Experience this pretend tea party with your little ones and puppets! You'll drink pretend tea, play real puppet games together, laugh, craft, and singalong as you enjoy the magic of puppetry!
Description:
Grown ups and little ones will have fun together at a real-life-pretend-tea-party thrown for their puppets! (Plush toys allowed, too, we won't discriminate!) Skills Required: sitting, pretending, laughing, playing, wiggling, coloring, sipping, pinkies up, jumping, singing, and playing! One ticket required for *each* person in attendance. Puppets attend for free! Don't have a puppet? That's okay! We'll have a limited supply of puppets for you to borrow while you're in attendance, but it's highly recommended that you bring your own so you won't have to say goodbye at the end of the party! All ages welcome! Come have a lovely farewell party at the last event of the Gen Con Puppetry Program!
Pro puppet builders will discuss the various types of arm-rod construction with methods and benefits of each. (That's the stick that the puppeteer holds to control the hands) Ask questions!
Description:
Wake up, bring your coffee, and start thinking about what kind of arm controls you want.
Join professional puppeteers & voice actors for a snuggly hour of bedtime stories. Come in your PJ's, soft clothes, or cosplay and settle in for a nice wind-down to your busy day.
Description:
Come in your pj's, bring your favorite stuffed animal, blanket, pillow, or lovey, and settle in for a relaxing wind-down from a very busy day of gaming and con-going. Let Stacey Gordon and a special guest soothe you into a sleepier state so you can wake up refreshed and ready for the next morning.
Puppet building pros with seriously great credits will talk about various puppet building techniques, such as the wedge method, flat patterning, sculpting, and more!
The Camera sees everything! Or does it? Let’s take a look at the rigging and building that makes it look like a simple puppet can do it all!
Description:
How do you get a puppet to shoot a basket, ride a bull, play violin or eat a plate of spaghetti? Knowing your camera angles, having a great team, & a clear vision are a good start, but you also may need specialty puppets or props built to solve the problem. Lets look at some of the solutions that we have come up with for TV shows like Crash & Bernstein & commercials for Nike & Eyeglass World. For more than 30 years, Greg & Kristin have been Los Angeles-based puppet builders & performers. They've puppeteered with the Muppets, Henson’s Puppet Up, & Greg was the Puppet Captain on Disney’s Crash & Bernstein. On film, they were lead marionettists for Team America: World Police & part of the core Doc Ock performance crew on Spiderman II.
With an amazing cast of puppet characters & professional puppeteers to boot, you'll not want to miss watching or even participating in Puppet Karaoke. Bring a puppet, let loose & join in on the fun.
Description:
Puppet Karaoke is a relaxed, fun evening where professional puppeteers, newbies, and everyone in between can put on a show together that you won't soon forget. Come to watch, or come to participate. Either way, you'll have a great time. I mean, just imagine a sandwich singing your favorite Hamilton song. Glorious. Some puppets will be provided, however we highly encourage you to bring your own--because GEERRRMSSS! No actual singing required.
Pro puppet builders will discuss the various types of mouth-plate construction with methods and benefits of each. (That's the bit that the puppeteer holds onto inside a puppet.) Come ask questions!
Play around with other puppeteers on-camera & get in some practice doing improv & camera work in a group-setting. Come to play or just to watch the fun, it's up to you! Bring a puppet!
Description:
Extra time goofing around with an audience & watching seasoned pros perform is one of the best learning opportunities--but even if you're not interested in learning, it's great fun to watch puppeteers improvise with puppets on camera. Whether you choose to watch from the audience, or get up on stage alongside seasoned professionals, you won't regret spending your evening at monitor playtime! Bring your own puppets or use ours. Bring a puppet!
Come connect with puppeteers from your area and around the country. Plus you can bring an unwanted puppet-themed item for the unwanted-puppet-stuff giveaway!
Description:
We can't wait to reunite with our puppetry fam & meet new people at this year's puppeteer social! This is a time for human puppeteers & those interested in the art of puppetry to socialize, talk shop, & connect. Feel free to bring any current work you want to talk about & we'll do our ever popular, unwanted-puppet-stuff giveaway!
If you've wanted to try your hand at puppetry, start here! If you have been doing puppetry for a while, the camera gives you feedback that helps your performance. Learn the basics and keep growing!
Description:
Learn how to puppeteer for the camera from professional puppeteer, Greg Ballora (Muppets, Puppet Up!, Crash & Bernstein, Team America, Ratchet, Spiderman II), You'll start your puppetry class going over basics like how to position your body for range of motion and comfort, puppet posture, eye focus and lip sync, followed by moving through the frame, positioning, working with a monitor, and finally jamming to a song (of Greg's choice, he has to maintain some control here). All skill levels welcome.