NPF Workshop: Puppetry and Animation

This workshop presentation will take a visual journey through myriad "hybrid" puppetry/animation effects in practice today. Looking at a range of clippings from film, television and live theatre, we will critique the effectiveness of new trends in motion capture, live digital puppetry, and computer animation/puppetry hybrids (such as the half puppet/half animation creatures from Where the Wild Things Are). Colette Searls will share findings from her own experiences using computer puppetry for theatre, and facilitate a group discussion about the ever-expanding impact of puppetry in rapidly expanding technology.

Colette Searls is Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she teaches acting and directs a mixture of Contemporary and Classical works. Professional directing credits include Noah Haidle's Vigils at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, (4 Helen Hayes Award Nominations), and Fixed Boundary, an object theatre production for the Exit Theatre ("Best of the San Francisco Fringe"). She has received support from The Jim Henson Foundation and The Puppeteers of America for her original work in object theatre, published articles in Puppetry International and The Puppetry Journal, and served on the UNIMA-USA Board of Trustees. She has recently worked in collaboration with computer animators to create digital puppetry for theatre.

To contact presenter: CSEARLS@UMBC.EDU

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