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Applications are now open for the 2018 Lorrie Gardner UNIMA Australia Biennial Scholarship!

Closing date: Saturday 31st March, 2018

Scholarship amount: $2,500 AUD

Projects must start no earlier than May 1st 2018.

Successful applicants will be notified by Saturday 21st April, 2018.

Please send your application to the General Secretary, Kay Yasugi at secretary@unima.org.au

She will forward them to the current scholarship committee: Joanne Foley, Philip Millar and Sue Wallace.

About the Scholarship

Lorrie Gardner of Gardner’s Puppet Theatre was a longstanding and active member of UNIMA Australia. She was President for 3 years until illness forced her to retire in 2004. In 2005 Lorrie Gardner bequeathed a substantial contribution to the fund and the renaming of the scholarship fund is to honour not only her financial contribution but her artistic contribution as an outstanding puppetry practitioner, teacher and colleague. The Scholarship Fund has been created through the individual contributions of members.

Purpose of the Scholarship

The purpose of the scholarship is to assist the development, evolution and growth of Australian puppetry arts & culture by benefiting UNIMA Australia Inc. members.  All activities, projects and situations must be puppetry oriented.

The Scholarship is offered to individual puppetry practitioners to further develop their puppetry practice.

Click the link below for more information and details on how to apply:

https://www.unima.org.au/grants/

Congrats to Lorrie Gardner Scholarship 2016 Awardee Katherine Hannaford!

Katherine Hannaford with Peter Linz and Noel MacNeal at Beyond the Sock, 2015

Katherine Hannaford with Peter Linz and Noel MacNeal at Beyond the Sock, 2015

Congratulations to Katherine Hannaford who has been awarded the UNIMA Australia Lorrie Garner Scholarship for 2016! From May 30 to June 19, 2016 she will be travelling in the United States of America to Atlanta, Georgia for a return visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts, Texas to attend for the second time, “Beyond the Sock: Puppetry for Film and Television workshop” and Los Angeles to visit the Stan Winston School of Character Arts.

Katherine is a professional puppet builder, emerging puppeteer and she is currently teaching Puppetry as a year-long elective at the high school in NSW where she works at full time as Teacher Librarian.

If you’d like to join Katherine at Beyond the Sock (June 7-11, Texas), registration is still open until May 24, 2016. Workshop participants get to design, build and perform hand and rod puppets while learning from Muppet and Sesame Street performers Peter Linz and Noel McNeal (shown in the photo with Katherine in 2015) and puppet builder Pasha Romanowski from Project Puppet.

http://www.beyondthesock.com/

For those interested in the Lorrie Gardner Scholarship, the next one will be offered in 2018 to the value of $2500 AUD. The scholarship is only available to UNIMA Australia members who have been continuous for at least 2 years before applying. To allow for new or expired membership, UNIMA Australia is giving the opportunity to join/renew before the 30th of April, 2016.

If you are already a current member, you just need to keep updating your membership.

For more info about membership and to join/renew, go to
https://www.unima.org.au/membership/

An Exciting New Puppetry DVD

"Murray Raine is... Highly Strung" DVD - see more info at http://www.murrayrainepuppets.com/dvd.html

Marionettist and UNIMA Australia member Murray Raine has recently had a documentary made about his life’s work, which was released on DVD in November 2014. The film was produced & directed by Tasmanian documentary film maker Peter Oldham.

“Murray Raine is…Highly Strung” is are a rare gem of a documentary – the film not only guides you through Murray ‘s fascinating journey as a puppeteer but it has rare archival footage of other Australian puppetry greats like Peter Scriven’s Tintookies, Norman Hetherington’s Mr Squiggle and Marti McClelland’s marionettes. There are insightful interviews from leading puppeteers like Richard Bradshaw, Sue Wallace and Steve Coupe from Sydney Puppet Theatre, Peter Oldham (from The Tintookies) and Marti McClelland.

The film captures Murray’s spectacularly flamboyant style and mastery of marionette design and manipulation. It showcases several of his stunning marionette creations, including Vegas showgirls decked in gorgeous plumes of pink, a koala on a flying trapeze and a whole host of hilarious celebrity caricatures like Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Elvis, Pavarotti and Dolly Parton. There is also some lovely footage of Murray creating his “Madame Tipsy McBoozle” puppet from start to finish in his workshop, which is particularly interesting for puppet makers.

This is an important film for Australian puppetry history and particularly good for people interested in marionettes.

The DVD costs $25 AUD (with $5 AUD Postage within Australia. International shipping is available). For more information about the DVD go to: http://www.murrayrainepuppets.com/dvd.html

Puppetry Networking Day in Sydney

Thank you to everyone who came to our puppetry networking day in Sydney on 17 Oct! It was an afternoon of exchanging ideas, skill share ‘show and tells’ (working with moldable plastic, foam clay and making sets with corflute) and catching up with old friends.
Thank you also to Sue Wallace for bringing up our new UNIMA Australia Scholarship Magazines (if you are a member of UNIMA Australia, a copy will be coming your way!).
Unima Australia Puppetry Networking Day

UNIMA OZ – Online Puppetry Magazine

We are thrilled to launch our new online puppetry magazine, “UNIMA Oz”! This first issue is free – please do check it out and share! http://www.unimaoz.org/40258/

‘UNIMA Oz Issue 1/2014’ by UNIMA Australia
An online magazine publication for UNIMA Australia, the puppetry organisation for Australia. We are passionate about fostering the Art of Puppetry, furthering puppetry knowledge and connecting puppeteers in Australia and abroad.