An invitation to the Mini teater’s and acclaimed puppeteer Neville Tranter’s workshop for professional puppeteers and actors

An invitation to the Mini teater’s and acclaimed puppeteer Neville Tranter’s workshop for professional puppeteers and actors as part of the EU project Puppet Nomad Academy 3.

All professional puppeteers and actors kindly invited and welcome to acclaimed puppeteer Neville Tranter’s Workshops at the end of November in Mini teater, Ljubljana. Wokshops will take place from 27th to 30th of November 2012 concluding with the Neville tranter’s Stuffed Puppet Theatre puppet show Punch and Judy in Afganistan included in the registration fee in the evening. In order  to maintain and provide high quality the number of participants will be limited so early applications are recommended.

Location: Mini teater, Križevniška 1, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Duration: Froem 27th until 30th of November2012 (27th until 29th from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.; 30th from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. and seeing of the puppet show Punch and Judy in Afganistanat 8 p.m. free of charge)

Maximum number of participants: 16

Reistration fee: 120 €

Registration fee for AGRFT students and culture freelancer: 50 €

Registrations at: info@mini-teater.si or 031 314 414

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP - THE POWER OF THE PUPPET

- The theme of the workshop is to help explore and teach participants the possibilities of the puppet as a strong theatrical medium.

- Furthermore there will be a strong emphasis on the role of the puppeteer as a performing actor himself. The puppeteer does not disappear behind the puppets. His presence on stage is an  integral part in the performance.

- The participants will work with  a puppet and  bring it to “life”.

- Scenes will then be developed with the puppet to create short dramatical studies and situations.

- The participants will not only interact with the puppet  but also with the other participants in creating the scenes. The input of the participants plays a big role.

- Each participant should bring with him :  a monologue from a short text, a poem or a song in a language of their choice, as bais for improvisation.

ATTENTION WILL BE GIVEN TO:

- How the manipulations of the puppet affects the audience.

- How the roles of puppet and puppeteer are interchangeable - who serves who?

- Differences between the “body language”of the puppet and that of the puppeteer

Then scenes will  be created. Initially without text, later with text.

Individual students as well as small groups will practice this in front of the other participants.                 

ABOUT STUFFED PUPPET THEATRE AND NEVILLE TRANTER

Neville Tranter (1955, Toowoomba, Australia) completed his drama studies with the US director Robert Gist in Queensland in 1976, having also trained with the Billbar Puppet Theatre. He founded the Stuffed Puppet Theatre the same year. After the Stuffed Puppet Theatre had taken part in the Festival of Fools in Amsterdam in 1978, Neville Tranter moved to the Netherlands, where his visual and emotional adult puppet theatre developed to assume its present form. In his own brutal, ruthless but poetic way, he confronts the audience with their fears and dreams, urges and desires, personified by what are often life size talking puppets. Combining a minimal decor with sophisticated music, lighting and sound, using the oldest devices of the theatre as well as state of the art technology, solo on stage, with nothing but his puppets plus a number of assistants behind the scenes, Neville Tranter is capable of evoking images that the audience will not forget for a long time. His combination of down to earth humour, deadly seriousness and virtuoso puppetry has already made permanent converts of many who had presumed that for them, puppetry had nothing to offer.

THE NEVILLE TRANTER WORKSHOP IN MINI TEATER is a part of the PUPPET NOMAD ACADEMY III PROJECT

The “Puppet Nomad Academy 3” project is a continuation of the previous two projects with the same name: “Puppet Nomad Academy”and “Puppet Nomad Academy 2”. This project brings an important new element to the active involvement of the elderly population in the design and creation of performances, participation in workshops, visiting performances… The excellence of the proposed activities is reflected above all in the transfer of new approaches / technologies / good practice which will be passed over to the traditional masters of puppetry art. The latter will use their fresh creative energy to present their skills and their knowledge through performances to a wider public in different countries - so in the period of Project duration as well as later within post-production lasting 3 to 5 years.

Led by Mini teater, Ljubliana, Slovenia

Co-organizers: Eesti Riiklik Nukuteater - Estonian State Puppet Theatre, Estonia; Figuren Theater Vlinders&Co, Belgium; Maladype Theatre, Hungary; Otvoreni Univerzitet Subotica, Serbia; Pozori~te I.utaka Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Teatro Neline, Slovakia; Novo Kazalište Zagreb, Croatia

The Project’s events represent a unique opportunity for local Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, Estonian, Slovak, Bosnian, and also Belgium artists, cultural workers, experts in performing and visual arts, yet also for the wider audience, to meet artists from other European and non-European countries in person and to learn about their work and their performances. The result of the project “Puppet Nomad Academy 3” will be the upgraded mobility of cultural products, and authors; links among part ners will be renewed and settled. New ideas emerging within the Project will lead to further projects and to co-operation also with other similar organizations and projects around Europe.

 

The workshop was created within the international European project Puppet Nomad Academy 3, financially supported by the European Comission, programme Culture (2007-2013). This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

      


 

AWARDS WON BY NEVILLE TRANTER:

-              1989  Figurentheater Festival Erlangen prize / Germany

-              1994  Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Wilhelmshaven / Germany for THE NIGHTCLUB

-              1996  Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Schwerte / Germany for MACBETH!

-              2001  Best performance World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague / Czech Republic for MOLIERE

-              2001  Sirene d’oro - Arrivano dal Mare in Cervia / Italy

-              2002  Jugendjury Preis – Synergura, Erfurt / Germany for MOLIERE

-              2002  Grand Prix – Pif, Zagreb / Croatia for MOLIERE

-              2004 Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Schwerte / Germany for SCHICKLGRUBER, ALIAS ADOLF HITLER

-              2005 Wim Meilijnk prijs (award of the Dutch Puppetry Society/Nederlandse Vereniging voor het Poppenspel)

-              2011 Festival Ostrawa

 

FILM & TV BY NEVILLE TRANTER:

-              1989  THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, a 43 minute film (16 mm) based on the theatre production, directed by Frans Weisz

-              1996/1997  Manipulation puppets in "Koppen dicht" and "Otje" (youth TV productions)

-              1999  Television registration of RE:FRANKENSTEIN. Integral Broadcast by ZDF/3SAT (german subtitles) and ARTE (french and german subtitles)

 

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS  (selection)

-              Adelaïde Festival (Australia)

-              Festival of the Arts (New Zealand)

-              Olympic Festival (Barcelona/ Spain)

-              La Semaine Mondiale de la Marionnette (Québec/ Canada)

-              Festival Mondial de Théâtres de Marionnettes (Charleville-Mézières/ France)

-              Semaine Internationale de Marionnettes (Neuchâtel/ Switzerland)

-              Theatre Project (Baltimore/ USA)

-              Internationales FigurenTheaterFestival (Erlangen, Nürnberg, Fürth/ Germany)

-              Images (Arnhem/ The Netherlands)

-              Internasjonale Figurteaterfestival (Kristiansand/ Norway) 95 + 97 + 99 + 01 +03

-              Festival du Théâtre Européen Grenoble (Grenoble/ France)

-              World Puppetry Festival 98 (Iida/ Japan)

-              Filo 98 + 2003 (Londrina/ Brasil)

-              Non Stop Puppets 98 (Stockholm/ Sweden)

-              Giboulées de la Marionette (Strasbourg/ France)

-              Festival Baltoscandal 98 (Rakvere/ Estonia)

-              Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre 98 (New York/ USA)

-              visions98 (Brighton/ U.K.)

-              Tampère International Theatre festival (Tampère/ Finland)

-              Mini-Lutke99 (Ljubljana/ Slovenia)

-              Pif99 + Pif02(Zagreb/ Croatia)

-              Frankenstein, ein Monsterfestival 99(Weimar/ Germany)

-              Fidena 2000 + 2003 (Bochum/ Germany)

-              Unkraut, Erde, Mensch (Berlin, Germany)

-              Synergura 00 + 02 (Erfurt/ Germany)

-              XV111th Unima World Festival (Magdeburg/ Germany)

-              Non Stop Puppets 2000 (Helsinki/ Finland & Stockholm/ Sweden)

-              Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zürich/ Switzerland)

-              9e + 10th festival internacional de marionetas do Porto (Porto/ Portugal)

-              Bath Int. Puppet Festival 00 + 01 (Bath/ U.K.)

-              Biennale International des Arts de la Marionnette 01 (Paris/ France)

-              World Festival of Puppet Art 01 (Prague/ Czech Republic)

-              10th Spectacular Puppet Show Festival of Curitiba (Brasil)

-              Arrivano dal mare 01 (Cervia/ Italy)

-              La Strada 01 +02 + 03 + 04 (Graz/ Austria)

-              Int. Festival de teatro de Bonecos 01 + 03 (Belo Horizonte/ Brasil)

-              Animacao em Cena (São  Paulo/ Brasil)

-              Homo Novus 01 (Riga/ Latvia)

-              Szene Bünte Wähne 01 (Vienna/ Austria)

-              Festival de Otoño 01 (Madrid, Spain)

-              Wiener Festwochen 03

-              Festival de titellles (Barcelona, Spain)

-              BIAM, Paris 05

-              Sept Collines, St Etienne France 05

-              Festival Bania Luka, Bielsko Biala, Poland 06

-              Festival du region Centre, « Excentrique », Chateauroux France 06

-              Festival of Israel

-              Festival Damascus, Syria 2008

-              Festival Segovia 2008

-              Tarumba Lisbon 2009

-              Festival of Evora, Portugal 2009

-              Festival TamTam, La Reunion, 2010

-              Oerol festival, Terschelling Netetherlands 2010

-              Festival Montreal (les 3 jours de casteliers), Canada 2011

-              Festival Calgary, Canada 2011

-              Outofthebox Festival, Capetown, South Africa 2011

-              USA/ NETHERLANDS TOURING AND EXCHANGE PROJECT 1993-1996

-              in collaboration with the Netherlands Theatre Institute

-              USA/ New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997

 

PRODUCTIONS BY STUFFED PUPPET THEATRE:

-              1982  STUDIES IN FANTASY

-              1984  THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

-              1985  MANUPILATOR & UNDERDOG

-              1988  ROOM 5

-              1990  MACBETH!

-              1993  THE NIGHTCLUB

-              1994  KASPAR HAUSER, with Beppe Costa and Ria Marks

-              1996  SALOMÉ

-              1996  MACBETH! video-production

-              1998  MOLIÈRE

-              1999 RE: FRANKENSTEIN, with Reinmar Henschke, Harald Kündgen, Wolf Dix and  die Ameisenkinder

-              2000 RE: FRANKENSTEIN with music by Ferdinand Bakker & Kim Haworth

-              2003  SCHICKLGRUBER, ALIAS ADOLF HITLER. A coproduction of Stuffed Puppet Theatre with Kleine Spui, Schauspielhaus Wien in collaboration with Wiener Festwochen and Novapool Berlin

-              2006  VAMPYR

-              2008 CUNICULUS

-              2009 Punch & Judy in Afghanistan (a short piece in Guignol-style)

-              2012 Mathilde (coproduction with Le Carre, Chateau Gontier, Fr.)

 

OTHER:

Exhibitions of Neville Tranter's paintings

-              1997  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)

-              1998  USA, Snug Harbour Cultural Center Gallery (Staten Island, New York)

-              1998  USA, Dance Theater Workshop (Manhattan, New York)

-              1998  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)

-              1999  Germany, Tafelhalle (Nürnberg)

-              2000  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)

-              2001  Netherlands, Paleis van Justitie (Amsterdam)

-              2001  Germany, Tafelhalle (Nürnberg)

-              2003  Netherlands, Ostadetheater (Amsterdam)

-              2005  Danmark, KunstCentret (Silkeborg Bad)

-              2011  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)

Performance in Dierigenten, puppetry and classical music. With the Osiris trio (dir. Frans Weisz) Concertgebouw Amsterdam 2004 (+ 06)

Performance in Oresteia, opera production from Muziektheater Hollands Diep, Dordrecht NL (dir. Cilia Hogerzeil) 2005

Neville Tranter has directed and performed in Acis & Galathea, an opera from Händel by , Switzerland (2008/09) with the Freitagsmusiker (Bern) and he will direct with the same company DIDO & AENEAS (Purcell)in 2010.

Neville Tranter coaches and directs other theatre productions (director of 1001 Nacht; Ila van der Pouw, 2004 and NEWTON 2008, and of Cas & Polle, Theater Theo Terra, 2005, Vos & Haas, Theater Tieret 2011; Satu Pavola 2011). 

Neville Tranter gives occasionally courses and workshops (Theaterschool Arnhem, NL; Inst. Int. des M.,Charleville-Mezières/ Fr.; Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch”, Berlin; FigurentheaterKolleg, Bochum; University of Quebec, University of Buenos Aires etc).