This workshop is a unique way for local schools, special service organizations (i.e. Boys and Girls Club), and universities to offer continued education beyond their reach of expertise. Puppetry is a growing form of expression gaining recognition from an exponentially developing American audience. In recent years, puppetry has played a vital role in highly acclaimed Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theatre for adults. The workshop is conducted by Sophia Michahelles, Alex Kahn, and Erin Orr. Erin is a recent recipient of Jim Henson Foundation award and a puppeteer on Basil Twist projects including Symphonie Fantastique. (Time Magazine recently crowned Basil Twist as “The #1 puppeteer in America.”) Sophia and Alex run Superior Monster Concepts and are responsible for some of the largest puppets featured in the annual Halloween Parade in New York City.

Overview: This project between Sophia Michahelles, Alex Kahn, & Erin Orr and the Hip Pocket Theatre is a two week intensive workshop on basic techniques and vocabulary of outdoor, large scale public spectacle – otherwise known as pageantry. Coming from a long tradition here in America extending back into the late 19th century with romantic and quasi-historical performances being staged all over the country as a reaction against the “machine age,” pageantry holds a special place in the realm of public participatory and progressive art making. For this particular project in Ft. Worth, acclaimed puppeteers will facilitate the building, rehearsal, and presentation of Hip Pocket’s second pageant in their new space using large objects (such as banners), puppets figurative and abstract puppets, natural light, and live music.

Goals: To present the public with a precedent for pageant making within their community. The tools, techniques, material uses, and vocabulary of the pageant are to provide a basic structure for future work within the Southwest community for a variety of purposes.

Dates: September 4 – 17, 2006

Times: Mondays – Thursday 4:00 – 8:00 pm.
Weekend times will be negotiated on the first day of the workshop.

Please call 817.246.9775 or email hippockettheatre@aol.com for registration. Include all your contact information and tell us, “I want to make Giant Puppets!”