Month: December 2017

In 2017 Larrikin Puppets turned 5 years old. And what great adventures we had this year! Here are all of our puppet highlights from each month of 2017.
 
January
– Three final puppet shows at Woodford Folk Festival, after a full week of performances there.
February
– Meeting with puppeteer Judy Harris of The Puppet Hut in Tiaro.
– Puppetry workshop for the staff of Happy Feet Fitness.
– Subject of a documentary called “The Puppeteer” by film maker Gabor Kukucska.
March
– Puppet show at Taigum Childcare Centre who later posted a heartfelt reflection about the visit on Facebook with several photos.
– Three after-school drama class puppetry workshops at Citipointe Christian College.
April
– Puppet show at Bunnings Morayfield Easter Family Night.
– Adult puppet show at “Visionary Space” arts event.
– VIP rooftop puppet show at QPAC for the touring cast and company of Julie Andrews’ “My Fair Lady”.
May
– Debut performance of the “Food Allergies” puppet show at Community Kids Coomera.
– Puppet show at the Sunshine Coast Private Hospital’s Teddy Bear Fair.
– Troggg as puppet MC all day at The Hills Carnivale (plus a full puppet show).
– Puppetry work in the Tia Gostelow “That’s What You Get” Music Video by Why Not? Films.
– Meeting with puppeteer Mark Rengel of The Mark Rengel Puppet Theatre Company.
June
– Attended the What’s On 4 Kids Awards (with Troggg and Flossy) as nominees in Best Party Entertainment category.
– Debut performance of the “Autism Acceptance” puppet show at Maroochydore State School that made front page newspaper headlines.
– Troggg’s second appearance on the “Juiced TV” show.
– Adult puppet show at “Politically Incorrect” costume party.
– Five puppet shows over two days at the Woodford Show.
– Public puppetry workshop at the Bribie Island Community Art Centre’s Vibe Markets.
– School holiday puppet shows in five libraries, including one at the Logan Hyperdome Library attended by an audience of 320 people.
July
– Two puppet shows and two puppetry workshops at The Mary Poppins Festival in Maryborough.
– Puppetry workshop at Centacare St Francis Xavier OSHC in Goodna, under observation by staff from the Youth Touring program (formerly known as Queensland Arts Council).
August
– Two puppet shows for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day in Kingston and Woodridge.
September
– Puppet shows at Kawana Waters Hotel.
– Troggg as puppet MC at the Annual General Meeting of disability organisation R.O.P.E.
October
– Puppet show at South Bank Parklands 25 Year Celebration.
– Meeting with puppeteer Dennis Murphy of Murphy’s Puppets from Sydney (performing at an event in Brisbane).
– Our two-day “Island Puppetry Workshop” at Island Dance, Bribie Island where we had a lovely class of attendees from Sydney, Regional NSW, Melbourne, Mackay, Brisbane and Redcliffe.
– Puppetry training and consultancy for the cast of Avenue Q at Sunnybank Theatre Group.
November
– Puppetry work in the Jonathan M. Shiff production of children’s fantasy-drama TV series, “The Bureau of Magical Things”.
– The first two performances of a lifetime of annual November puppet show bookings at Nurseryland Childcare Centres, replacing the legendary Bernie & Eileen Ehmer’s Marionettes & Puppets after their 47 year run.
– Big puppet show for Santa’s Arrival at Station Square Shopping Centre in Maryborough.
December
– Troggg as puppet co-MC at Moorooka Christmas Carnivale.
– Two big puppet shows at the Bundaberg Pageant of Lights.
– Puppet show at Caboolture Christmas Carols.

Elissa and I have had another very busy period in the lead up to Christmas, with puppet shows in childcare centres, libraries, staff Christmas parties, and a series of larger festival events and a shopping centre. This has included a couple of memorable shows in Central Queensland.
At Station Square Shopping Centre in Maryborough, we presented our big Christmas puppet show for Santa’s Arrival. A couple of hundred families flocked to see and meet the puppets and of course Santa Claus. Our newest character Marina, who is Troggg’s little sister (pictured left with Frazzamatazz and Santa) made her stage debut, much to the delight of audience members young and old. Marina was a hit!

Above: The big audience enjoying the puppet show. Below: How our puppet stage looked set up next to Santa’s magical Christmas village between Sanity and Big W at Station Square Shopping Centre, Maryborough. 
We then took the puppets up to Bundaberg to perform two puppet shows on the main stage at the 2017 Pageant of Lights. What a magical event that was! Our first puppet show was a 10 minute preview show before the official lighting of the Christmas tree, and the magnificent street parade featuring 70 colourful floats.

Straight after the parade, the wide-eyed children and their festively jolly families gathered again at the main stage to enjoy our full-length Christmas extravaganza puppet show, which featured Troggg and Marina, Frizzby and Flossy, the crazy antics of Frazzamatazz and the always hilarious Freerange the Chicken and Cheesecake. For the big finale number, we chose volunteers from the audience to come up and perform some backup singer/dancer puppets. It was a spectacular night for everyone, and we received some very positive feedback afterwards from families and event staff.
 

Closer to home, we performed a shorter version of our Christmas puppet show as part of the entertainment line-up at the Caboolture Christmas Carols, again choosing audience volunteers for the finale and receiving some lovely feedback afterwards.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcyt2SMFR5p/?tagged=visitmoretonbayregion
Troggg also joined Thomas Gilliland to co-MC the Moorooka Christmas Carnivale (Another Hipster Christmas). The 2016 event was sadly interrupted by a vicious and cyclonic storm, causing quite a bit of anxiety for organisers at the 2017 event. We were all very thankful that this year’s event played out to the end of the fireworks display.
A very busy and rewarding Christmas period for Larrikin Puppets this year! Merry Christmas, everyone!
From Brett Hansen – Principal Puppeteer at Larrikin Puppets.
https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets/videos/1014055922066396/
https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets/videos/1014049992066989/
https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets/videos/1014044935400828/