Voice of the Show

The foundation course has ended but Suzie's pursuit into puppetry is far from over... Stepping out of the shadows: Shadow Puppetry!  For our last session on this course we examined what might have been, for many of us, our first foray into puppetry – whether this was on a bedroom wall in the dimming lamplight or against the canvas of a tent with a torch whilst camping – we all have childhood memories of making shadow play. Shadow puppetry is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment, an old tradition with a long history especially in Southeast Asia where it is often revered as art! Although I think my shadow puppetry has a little way to go before it could be described as such...! All that's required is an object, a light source and some kind of screen. We were to make the objects, the light source was supplied by a mobile phone or a projector and there were two screens set up – one made from two tables put together and turned on their side with a sheet acr...

The story of Voice of the Show The end of the start  How did Voice of the Show begin? Well, let's go back to a cold December night in 2016.... Four friends are posing for a photo on a stage set. They are sitting on a chair that was found in a skip, in front of them is a hydraulic grave stone, all around are actors and crew relaxing and celebrating the end of a successful run of 18 shows. Their first production:   A Christmas Carol was by all standards a success -   it sold over a thousand tickets, was staged in a theatre that had never seen a production of that scale before and received rave reviews. But amongst the noise and laughter of people drinking  and enjoying the party there was a moment, a pause. The four people in the chair looked at each other and time seemed to hold for a beat - nine months of hard work and stress seemed to crystallise in that single moment. One of them said: 'How did we just get away with that?'  laughter a...