The Art of the Musical

This holiday season the PIP is bringing you an improvised musical set in the magical landscape of the North Pole and Santa's Workshop. Each night we will have a Special Guest Star playing the role of Santa, while all the elves and woodland creatures will be played by puppets.

Though the PIP has created puppet musicals in the past, this show will be unique in its focus.  We are trying some new skills with that will make it unlike any other improvised puppet musical we've done. First, we are really focusing on character development and will be creating puppet characters that will have a life of their own outside the show.  We are doing this by developing character histories, and working closely with a small cast who will consistently play the same puppet character(s) throughout the show.

In addition to building our character skills, we are bringing in Susan Dias -- a veteran Sesame Street writer, and NYC musical theater improvisation instructor -- to help train the cast to strengthen the "book musical" quality of the show. We also hope to be joined by a few new musicians and musical guests.

"Elf Employment" (title by Valerie Ward) is directed by Sara Farr, who will join the cast in playing in the show. Other cast members include: Kate Bojanek, Topping Haggerty, Howard Katz, Patrick Knisley, Amy McKenna, Jesse Overright and Chadwick Smith.

The show is presented by Gnap Theater Projects in their mainstage show for the first 3 weekends in December. For more info and tickets, visit the http://www.gnaptheater.org website.

Puppet and People FLASH MOB!

Wanna make your OOB experience
BIGGER and FUZZIER?
Come help Puppet Improv Project shoot a video spoof of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams (I Walk Alone).

In the short, a singer (a person) is singing about being isolated and alone. Some friendly puppets here his/her lament and come up trying to make friends. The singer, despondent, pushes them away. New puppets keep trying to come up and make friends or give hugs, but the singer keeps pushing, then punching, and finally booting them off frame. However, the puppets keep coming and they overwhelm the singer, who starts running and trying to hide from them. But the puppets, and now pedestrians, keep finding the singer and trying to get close to him/her. Until (final lines, final shot) there is a mass of people and puppets chasing the singer down Congress Ave to the gates of the capitol where he/she sings the last lines to the crowd.

We are going to be filming the CROWD SCENE at the end during the Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival that takes place during the week before and weekend of Labor Day.  THE FLASH MOB part will take place on

Saturday 9/3

If you want to participate, send an email with “ALONE” in the subject to: info@puppetimprovproject.com

PIP Video Short - shooting on Thursday

Hey all you PIP lovers! This Thursday night, we are shooting some video for a montage in the video short "Stolen" for the upcoming Puppet Katamari show. Our goal is to get a bunch of ppl with puppets going to SoCo, 6th Street, Amy's Ice Cream, the Broken Spoke, Alamo Drafthouse and some other "Austin" places.

If you wanna help and play a puppet (or a person) in our short, please let me know so I can plan on who is coming - email me at info@puppetimprovproject.com. We will meet at Fran's Hamburgers on South Congress at 7pm.


Cya there!

Puppet Katamari Cast is Set, & PIP Gains Sponsored Project status under ACA

Cast is set for the upcoming show. We had a lot of fun people audition for this show which made my decision difficult, for which I was very grateful.

CAST - John Brewster, Jay Byrd, Topping Haggerty, Howard Katz, Patrick Knisely, Nancy Lyon, Amy McKenna, Menelaos Prokos, Chadwick Smith, Leng Wong; LIGHTING & VIDEO TECH - Gene Joe; DIRECTOR - Sara Farr

Also, I learned this week that the Puppet Improv Project's application to become a sponsored project under the Austin Creative Alliance was accepted. This is great news as it takes the pressure off me to fund everything, and we can now start looking for funding to help bring in training, sponsor workshops, help us enter festivals and travel, and generally share our art form with a larger crowd.  In the immediate future, this could mean that some of the things we planned but were doubtful we could do in the upcoming show, can now happen. Yay!

Puppet Katamari - Video and Auditions

Whew! What a GREAT day. :-) The PIP had a morning video shoot in Zilker Park for a comedic short film we are working on for the upcoming Puppet Katamari show. It included a bunch of kids and Schave & Reilly and it went off splendidly. The rain clouds threatened - it was humid - but as usual, no rain. Good for us, bad for Texas.  We also got to then shoot some video of the puppets riding the miniature train!

That was really fun. I've never ridden the Zilker Zephyr, and even though a small child fell off the train (and was scared but did NOT get seriously hurt, and in fact finished the ride), both the ride and the puppet filming was MORE than I had hoped it would be. I really do LOVE trains, and have a dream of someday opening my own PUPPET THEATER with a little toy train that circles the room on a elevated track when it's time to open house for shows. This imaginary theater will be called "The Depot" and have a train station theme. Doesn't that sound AWESOME!! So imagine my joy at getting to ride a tiny train in Zilker with a bunch of friends acting silly with puppets.

BTW! Those awesome puppeteers today were: Jayme Ramsey, Gene Joe, Topping Haggerty, Cody Melcher and Amy McKenna. And I had great acting and production assistant support from the fabulous Jenn Baldillez.

After that, the PIP held auditions for the upcoming Puppet Katamari show. We had a nice big group auditioning and everyone was really strong. It is going to be a tough decision to narrow down the list -- which is a success in itself.

Next up for the PIP? More filming and finishing our puppet building. Once the cast is set, our rehearsals begin. Look to the site soon for ticket sales, and look to the newspapers soon for our ads. THIS SHOW IS GOING TO BE GREAT!!

Blacklight Puppets

Here are some blacklight puppet designs for the 3rd quarter show, Puppet Katamari.

FISH SHAPES

TRIANGULAR - PINK	ROUNDED - ORANGE	RECTANGULAR - YELLOW

OTHER - LOBSTER

LOBSTER - GREEN

OTHER - STARFISH

STARFISH - ORANGE

OTHER - BARRACUDA

BARRACUDA - BLUE

OTHER - EEL

EEL - GREEN/WHITE

EEL - YELLOW/WHITE

EEL - PINK/WHITE

OTHER - JELLYFISH

JELLYFISH (ROD) - PINK/ORANGE

"Puppet Katamari" Casting Call

The Puppet Improv Project is ramping up production on it's next show, "Puppet Katamari" (directed by Sara Farr).

SHOW FORMAT

The show will be a puppet variety show lasting 1 hour and 40 min, (with a 10 min intermission). There will be pre-filmed puppet video shorts, some games/scenes created like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, filmed live over the players heads, and an underwater themed black-light narrative (3 acts interwoven into the show).

DATES & TIMES

"Uncensored Shows" Fri. 9/23, Sat. 9/24, Fri. 9/30, Sat. 10/1 @ 8PM
This show will be rated "T [Teen]" for audiences ages 13+
(1 hour 40 min with a 10 min intermission)

"Family Matinees" Sun 9/25 & 10/2 @ 2PM
This show will be rated "E [Everyone]" for audiences ages 6+
(only 1 hour, no intermission)

REHEARSALS

We will rehearse once a week starting in August (time/date pending).
Rehearsals will be split into skill sets to maximize rehearsal time. Though the best effort will be made to set an accommodating rehearsal schedule, cast members will be REQUIRED to attend all rehearsals relevant to their role in the show in order to be cast into the show.
* Tech (just tech ppl) - 7pm Tue, Sept 20th
* Full Tech - 7pm Wed, Sept 21st
* Full Dress - 7pm Thu, Sept 22nd

CAST

Principle cast includes Topping Haggerty, Patrick Knisley and Bob Khosravi. We will have a stage manager and tech assistant to Sara Farr (director & lead tech). However, we need a SEA] of supporting players to help create our PUPPET KATAMARI show.

AUDITION DATE & TIME

Sat. July 30th 2-4pm.

AUDITION LOCATION

Yellow Room at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd

WHAT TO WEAR

Come wearing comfy clothes that allow you to move freely. Knowledge of puppet manipulation and puppet improv basics are a PLUS!

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are reaching out to all of Austin in search of people who SERIOUSLY want to PLAY with puppets, and be a part of the BIGGEST puppet improv show in Austin. Some puppet manipulation skills with Fleece & Foam puppets is helpful. BUT, if you'd like to be a part of this show and learn more about puppet improv, this will be a good learning opportunity.

PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT INFO@PUPPETIMPROVPROJECT.COM BY 5PM THUR. 07/21 TO RESERVE AN AUDITION SLOT.

You *must* reserve an audition slot and let me know you're coming to make sure we have room for everyone. The Auditions will run 2 hours, but you will not be required to be there the entire time. Each persons slot will be a limited time.

I WILL E-MAIL YOU BACK BY FRI. 07/22 AND LET YOU KNOW YOUR AUDITION TIME.