acclaimed John & Carol Farrell of Figures of Speech Theatre and Larry Reed of ShadowLight Productions, will be the featured Guest Artists!
  
  
• Emerging Artists Projects, an opportunity to create your own performance pieces with guidance of puppet artists Pam Arciero, Bart Roccoberton, Jr and staff.
  
  
• "Fireball"-- Collaborate with dramaturg/director Lenny Pinna and playwright Bonnie Remsberg on the production of a new play, born at the conference.
  
  
• Puppet Anarchy with Martin Robinson, a highly experimental workshop, exploring beyond the boundaries of traditional puppetry form and function.
  
  
• An intensive Playwriting Workshop, taught by Annie Evans, designed specifically for people who wish to write new puppetry pieces to be presented during the conference.
  
  
• Marionette Workshop, instructed by Jim Rose. Participants will learn the Rose style of marionette construction and manipulation.

Application deadline: April 1, 2001

For More Information:

Bobbie Nidzgorski, General Manager

THE NATIONAL PUPPETRY CONFERENCE
P.O. Box 616
Niantic, CT 06357-1610
Email: natpupconf@aol.com

History

The internationally-acclaimed Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is dedicated to encouraging and furthering the creative impulse which is at the heart of all theatrical expression...and the puppet arts are no exception. In 1964, the formative American puppetry team of Rufus and Margo Rose helped founding director George C. White establish the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. This began a long-standing tradition of puppetry at the O'Neill Center which continued through the efforts of puppet artist Bart Roccoberton, Jr.. In 1990, Jane Henson established the Rose Endowment for Puppetry to support an annual puppetry conference - thus paying tribute to the Rose's pioneering work - and to assure the continuing presence of puppetry at the O'Neill Center.

Mission

The mission of the National Puppetry Conference is to be a catalyst for the professional puppet artist's growth and development through both the exploration of performance styles and skills, and the production of new works-in-progress for the puppet theatre. The conference focuses on empowering puppet artists to create through the visual imagery and kinetic form of the puppet and enhancing their work through a collaborative dramaturgical process.

Artistic Staff

The conference's resident artistic staff is comprised of experienced professionals working in different areas of the puppet arts: direction, design, performance and dramaturgy. Under the guidance of our conference staff, participants become collaborative partners, involved in challenging hands-on production experiences. In addition to the full-time staff, each conference features internationally-renowned puppet artists-in-residence and provides these innovative artists with a nurturing and supportive environment for the creation of new works for the puppet theatre. This unique format offers participants a rare opportunity for artistic collaboration, as they participate fully in workshop productions created by the guest artists, thus gaining a special insight into the artist's vision, style and creative process. The participants also create their own individual performance pieces guided by the artistic staff. The conference concludes with a weekend festival featuring public presentations of the guest artists' productions and each participant's workshop performance piece.

"...It is the conference itself - the totality of all the participants' work, interactions, intentions, risk taking, discoveries, mutual support, trying again, and laughter, and frustration - which is the work of art. It seems to have left its distilled and powerful essence here in this old barn which has been the setting for many such moments, but as always, none quite like this."

Andrew Periale
The Puppetry Journal

"The Conference is not a school, festival or workshop, but some combination of all these; it is as unique a gathering as puppetry is an art form, and in the several years of its existence, has already marked the future of American theater"

Alice Dinnean
Participating Puppet Artist