Daemen College in Buffalo, NY is having a Day of Puppetry event. I will be screening my film s'Muther and doing a Q&A afterwards. Should be exciting! Loads of Great programming. Organized by Cameron Garrity - there are a handful of O'Neill Conference alumni presenting, as well as Leila Ghaznavi and myself representing CalArts. Here's the link to the Facebook event page.

*Official Description of the event.

Daemen College is proud to host a one day celebration of Puppetry in conjunction with its annual Academic Festival.
The Geppetto Festival is a prime opportunity for members of Western New York to experience puppetry in ways they never have before. Join us, and our phenomenal guest artists, for lectures, workshops, demonstrations, and performances throughout the day.
 
:: :: ::
Puppeteers Include:
Christine Dempsey
Leila Ghaznavi
Honey Goodenough
Brodrick Jones
Matthew Laird
& Chase Woolner

with
Maria Droz
Cameron Garrity
Zach Haumesser
Adam Kreutinger
& Matthew Krygier 
and featuring
Michele Costa
& Franklin LaVoie
:: :: ::
The mission of The Geppetto Project is to share enriching materials that will enable artists everywhere to bring new life to puppetry.

A few weeks ago I received a lovely package from a group of students to whom I gave a puppetry presentation to. Loads of hand made cards with messages of Thanks and interest as well as drawings of characters I brought with me and their own puppet designs. The presentation that I gave was about the many different styles of puppetry starting with simple shadow puppets, progressing to hand puppets, then animatronics and finally digital puppetry. Video examples of work as well as hands on demonstrations with student volunteers. So much fun. Below are just a few of the many, many cards that I received and that I am immensely Thankful for in return.

Rest in Peace Jane Henson - I was 18 and attending my first O'Neill 
Puppetry Conference, I had just finished performing a late night solo act in the pub and Richard Termine pulled me aside saying; "I'd like you to meet Jane Henson." Puppet in hand I sat at Jane's table and Richard introduced me with a splendid intro, mentioning that in high school I had started a puppetry club/troupe - to which she responded; "Oh!...Like Jim..." Dry mouthed and nervous as could be with adrenaline pumping I stammered out some words. Jane so welcoming and soothing asked; "When did you start doing puppetry?" My answer - like many puppeteers - was 5 years old, to which she replied; "What did you do before?" One of the best questions ever, because what is puppetry but the natural human tendency to play with and personify dolls, toys and inanimate objects. At that moment I didn't have a reply, but it didn't matter because she turned her attention to the puppet on my hand (whom I had kept active like a good puppeteer) and started asking him questions and engaged in a conversation with this character that I had only begun to develop. A great end to a marvelous and inspiring evening and the perfect beginning to a life changing conference. Thank you Richard for the introduction and Thank you Jane Henson for your time, attention, energy and focus.


Henson Co. Tribute Link 
NYTimes Obit