Puppeteers prepare for festival

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 22

Puppeteers prepare for festival

Christchurch puppet companies will perform at New Zealand’s first puppet festival later this month. It will be held in Wellington at the Newtown Community Centre from February 28 to March 5. Every type of puppetry will be represented, from traditional Punch and Judy to outsize parade and stilt puppets, German marionettes, and road and shadow puppets. German puppeteer Norbet Hausberg will have his marionettes and rod puppets in action. Briar Middleditch’s Flying Hat company and also Natural Magic and Terra Firma, all from Christchurch, will perform. Other groups to perform will be Grasshopper Marionettes, music shadow performers the Primitive Art Group and Acorn Puppets of Auckland. A highlight will be the Greek shadow puppeteer

Kostas Zouganelis’s performance of “Alexander the Great and the Dragon,” brought from Australia by special arrangement with the cultural section of Wellington’s Greek Orthdox Youth Association of New Zealand. Also from Australia is Annie Heitmann “Animate Objects,” with her

Punch and Judy. The focus is on the • gathering of puppeteers to ■ see and learn from others’ ■ work. I The Festival is funded ; by the Queen Elizabeth II i Arts Council of New Zealand and assisted by New i Zealand Railways. The puppet festival has • been organised to coin-

cide with the appearance of the Awaji Puppet Theatre from Japan at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.

The Awaji group will perform from March 17 to 22. The theatre began in 1500 on the island of Awaji in the Bay of Osaka. It was developed by the

farmers on the island as a form of entertainment. It became popular throughout Japan and was presented at the Court of the Emperor. The 15 puppet masters present Bunraku-style puppetry with magnificent sets and costumes.

Since 1958 the group has toured widely.