Writers’ Festival done, Puppetry Slam done, Packing done & now I’m off to…
Looking forward to presenting at Dili International School on Wednesday, workshops at Ba Futura on Wednesday afternoon & performing at the Dili Folk Club on Thursday night! The rest of the time I’ll be adventuring through the jungle and on the reef without reception, so see y’all upon my return!
Peace xx
We were blessed with the most beautiful weather down at the pier in Walsh Bay last Sunday. The waves lapped lazily as the sun warmed happy patrons. An amazing last day for the Sydney Writers’ Festival! The place was abuzz with conversation, delight and coffee.
This year Family Day was a real extravaganza. Umbrella Theatre surprised and delighted passers by with poetry & puppetry. Our special guest host puppeteer Sabrina D’Angelo brought along her giant teddy bear for company and hugs. Inside, Alice and Wonderland decor took you down the rabbit hole with loads of activities, talks and games.
Umbrella Theatre is delighted to announce that we are back with another weird and wacky season of puppetry for the Rocks Village Bizarre. Every Friday night in November and December we will be performing FREE freaky theatre in the historic wonderland that is the Rocks. The street come alive with music, revelers, carnies and queer folk for two whole months!
Last year we had an absolute blast and the atmosphere every night was completely magical. This is an event not to be missed!
Tomorrow night the ladies and I will bring you our classic tale of misfortune: Save Me. See you there.
The Rocks Village Bizarre
FREE 6.45-9.45pm
Playfair Street, the Rocks
Umbrella Theatre has featured in Mx once again today. The lovely Sam & Natalia graced page two, accompanied by their chaperone Old Mate. Promoting the upcoming season of Jurassic Lounge at the Australian Museum, they look fabulous posing in front of a skeletal horse!
At long last, I am proud to reveal Umbrella Theatre’s exciting new showreel! The fabulous, traveling, pop – up spectacular puppet extravaganza comes to life!
It features all of our most disturbing puppet shows. in order of appearance you will meet;
The poor soul, in a bit of a pickle in the ‘choose your own adventure’ style show Save Me.
Old Mate, your friendly local character.
The Captain, on his underwater journey of exploration
Dobby’s Punishment Parlour. You don’t want to know.
Poor little Billy from the short poem performance, Encounter With A Monster
Those psychedelic yet charming tequila worms
Special thanks go to…
Tolmie from Rogue Simian Productions (Film & edit)
Slimey Things (Sound track)
The gorgeous girls at Umbrella Theatre
We got a few nice little mentions around the place recently.
A great little summary of our recent adventures appeared in the latest Oz Puppetry Email Newsletter, alongside a lot of puppetry related activities in Sydney and beyond.
A lovely piccie and write up from A Sydney Summer about Umbrella Theatre at the Rocks.
And also a few great mentions on the Peat’s Ridge site – which looks like it will sadly be the last!
We’ve got an amazing write up from Lola about the Umbrella Theatre experience.
Read the interview to learn about our origins, memorable moments and future plans.
We have had the most wonderful time being a part of the Rocks Village Bizarre. I genuinely think that this is one of the most innovative, creative and fun new additions to Sydney’s social calendar and am grateful to have been so involved.
Next week is the last week and we will have our final performance of Save Me. A perfect way to finish the week, and an amazing year!
A bunch more gigs coming up for your eyes only over the summer period.
Highlights include…
Sunday 9 December 2012 7.30-8.30pm
Umbrella Theatre will be rocking your socks right off at Gallery Burlesque’s Harry Potter XXXmas special. There’s nothing else you’d rather be doing on a Sunday night! Check the promo from the last Hogwarts spectacular & get excited.
Get your tickets now to avoid disappointment! The last time was a sell out smash.
Gallery Burlesque: A Merry Potter Christmas Show
Here’s a little taste of how much fun we had last time with Dobby’s Punishment Parlour
Saturday 8 December 2012
9pm Global Village Dome
Geronimo and I have been busy at work again! We will appear at Subsonic Festival in a burlesque/dj/vj collaboration with Dj and producer Wodger Want – expect a tripped out mash up of messed up rabbit visuals, samples, burlesque, fetish and dancing.
All this happens Saturday night at Subsonic Festival
The site is beautiful, at Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, Hunter Region. See you there!
Fridays 14 & 21 in December 2012 – Every 15 mins 6.45-9.45pm
And big thanks to the Rocks Village Bizarre! We’ve had so much fun there over November and have been lucky enough to be asked back for more fun & games December!
Another fabulous week of art, music, burlesque and puppetry.
‘Dobby’s Punishment Parlour’ made a comeback for a corporate Halloween function. Our well endowed gimp served Dobby acceptably as he dished out punishments (and a few rewards?) to all and sundry. Ah, the joys of being a puppeteer. We’re hoping it gave the guests something to talk about in the office on Monday. Delightful.
I took some time out from performing to see some amazing bands. As if I wasn’t spoilt with the Harvest line up three times over, I also managed to squeeze in a couple more over the week. Radiohead rocked my tired socks off last Monday night. With their big sounds and massive light show, I think everyone was impressed. Paranoid Android smashed out.
Still not enough, I managed to also catch one of my favourite underground acts, Beats Antique over the weekend. They rocked out so hard, with an epic vulture/dupstep/rocknroll finale that everyone will remember. If you don’t know who they are, you should. Their tribal bellydancing electronica fusion gets me hot under the collar.
Harvest Sydney was also fantastic, with Beck being my personal favorite this time round. The site looked great this year with positive feedback all I’ve heard since. Once again the Rabbit routine went down a treat, with Geronimo pulling off more rock star maneuvers than ever. These may or may not have involved rum, spew and a crude drag queen.
And we made it into the Faster Louder Gallery!
This weekend the umbrella was bundled up into the back of a ute and trucked up the mountain for the ever-charming Winter Magic Festival. This festival holds a special place in my heart, as it was my annual tradition since I was sixteen, until recent European adventures took me elsewhere for the solstice over the past few years.
So I was very excited that this year, not only would I be reunited with my beloved escape, but also to be a part of it. We started the day with hearty breakfast on Katoomba Street (does French toast with banana and syrup classify as hearty?) and then rugged up in fabulous coats, furry hats and elegant gloves before entering the street. We watched the parade cascade past, complete with steampunks, a wicker effigy, somewhat evil giant snowman, circus goths and of course numerous townsfolk dressed as witches and wizards, with fairy wings on their uncomplaining canine companions.
Under the library audiences were surprised and delighted with Kira Carpenter’s poem-turned-puppet show ‘Encounter with a Monster’. Guests were welcomed by the beautifully radiant Matina, resplendent in purple, forest green and feathers, one of Umbrella Theatre’s original members recently returned from an Indian odyssey.
Once again, fascinated children begged to be allowed to see the show twice, hippies posed for photos with our fairy host, and families thanked us for the welcome diversion from the crowds. We had so much fun we stuck around for an extra half hour!
Once the umbrella was all packed away we had a blissful afternoon exploring the festival. Browsing trinkets in the Katoomba Street markets, watching the bizarre Spooky Man’s Chorale, exploring the gorgeous historic Carrington hotel, and dancing like crazy to Neill Duncan and His Exotica Orchestra at the Peasant’s Ball was only the start. We also spent over an hour lost in Mr Pickwick’s antiques, separated as Toby disappeared into the comic book room via a huge pile of ugly ties, Matina made a beeline for a series of three book-filled rooms, and I wandered aimlessly through furniture, vintage sporting equipment and fur coats. We had to recover by sipping warm soup in Common Ground, an unusual cafe that feels like Bilbo Baggin’s basement.
Full photo gallery here.
Duckie L'Orange 