Your preschooler will love this puppet show about a kindly monster named Jameson who tries to present classic Mother Goose stories, with the help of some friends & the audience.
Description:
The Noah Ginex Puppet Company presents A Monster's Mother Goose, a delightful trod through some of your favorite nursery rhymes. Noah Ginex is a Joseph Jefferson Award Nominated puppeteer & his work has been seen on TV around Chicagoland, & in music videos for Barenaked Ladies & JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound.
Your preschooler will love this puppet show about a kindly monster named Jameson who tries to present classic Mother Goose stories, with the help of some friends & the audience.
Description:
The Noah Ginex Puppet Company presents A Monster's Mother Goose, a delightful trod through some of your favorite nursery rhymes. Noah Ginex is a Joseph Jefferson Award Nominated puppeteer & his work has been seen on TV around Chicagoland, & in music videos for Barenaked Ladies & JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound.
Learn what it takes to make dynamic-looking characters in your puppet designs. Noah Ginex will show you how different shapes & colors affect your character's mood & up your design game.
Learn the basics of hand sewing on a make & take finger puppet. Topics will include: materials/tools and a variety of stitches, as well as how to start & finish.
Description:
Making puppets involves a certain set of skills……. Not Liam Neeson style lol, but having a wide range of skills in your knowledge tool kit will insure high quality work & creations unique to you. In this class we will teach the basics of hand sewing & students will test these skills on a make & take finger puppet. We will learn what materials & tools you need as well as a variety of stitches such as basting, back, & whip. We will also learn how to thread a needle, tie your thread off, & clean ways to start & end your stitches.
Learn the basics of leather working & practice these skills on a make & take necklace or bracelet. Topics will include: materials/tools, how to put in a grommet or snap, & how to finish an edge.
Description:
Making puppets involves a certain set of skills……. Not Liam Neeson style, but having a wide range of skills in your knowledge tool kit will insure high quality work & creations unique to you. In this class we will teach the basics of working with leather. Using leather can add durability, beauty, & monetary value to your puppets. We will cover different types of leather, where to get it, & what you need to get started. Then students will get the chance to set in rivets, snaps, & will learn to finish an edge. All materials will be provided & participants will leave with a necklace or wristband showing all their new techniques.
Do you have a fantastic beast living under your bed? You don’t? Well, we can fix that. Come by this “make & take” workshop to design & build your very own beastly paper puppet.
Description:
Do you have a fantastic beast living under your bed? You don’t? Well, we can fix that. Come by this “make & take” workshop to design & build your very own beastly paper puppet. guided by the talented staff of Sea Beast Puppet Company (seabeastpuppetry.com). This craft is great for kids ages 6-12 as well as Wizards, Witches, Warlocks, Muggles, No-Majs, & pretty much anyone else.
Laser pointers as puppets? With puppetry, anything is possible! In this workshop you'll learn how to bring life & personality to a little red dot by using some of the basic principles of puppetry.
Description:
In this skill-based workshop, participants will learn how to breathe life into puppets of the first dimension: a single point. The class will cover the basic three tenets of puppetry, how they apply to lasers, & the basic manipulation of a laser. The workshop will also go into depth exploring the laser's potential in varying light effects & their place in storytelling. From simple shooting stars to the protagonist of their own stories, we will learn of all the ideas, images, & characters the laser medium is capable of producing through movement, experimentation, & play.
Come to make food rod puppets of (almost) all kinds with the help of puppeteer, Stacey Gordon. Don't forget your helpful grown-up!
Description:
This is a food-puppet free-for all! There will be some direction, but for the most part, you'll get to decide what kind food you fancy the most & turn it into a rod puppet! A helpful grown-up is certainly required. Skills required: sitting respectfully for up to an hour; drawing or tracing detailed patterns; Cutting detail in fabric & other materials using sharp scissors (small curves & sharp angles); accurately using a ruler. Skills required for grown-up assistants: using a hot glue gun. One adult admitted free for each paid child ticket (to help said child.)
From RPGs to Puppetry, Creating Characters that Last
Summary:
Participants will use an RPG-style character sheet to give their puppet characters an extra dimension of life & believability!
Description:
Almost all role playing games use character sheets to give players the information they need for the game. In much the same way, master Muppeteer Frank Oz developed elaborate backstories for his characters to give them depth & believability. In this workshop, we'll fill out special character sheets created by experienced puppeteers to help flesh out your puppet characters & give them real life.
Would you like to get a start making puppets or other crafty things, but don't quite have a grasp on sewing by hand? Good news! This sewing for beginners workshop is perfect for you!
Description:
You'll learn lots of different hand-stitches, & of course you'll get to practice them. You'll leave with a collection of labeled stitches in a book (that you make) & instructions on how to achieve them at home. We'll get through as many stitches as we can in our 2 hours. You'll even learn a couple of tricks for threading needles & tying knots. The instructor, Stacey Gordon, has been sewing by hand since she was much shorter than she currently stands, & she stopped growing a long, long, long time ago.
This class was created to help skilled professionals without a teaching background translate their knowledge into clear & meaningful curriculum.
Description:
If you want to present at a place like Gencon but don’t know where to start, or simply want to make your presentations better then this is the class for you. “How to Teach a Workshop” was created to help skilled professionals without a teaching background translate their knowledge into clear & meaningful curriculum. Topics covered include writing a lesson plan, marketing your class, time/classroom management, supplemental material development, & teaching theories such as Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence & differentiated instruction. Participants should leave with the skills necessary to plan a lesson & map out all of the prep work & skills necessary to execute their class successfully.
Have you ever wanted to put on your own Puppetry show (theatre, web, etc)? We'll turn an idea into a show & teach the skills to help you promote that show.
Description:
Have you ever wanted to put on your own Puppetry show (theatre, web, etc)? We'll turn an idea into a show & teach the skills to help you promote that show. Though improv, writing techniques, & round table discussions you can get started on the foundation of any puppet show...scripting. On the business side we'll help you craft a methods to help market & promote your show. Attendees, please bring a notebook or computer, pencils, & be ready to play! This seminar will teach you how to develop, write, & maybe market for your puppet performance.
Seasoned storyteller, Diane Hocking, will entertain preschoolers with the story book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Then, you & your child will make a fun caterpillar sock puppet to keep!
Puppet Builder Gordon Smuder talks detailing for television-style puppets. Eyes, ears, noses, teeth, tongues, you name it!
Description:
Professional Puppet Builder (& previous Gen Con Puppetry Track GOH) Gordon Smuder gives up all his secrets for detailing foam & fleece (Muppet-style) television puppets. Bring a note pad (or a sketch book!) because the info will be flowing hot & heavy!
This workshop explores the wide world of soft sculpture materials that can be used to make a circuit & will show participants how to integrate these circuits into a working rod puppet.
Description:
In this class students will be able to learn to use a wide variety of materials to make circuits in their puppets. Supplies available to participants will include conductive thread, conductive fabric, conductive paint, & conductive tape. When these materials are combined with LED’s, batteries, switches & a circuit all kinds of fun are in store. Participants will learn how make a proper circuit & the fundamentals of how they work. Then participants will be able to make a puppet using these materials that will utilize electricity. Everyone will get a hand-out showing where to get all the materials available to them in class. The focus of this class is to teach about circuits & the materials available to create them in soft sculpture mediums. Beginners in circuitry are welcome but a basic working knowledge of crafting skills are needed to leave with a completed puppet.
Hilarious & slightly naughty skits from some of the funniest puppets around. This is an adult puppet show, so prepare yourself accordingly.
Description:
Quirky edgy puppet shows from quirky, edgy puppeteers! Puppeteers from around the country are converging on Gen Con for the best 4 days in gaming--and puppetry! But here's the best part: they're saving up just about all of their adult material just for this puppet slam! All of those things that we can't do in front of kids? We're going to do in front of you. (Okay maybe not *all*--but a bit of it!) Be prepared to laugh, to cry, to think, to gasp, to laugh again, to weep, and then laugh some more. You'll see beauty, you'll see talent, you'll see silliness, and you'll see hilarity.
Let's Go Cry With Strangers! (A Show With Puppetry)
Summary:
Valerie Meiss presents a unique musical performance, full of stories of life's little tragedies and adventures. A collection of original music & puppet vignettes.
Description:
Valerie Meiss (TinyWonder, Hellblinki) presents a unique musical performance, full of puppetry and stories of life's little tragedies and adventures, here and on the other side of the world: "Our heroine returns from a year of wandering: heart wide open, and guts spilling out. It’s been an incredible year, though: new places, new people, adventures, ghosts, mysteries, invisible cities, soulmates without words, transcendental telephones, and random bouts of laughing and crying with strangers. A collection of original music and puppet vignettes. Presented audibly and visually. Laughter and tears."
Lotte Reiniger is an unsung treasure in puppetry & animation with a career spanning 50 years & 30+ films. Animation historian Whitney Grace will reveal Reiniger's career & contribution to history.
Description:
For 3 years during the 1920s, in an attic in Potsdam, a young woman crafted what is today the oldest surviving animated feature film. Equipped with scissors, cardboard, sheets of lead, glass panes & a camera, animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger filmed Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) using a technique of frame-by-frame silhouette animation she developed. As the result of a number of factors--her gender, her German ethnicity, World War II & a lack of funding--Reiniger became a footnote in animation history. Yet her 60-plus films plainly show her skill & dedication to her craft. This detailed account of her life & work describes her significant contributions to animation, puppetry, Weimar cinema & modern filmmaking
Kids get to make & take a kid-friendly monster puppet with a moving mouth--kind of like a sock puppet, but better. Don't forget to bring your helpful grown up!
Description:
Puppeteer, Stacey Gordon, will lead elementary-school kids in making a simple fabric moving-mouth puppet that they can bring to life & take home with them. Each child should be able to sit for 45 minutes, use a ruler & scissors correctly, as well as be able to follow simple, one-step directions. Each participant ages of 6 to 8 will need to be accompanied by one dedicated, helpful grown-up.
Make a moving-mouth sandwich puppet with puppeteer, Stacey Gordon. Seriously, this will be the greatest, no-calorie sandwich you will ever make. Gluten free.
Description:
Puppeteer, Stacey Gordon will guide you through making a moving-mouth sandwich puppet. You'll learn skills that can take you into puppet building beyond sandwiches, but why not begin (or continue) your puppet building journey with a delightful lunchtime treat. Sandwiches are inedible & not sentient. Glue gun skills required. No sewing required.