Swazzle Muppet Xmas

I'm in LA visiting friends.  I was checking out SWAZZLE's website & demo reel and saw they did the Simpson's Puppet Christmas Special. Here it is!

FREE TICKET CONTEST!!

Hey Puppet Fans! The PIP is starting a CONTEST!! Our posters are going up around town. The first FIVE people to find a poster posted around town in a DIFFERENT location, take a picture of it, and share or post it here on our Facebook page will get a FREE TICKET! To our upcoming show, ELF EMPLOYMENT!! (One winner per person, please.)

Our "Elf Employment" poster looks like this

click me to go to the FACEBOOK page

Good Luck!

PIP's 2012 Calendar Sneak Peek!

The PIP Company members this weekend and discussed our calendar for 2012. Though we are still fuzzy on some of the details, here are the 3 shows we will be producing in 2012:

1. Experimental (Summer) -- Though I am trying to make each of our shows unique, this "experimental" show is for us to test new technologies and directions for the company. IN 2011, we discovered that the experimental Blacklight part of Puppet Katamari was a big enough hit to make it into its own show. The 2012 show is pushed back into the summer so that we have time during the Winter and Spring to research and develop the technology.  We are still working on what the Experimental show of 2012 will actually be, but it will include something you haven't seen us do before -- something NEW.
2. Underwater Blacklight Adventure (Fall) -- We found that the blacklight undersea adventure we did in Puppet Katamari was a really big success. Enough so that we are building the idea out into its own show, with additional puppets and an extended training period for our puppeteers.  This will be our biggest production of 2012.
   
3. Holiday Musical (Winter) -- This year it's "Elf Employment". The show is an improvised puppet musical set in Santa's workshop. Each performer playing one elf throughout the run of the show.  We are also having a new Guest Star each night playing the role of Santa. Depending on what we learn from the 2011 "Elf Employment" show (and from our other 2012 shows), the 2012 "Holiday Musical" will be a narrative show of some sort set in a holiday setting.

American Short Fiction Launch Party

The PIP is doing a bit of Puppet Improv at the upcoming "American Short Fiction" event on Nov. 19th! They will be reading the animal-themed stories they've recently published. The event is at Domy Books, a really cool arts bookstore at 913 E Cesar Chavez.

Perhaps we will see you all there!!

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!