Director Profile - Raymond Carr

Raymond has had quite a unique life. During the majority of his youth, he travelled with his family doing puppet shows at churches all over the country.



Raymond's project is a retelling of the David and Golaith tale but set in feudal japan. The ten minute presentation is part of a bigger project which will be a full length old testament epic mixed with samurai swords and chinese dragons.



He loves the challenge of taking something that people think is impossible and then realizing it on stage. When he first brought out the huge dragon puppet and explained to the cast how it was going to move about stage, he could tell there were some doubters. But after a couple of run thrus, everybody could see that not only was it going to work, it worked out beautifully and is one of the most striking visuals in his project.

Building / Rebuilding Puppets

Steve Westdahl sent the XPT blog this photo.



Some times a little puppet surgery is inevitable when our directors are trying to realize their visions.



previous Steven Westdahl posts
here

Director Profile - Park Cofield

I got to spend an afternoon with Park Cofield after attending a rehearsal for his XPT piece. He explained to me some of the ideas for his current project.



Park likes to conceive new theater pieces by taking extremely divergent ideas or images and seeing how they can be collaged together within a highly visual, physical performance...for example his entry to XPT 2006 was originally a hodge podge of images incorporating paintings by Ensor, the Wright Bros, and the hot air balloon Expeditions.



Park has studied theatre all over Atlanta, New York and Points in Europe. He counts Eugenio Barba among his cultural heroes. His local theatre company, Peon Productions, has done parades, site specific performances and has projects upcoming in the Marietta area.



previous Park Cofield posts
here

Amy

Amy's got a great installtion for this year's XPT



She tells the other directors about her plans to construct the photo/puppet booth.

Christine

Christine's puppets are made up of human body parts(Gasp)!!!!

If you have any extra belly buttons, elbows, knees, etc. lying around, Christine can put them to good use.

Kristin

Kristin shares clips from her stop motion animation, Maude and the Triangle of Death.

Here was see Maude is sharing some jam with a hippo.

Park

Park shares how the visuals for his piece are changing and developing


Here, he introduces us to a new character joining his puppet ensemble since the last time he briefed us about the project.

Steven W

Guaranteed to end not with a whimper, but a bang...literally. Explore the macabre origins of ventriloquism with Steve Westdahl.

Charlie McCarthy is in for a surprise.

Katherine

Troubled by all the tough questions our society must ponder on a daily basis



Katherine's hand puppets will have all the answers.

Wade

Wade has combined our most favorite famous puppets with CSI and come up with a very entertaining idea for an installation at this year's XPT



That proposed noose is just one reason why no puppet is safe while Wade is around!

Raymond

Ray shows the other XPT participants a costume for his biblical samurai minature epic.



During rehearsal, Goliath takes flight with the help of some dedicated puppeteers

Pamela

Pamela wants to show us a typical X-mas on the island of Cosmetica, an island where everyone is obsessed with plastic surgery.



She explains how her puppets will able to trade facial features with the same ease with which we change our clothes.