Just a little Edingburgh update - Little caliban is having a great time and seeing lots of shows and walking the mall every day.  Tired but happy! 

He's getting a little grubby but look who he bumped into - Ronnie Le Drew! What a treat.

I'm in Edinburgh with The Magician's Daughter this summer.

To keep with that theme and to have a go at making fabric and foam rod puppet I made a miniture of Caliban from the show.  He'll be walking the streets in search of an audience.



Cow Barn, Underbelly August 2012.  
1.15pm daily (except 15th August)

Week two of The Little Angel Theatre's We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  The ideas for the set are flowing and we've got a forest.  On the final day sadly the lovely Lizzie was unwell - (Get better soon Lizzie) so I arrived to the plan that I would be stepping into the role for the day for puppetry with Barb Jungr doing the singing.  I was quite relieved they didn't ask me to do speedy song learning.  

Excited to see the show grow and go on but watch out I think there might be a bear in there!

This week was spent assisting with the Research and Development (R&D) for The Little Angel Theatre's production of 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' by Micheal Rosen.  

We spent 4 days making rough puppets of all the characters (Rod Puppets) 
Next week: 5 days with puppeteers, actors, musicians, and Lyndie and Myself plotting through ideas and making choices about what is needed for the show.  

Bear Hunt will be starting 11th May 2013 at The Little Angel Theatre then Touring - so be on the look out for it.  Making and rehearsals continue next February before it's finally ready for you all... what a beautiful day, we're not scared!!

'Tradition is your oldest memory' Martin Bridle

Punch is 350 years old this year so it's definitely a tradition and it's great to be a part of that.

Today I went to Norwich Puppet Theatre for a day course about punch and Judy.  It was called 'Getting away with Murder' and run by the lovely Martin Bridle.  As part of the apprenticeship I'm also going to be spending some time learning from other great puppeteers.  Sometimes in the form of courses like this one and sometimes 1:1.   

It was highly informative but I came away somewhat scared of the swazzel!  The little secret to the iconic Punch call, used to be heard above a busting crowd on the beach and draw in the audience, would that work on the streets of london now I wonder.   I can't say that I'm now going to rush off and become a Punch Professor (A Professor is what a master punch performer is called) but I do have a much better understanding of this oft mis interpreted form of puppetry.  I especially enjoyed all the talk about the Rhythm of Punch, something I can take to my work and definitely something to play with.

I took myself off the the barbican to see the bauhaus exhibition today.  
Paul Klee's puppets...simple, colourful and imaginative.  Just one of the many things from the exhibition that made it into my notebook. It made me think about how something less literal can be more powerful in conveying an idea or emotion.  The Bauhaus's philosophy was that form should follow function and all other distractions and decoration should be avoided.  There is a lesson to be learned in creating an object or a performance then stripping away all the unnecessary distractions leaving a clear and beautiful interpretation of the idea that the audience can connect with.

And so it begins.

Welcome, I'm a visual person so will mainly be using photographs to share my progress and experiences this year.  Hope you enjoy my year, as indeed, I'm sure I will.  The purpose of this blog is to help me consolodate the very many things I'll be taking part in and to share it.  If you'd like to get in touch please do drop me a line, I'm alway happy to hear from people along the way.

Lyndie co-founded the Little Angel Theatre in 1961 with her late husband John Wright.  This is where a lot of the apprenticeship will take place so it seems appropriate that this should be the first photo.  I've been working here on and off since 2009, when I graduated from Wimbledon. And I have been doing many exciting jobs here like touring with "Goldilocks" and "Handa's Hen", travelling up to Edinburgh with "The Magician's Daughter", providing technical support for visiting companies and lastly, my favourite, assisting on building shows like "The very old man with enormous wings" and "Petrouska".

Outside of the Little Angel I've been busy making work with various companies, but somehow it always seemed to end up involving puppets - more about that can be found on my portfolio site www.alisonalexander.com, but I thought I'd keep the blog running in parallel to my main site.

It was whilst assisting on The very old man with enormous wings that I got talking to Lyndie and we came up with a plan for me to train with her.  We applied for Arts Council funding to cover costs of materials and travel, crossed our fingers and dreamed. So there you go a little background and here I am training in puppetry...let's get going.