I would like to spread the word about our little local puppetry festival (see end paragraph). Any visiting shows or exhibition puppets welcome, and modest fees are available. Cheers, Mary.

 

My husband and I work as a duo, "Natural Magic" We have been performing with puppets for over 25 years, but are still quite shy of calling ourselves "puppeteers". We consider ourselves more as doing storytelling with puppets.

 

One thing we love about the puppetry lifestyle is the necessity to be creative on so many different fronts. We have just completed our first, week-long run of a new show for 3-7 year olds, and this apparently simple little show has occupied us for months with scripting, writing, playing and recording music, making and adapting puppets and nutting our way (trial and error!) through various technical problems.

 

The show is called "The Magician Who Lost His Magic", and features glove and shadow puppets, as well as live acting and a real rabbit! The central idea is the importance of appreciation, as a way to knowing magic. The central character gets misled by success with spells, and starts "tampering with nature" in a way which gets him in a right muddle! However, a little witch granny character restores him to happy harmony with nature, at the end of the story.

 

As well as performing, I run local events in our seaside town, including an annual puppetry festival, in November. This is a small -scale festival, but if any Australian puppeteers are planning to be in the South Island of New Zealand around that time, I would love to hear from them and arrange a show.

 

Best wishes, Mary McCammon, Natural Magic Theatre.