Arriving at The National Puppetry Festival UConn

There are upsides and downsides of puppetry conventions.  Glorious wonderful upsides like...too many puppet shows in one week you cannot see them all and puppetry exhibits that wow you down to your toes.
But the small insignificant list of downsides definitely includes the dorm accommodations.  Seen here.
Here's a better picture of what is to come:

It's the puppetry store...still in process of being filled with stuff.  I was standing at the door just now saying, "Open, open,open..."

We did go by the Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry on the way back from dinner and I have purchased books...I just can't help myself!  

Check out this great poster that was there:

I just love it!  Wish I could have purchased a copy with my Professor name on it!

Watch Felt-a-thon with me!

Here's the link!

Felt-a-thon

It's a pretty fun way to spend World Puppetry Day.

They will teach you all about making puppet videos.

Prague for Puppeteers Part One

I bought two guides at Third Place Books because they both mentioned Puppets or Marionettes.  Not all guides I found there did.  But Frommer's and Rick Steve's guides both mentioned puppets a little bit.  This is rather surprising considering that there are puppets everywhere here.
There are whole stores here with nothing but puppets.  Two companies I've found so far do a show every single day...another company a little bit down the road runs nearly every day too (and that one has a beautiful new theatre that sells out every show).  Prague lives up to its claim of being a puppetry capital of Europe!
But the guides just don't handle it well.  Now if you want to come to Prague for the parties and the beer...buy the guides, by all means...they'll meet your needs.  But if you are a puppeteer, and want to travel to the puppetry center of Europe, maybe I can help you out with my lessons learned.
1. More than one place performs Don Giovanni for the tourists.
There is the official National Marionette Theater and then there is a group near the Prince Charles Bridge that is trying to capitalized on the tourists with their guides looking for Don Giovanni.  It's not that they have a bad show...but it's not the show you are looking for.  First of all...it's mostly done with rod puppets not marionettes.  Second, it's in a serious state of disrepair.  It runs twice a day every day.
The National Marionette Theater on the other hand, is a entirely string puppet show...well there is one mask...but it's the show all the guides mention.  It runs once a day at 8pm. Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Marionette_Theatre
http://www.mozart.cz/onas.php
Take all your non-puppeteer friends.  Be sure to spend the 90 Crowns to get the program...you'll need to read it to understand the show unless you speak Italian
2. You are in the hometown of Spejbl and Hurvinek. You've read about them in the Puppetry Journal...you've watched them on YouTube no doubt.  Well, you are now able to go see them in person!
But they are hugely popular...and they don't run every single day.  Buy the tickets as soon as you can...maybe before you leave home. Website:
http://www.spejbl-hurvinek.cz/
3. More to come...