Trick Marionette 2

This footage is certainly not the best, but excuse me, how often did a real alien got banned on any film??  The pleasure of Puppetry and Marionettes in particular is the possibility to invent and create characters. They don't have to stay in the earthly realm. This little????? whatever was created for Mustava and the Moon a space show I did some years back. Technically its a rod marionette. They are in various forms very traditional and popular in Sicily, the Amiens area and Prague. Rod marionette simply means that a strong wire or in my case a aluminium tube are directly attached to the body to facilitate manipulation. This of course opens up different possibilities of movement.

Here is a link to Wikipedia and a nice overview of possibilities in the area with many additional links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionette

enjoy!

must read news and touring update

Saturday June 7 is a day to be in beautiful arty Napier. We will spend the week from the June 3rd to the June 7th touring in Hawkes Bay. The highlight will certainly be Saturday and don't miss out to see the shows and participate in the workshop

http://www.mtghawkesbay.com/about/news/article/63

Something for the German speaking readers of my blog.

http://nzdeutschland.info/norbert-hausberg-puppenspieler-zwischen-zwei-welten/



And who or what is this in the photo?? More about her/him/it in the next blog entry!

touring diary 4

The mighty Wanganui River and the majestic Mount Taranaki are just some of the sight I am fortunate to see and experience on touring through this fascinating and beautiful country of ours. Meeting teachers and parents, shopkeepers and other locals is a great experience. The farmer in his ute with the sheep carcass and a huntaway on the back of it are sight that you can not match in a lot of other places in the world.

Certainly the sun does not always shine and you now a lot of motels too. Though seeing the captured audience, the smiles, laughter and their unique experience makes it all worthwhile. The most amazing thing was also the parent that remembers seeing you when they were a child. 

touring diary 3

And here we are the last part of the South Island was the Nelson Tasman region. Yes it was good to get into the sun to beautiful Nelson and surrounds.

Here we are in Motuekas Parkland school and as obvious, the great new magnet stickers that arrived the night before the tour, decorate my car. In the afternoon I gave a marionette making workshop to the teachers. It is so cool, the teachers can record the workshop on their ipads and show the pupils.

The Dwarfs in St Joseph's School Nelson that participated in Snow white and the seven Dwarfs. They are the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Dwarfs. My Marionette is the Sunday Dwarf and they had great interaction and talked about the hard daily grind of their work.

Nelson and surrounds has a great mix of people. It was so nice to see a number of house trucks on the road. Sort of reminded me on my first ever OE in the US in the early seventies. The great thing when you get older, your memories increase. 30 years ago on my first tour here the region was still very much a potters paradise with I say 100 or so, now you really have to know where to go to find one.

From now on until December the touring will focus on the North Island. Though hope to be back down south early in 2015. 

Not only marionettes 2

Till Eulenspiegel is a trickster and prankster who's stories make great marionette shows. Set in the middle ages, they frequently have a timeless quality. These tricksters are still around today they only work on the internet these days. A few of his stories are part of the repertoire of Strings Attached.
To make the show a bit more exciting and different I created a large version of Eulenspiegel. The life size carved head and huge hands are connected by a large patchwork piece of material mirroring the costume of the original marionette. This figure enters in the beginning of the show, interacting with the audience on close quarters, having a chat with them and introducing the character. 

The operation of the mouth is on a simple lever action through the revolver handle as you can see in the photo underneath. The hands are operated with a wooden lower arm extending from the hand.

It is very powerful theatre to have this pre show appearance of the character. The reaction of the audience always ranged from shock and amazement to initial surprise.
Hope you have a chance to experience one day.