A puppetry question (mostly for Na)

Hi everyone, I have been following this site for a while (and am fairly familiar with all the regulars) but have finally gotten around to signing up for an account properly. Anyway, this is adressed to Na because it is a question about puppets. I am in high school and (Never fear! I am not asking anybody to "find me a TV audition" or anything else that young newcomers tend to ask) have been interested in the theatre for a few years - already done some acting in community theatre etc. But lately I have been thinking about puppetry - the idea of bringing character and life to an inanimate object is amazing to me and of course I have liked Sesame St and Avenue Q at different times in my life. I think that being a pupeteer would be wonderful and at the least I would like to explore it further. How can a young person learn puppetry? It's not something often asked about on here and I thought others may want to hear the answer too. Thankyou!

You're lucky I check this site often; I might have missed the post! Ok, without wanting to reinvent the wheel, some handy links: Puppetry in Australia - how to find out about it and does it exist (warning, more of an essay than a how to, but does discuss how difficult it is to find out about): http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/blog.php/2010/06/01/puppetry-in-australia-how-to-find-out-ab Studying puppetry (with links to workshops/etc): http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2007/09/15/puppetry_courses_in_australia And though it's about Melbourne, worth posting anyway, I answer someone's question about finding puppet groups to join: http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/faq.php/2010/05/11/what-puppetry-groups-or-courses-could-i- Having posted those, a little more info: Depending on which state you are in, there are a number of places you can go. Spare Parts in Perth is the hub of puppetry in WA; Sydney, you could go to Gary Friedman's excellent and regular puppetry-for-TV courses; Melbourne, well, there's not much. You can search my site for upddates on events and news on puppetry in Australia, which whilst old, will give you some starting points. Some excellent online resources:

• http://twitter.com/OzPuppetry Run by puppeteer Hilary Talbot, she posts regular tweets on puppetry events around Oz. She updates more often than I do (on news and events) and is worth following.
• OPEN, an emailed pdf newsletter, run by Dream Puppets. It's new and worth a look. Sign up by emailing dreampuppets-at-netspace.net.au.
• UNIMA Australia. (www.unima.org.au, but the site is being redeveloped at the moment, will be relaunched in a week or so) The Australian centre for puppetry. It's the only organisation for puppeteers in Aus. so it's worth at least reading their news. If really passionate, you may want to join ($45 p/a for an individual if new, $40 p/a thereafter)
• Puppethub.com, Puppetsandstuff.com, and Puptcrit.org. All three are online forums for puppeteers, mostly American, but a few Aussies join in. The first I'm not often there but seems busy; the second is more for builders; the third is an email discussion list and can be a mix of both. Amazingly most of the memberships don't overlap a lot, so you get different mixes of topics and ideas
• Puppetrylab.com. Although it's not updated anymore, it's an EXCELLENT resource of how to videos on the basics of puppeteering a muppet-type puppet.
• Check out Blogtv.com. There are a lot of puppet shows appearing on this live video-streaming site.

My final point: your best bet is to buy or build a puppet, and start practicing. By far this is the one thing I see American puppeteers advising others (do a search on Muppetcentral.com for the thread on becoming a muppeteer), so even if there's nothing to get involved in, you can always practice at home, or via youtube or whatever. Volunteering for local puppetry companies is worth doing - gets you involved with those who can best advise you on where to start. On a whim the AD for Polyglot got me to audition for her (even though I'm a tech) whilst I was volunteering there, so it can definitely be worthwhile. Go see some puppetry shows, a lot of small independent companies perform during festivals (Adelaide's fringe is popular, since they actually have a puppetry program as part of the event; there's also a couple in VIC) and it's a good way to make contact with people. Tracking puppeteers down is hard I've found, although when UNIMA Aus's site comes back online you'll be able to browse their membership list and find some. Predominantly the people doing puppetry are the ones who just got a puppet and started using it (not including the now-defunct VCA course and what I term 'the older generation' who've been doing puppetry since forever), so if you have a character in mind, just go for it. I'll also add that there's more to puppeteering than Avenue Q and Muppets, so you might want to start with a broader learning base (ie. learn about puppeteering all types of puppets) and then hone in; especially in terms of finding classes/teachers because not a lot of people offer specialised classes like that in Aus. There's also no reason to limit yourself to Australia. If you're planning on going somewhere after you graduate, you may want to consider tuition elsewhere (not necessarily full-time, other countries offer more frequent and diverse workshops and short courses too). There are plenty of festivals, from the well-known Charlesville-Meziers in France, to the regional American ones, to the four-yearly UNIMA one (next in 2012, China). ... Ok, I could go on and on, but this is pretty much the basics. If you have more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them. If you add your location, it would help, because there are certain people/companies I could recommend depending on where you are. Your source for handmade shadow puppets at Puppets in Melbourne