Kiedis the Troll - Insurance King Collaboration
Hey everyone! Welcome back to the Creventive Newsletter, we’re excited to share one of our latest partnerships!
Our pals at Insurance King wanted to bring in our character, Kiedis the Troll as their new social media manager to help combat trolling on their social media through a series of clever GIFs and short video comment replies.
Speaking of which, Kiedis actually has his own social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok!
Follow him @KiedisTroll
Be sure to also follow the Insurance King facebook page to see what he’s up to. Tweet him if you dare!
Kiedis the Troll - Insurance King Behind the Scenes Video shot by Frank Slowinski Jr and Alfredo Castil Produced by Dan Block
Custom Portrait Puppet for Client
Welcome back to the Creventive Newsletter,
Today we’re featuring a new custom portrait puppet that we just built for a client’s husband as a birthday present for her husband.
Handmade custom puppet made to order. Featuring a needle-felted goatee, custom-dyed hair, nylon fleece skin, custom made shirt.
To request your own custom puppet, visit: https://www.creventive.com/request-a-custom-puppet-quote
The Puppets of Chicago’s Kungsholm Miniature Grand Opera Exhibit
Welcome back to the Creventive Newsletter.
I recently got to visit the Swedish American Museum for their "The Puppets of Chicago's Kungsholm Miniature Grand Opera" exhibit.
The exhibit runs from September 27th, 2019 - December 1st, 2019, featuring an extensive collection of puppets, set pieces, photographs, and memorabilia from the 1930s.
You may be asking, what is Kungsholm?
Kungsholm was a famous sit-down restaurant theater in the late 1930s that's main attraction featured a miniature grand opera puppet theater.
So, how did this all come about? Enter Ernest Wolfff. Wolfff fell in love with opera as a child when one of his parents took him to see a production of "Carmen."
Wolfff began building a complete miniature opera theater in the basement of his home. His mother and a family friend helped devise puppets that would move on the tiny stage in slots and be operated from below by wires.
Their efforts improved under the sponsorship of the Victor Recording Company for an opportunity to present at the Worlds Fair in 1938.
After the fair, they began a mid-western tour of the puppet opera in the United States.
During the conclusion of their trip, Wolfff was discovered by a man named Fredrick Chramer. Chramer had purchased one of the McCormick mansions, located at Rush and Ontario streets, and converted it into a very successful restaurant called the Kungsholm.
Chramer proposed to bring Wolfff's puppet productions as a permanent installation, and the rest was history.
In November of 1941, Chramer, along with Mrs. Wolfff, opened what was to become the world-famous "KUNGSHOLM MINIATURE GRAND OPERA." Kungsholm employed many talented puppeteers, costumers, artists, and technicians who worked at the theater over the years.
Tragically, in February of 1947, a fire destroyed the Kungsholm puppet opera. Shortly after, Chramer began to re-build the puppet opera on the street level in the space once occupied by the carriage house.
One of the puppeteers who worked there over the years was a young man named Bill Fosser. He began working at Kungsholm first when he was 14 years old in 1943, then returned for a few years in 1950 and then later as artistic director in 1963.
In addition to Kungsholm, Fosser had a very successful career as a motion picture art director and set decorator.
In his free time, Fosser would work on designs to improve the puppets, props, and scenery. His most significant advancements were to the mechanisms of the puppets to help give them more articulation, expression, and life.
In 1971, Kungsholm closed. Some of the puppets and scenery were put on display at the Museum of Science and Industry for many years until they found their final home at the Swedish American Museum in 2018.
On December 3rd, 1993, Fosser founded "Opera In Focus" alongside Paul Guerrain in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. A labor of love to his admiration and passion towards puppet opera theater. Fosser's innovations brought the puppet opera to new heights focusing on creating elaborate, beautiful works of craftsmanship to life until his death in 2006.
Opera In Focus continues this tradition to this day with year-round performances at the Rolling Meadows park district ran by the Snyder brothers: Justin and Shayne. Each show features different scenes from various operas/plays/musicals followed by a backstage tour/Q&A/Demo on how the puppets are operated.
If you are fascinated by puppetry, opera, or have any appreciation for craftsmanship, I highly recommend checking out Opera In Focus. You won't be disappointed. : https://www.operainfocus.com/.
Talkback w/ Marionette Master: Phillip Huber
The Chicagoland Puppetry Guild hosted a special talkback following the 7:30 pm performance of “Darling Grenadine” on August 8th, 2019, with Marionette Master: Phillip Huber at the Marriott Theater in Lincolnshire, IL.
All attendees were asked to meet in the upstairs lobby following the performance. Phillip offered each attendee a backstage tour, demonstration & Q/A secession on the Paul the Dog Marionette. Built, designed and performed by the Huber Marionettes.
In attendance for the talkback was Connor Asher, Kathy Valdivia, Lyssa Tromell, Rachel Appelbaum, Susan A. Witek, Fred Putz, Marilyn Putz, Eric Frederickson, and Jill Frederickson.
Special thank you to Phillip Huber and the Marriott Theater, Lincolnshire, for hosting this event. 🎭
The Chicagoland Puppetry Guild Annual Banquet Dinner + Show
The Chicagoland Puppetry Guild's 2019 Annual Banquet dinner and show with the special guest performer: Dave Rozmarynowski of The Roz Puppets.
The Roz Puppets presented "The Boy Who Saw Martians" a spin-off of the classic fairytale: "The Boy Who Saw a Wolf". Dave performed alongside his partner and bride: Carolyn. Roz's beautiful stage and puppets were all handcrafted by himself using a combination of both hand and rod puppets, with live voices and sound effects. The show was extremely well-written and performed from start to finish. Never a dull moment for the audience as whoopee cushions and Martians collided.
Afterward, the guild headed to Pizano's Pizza for dinner. During the dinner, the Marc Dunworth Foundation for the Performing Arts was introduced to the guild. Tim Dunworth and company graciously joined and presented the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild with a $1k donation. The Chicagoland Puppetry Guild was the first recipient of the Dunworth foundation, as they continue to promote and honor their son: Marc Dunworth's legacy by supporting the arts and puppetry.
An excellent evening surrounded by wonderful friends & family.
Thank you so much to all who came out & supported the event!
Dog Hand/Rod Puppet - Rental for Commercial/film/tv/stage
Welcome back to the blog.
Today we’re featuring our latest rental puppet. A hand and rod puppet designed and built by Connor Asher.
What’s a rental puppet?
If you don't have the time or budget to have a custom puppet built, you can rent one from our stock for a reasonable daily rate.
Our rental puppets can be customized to fit the needs of your project. Whether its an individual character or a full cast, any and all existing customizations are possible to be built from our own minds directly to your own hands.
As always, contact me here to discuss a quote for your own custom projects!
See him in action now:
Eugene O'Neill Theater's National Puppetry Conference 2019
Monkey Marionette built during the Marionette Construction strand led by Kurt Hunter and Uylesses Jones using Jim Rose's techniques.
Photo by Richard Termine #richardtermine
Hello again everyone,
I wanted to share a few experiences from my time at the 2019 O'Neill National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Before I go into the specifics, let me tell you a little bit about what the National Puppetry Conference is.
The National Puppetry Conference is an annual puppetry conference held in June at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
Every summer, they host week+ long intensive for all areas of theater, including playwriting, acting, puppetry, and more with a large site/campus to house all their participants, staff, and teachers. In addition to housing, the conference provides food from their dining hall during your entire stay. The staff is accommodating and always around the corner.
All the shops are on-site, including the puppet building workshop, rehearsal halls, theaters, and more. (Including the famous pub. Woot woot.)
The conference hosts both a pre-conference and the main conference. There are only a certain number of people allowed per year, so to attend each year - you need to sign up and fill out an application on their website.
While signing up, you can select what you would like to be doing during the conference. Every year they provide a variety of different classes and teachers to choose. These are called tracks. Outside of tracks, they also have resident company members where people can sign up to audition & work on a particular artist’s piece. This year was a whirlwind.
This year, I applied for the Marionette strand to be able to work more with Jim Rose as well as learn marionette technique.
There’s something I find exceptional about marionettes. Especially being surrounded by the energy and love of them from my fellow friends/mentors: David Herzog, Marc Dunworth, and Fred Putz. It’s something that’s not very common that I wanted to help contribute to and learn. I applied with this intention in addition to wanting to develop CPC‘s “Hands & Strings: A Puppet Variety show” to include marionettes.
This year, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into that exact strand and received a scholarship. (Thanks Gene M.)
This would be my first main conference since the year prior; I was only able to attend the pre-conference.
Unfortunately, this year Jim Rose wasn’t able to attend but chose two exceptional people to take his place.
Kurt Hunter and Ulysses Jones.
Before I go into the class, this for anyone who doesn’t know of the Rose family.
The Roses (Margo and Rufus Rose) were the world-famous puppeteers who worked and created the Howdy Doody show amongst many more credits. One of their most uniques was using string for joints. The string was thread through the various body parts (arms/legs/etc.) that joined them together and provided a very natural, smooth movement.
Kurt and Ulysses stepped up big time and worked wonderfully together to help each participant, including myself, take home completed marionettes in 5 days!
There’s so much more to say, but I’ll leave that for another post.
I’m so grateful to have met and caught up with so many faces while creating new works of art under one roof. Until next time... 🎭❤️#oneillsummer #npc19 #NoSleep #LoveAndPuppets
Photos by Richard Termine #richardtermine
Little Red Riding Hood is now available for touring!
Creventive Puppet Company is proud to premier our newest touring stage show: “Little Red Riding Hood” - available now! 🐺
This is the final addition to our “Fairytale series” and is now available for booking - please check our schedule online for upcoming appearances!
Don’t Talk to Strangers (Pre-K - 5th Grade)
This classic fairy tale follows Little Red Riding hood on a journey to deliver a basket of goodies to her sick Granny. On her quest she must overcome difficult obstacles. Will she make it or be tricked by the Big Bad Wolf?
Special thank you to everyone involved
Directed by: Connor Asher
Written by: Connor Asher, Caelan Cavanagh and Sydney Alexander
Voiceover work: Sydney Alexander and Connor Asher
Puppet Fabrication: Connor Asher
Backdrop/Set Piece painting: Elaine Miller
A Visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts - Atlanta, GA
Creventive Puppet Company went to visit the infamous Center for Puppetry Arts (November 30th, 2018) in Atlanta, GA.
The group of wonderful human-beings and talents that roam and contribute to this building is breath-taking.
Thank you to our dear friend: Aretta, for taking the time to meet and tour Sydney & I around.
Help support the CFPA on their mission to preserve and carry on the art of puppetry at http://puppet.org/
O'Neil Puppetry Conference - Recap
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Creventive blog! This year has been filled with so many new adventures, opportunities, performances, and networking - and it's ONLY JUNE!!!! Anyways, let's get straight into it!
I was accepted to into the annual Eugene O'Neill Theatre's National Puppetry Conference in Connecticut. The conference is organized by Pam Arciero as a way to gather puppeteers from all over the world for a week-long intensive of learning from the best in the business, networking with fellow puppeteers, along with many opportunities to create new work. Ever since I heard about the conference - I made it a goal to attend and finally had the chance this year. The O'Neil has both a pre-conference and main conference, each with a variety of different classes. I was fortunate to have a few days off to attend the pre-conference only before my summer schedule began.
I applied and was accepted into Jim Kroupa's puppet mechanism class. I took this class in particular because I wanted to further my learning in mechanisms and construction because it was one of my weaker skillsets. And who better to learn mechanisms from than Jim Kroupa. Kroupa is well-known for his famous mechanisms. He began creating mechanisms because he felt many of the original Henson puppet's mechs were difficult to operate because they were built by engineers with technical aspects in mind instead of performance and wanted to creating something that performers could operate much easier to focus on the performance. Each year, Kroupa brings a new mechanism for students to build. This year Kroupa brought a clown puppet with an opening jaw and pop-out teeth that each student built. Besides the vast amount of information, some of the highlights of the class were working alongside the fellow participants and hearing some of Kroupa's stories about his work over the years.
After 3-intense days and many stories, we all ended up with a functional
I’m so grateful to have met so many new faces, and catch up with others I haven’t seen in forever. Learned so much and made friendships that will last a lifetime.
Already miss it so much, hope to attend next year. The conference and experience was unforgettable and one I will miss deeply.
Debuting our "Three Billy Goats Gruff" - live educational puppet show
On March 28th, we premiered our new "Three Billy Goats Gruff" live educational puppet show.
CPC's Three Billy Goats Gruff was written with the intent to teach kids about "not being greedy" through the Troll, including counting and simple mathematics.
The Billy Goats Gruff show is a total of 30minutes with a pre show with out Q/A session after the show.
The show was written by Connor Asher and Caelan Cavanagh. Following the original fairy tale, we wanted to stick to the origins and add more into the story while not changing what people were familiar with. One of the challenging parts about writing puppet shows is accounting all the props, puppets, set pieces and things that need to be made since everything is hand-built. In addition to this, only two puppets could be on at any given time because of the number of hands backstage.
One of the new characters we introduced was "Birthworts: The wicked witch". In the beginning of the story, she casts a spell over the land that the Billy Goats live in, because they keep eating her flowers, transforming all the fresh beautiful green grasses to become baron and infertile, forcing the three billy goats gruff to move.
Later in the story, the witch visits Sir Kiedis and because of his greed, she transforms him into a troll.
Voices by Connor Asher and Sydney Alexander. Audio by Sydney Alexander.
How it all started - My Puppeteer Journey
Ever since Connor Asher was two years old, he was interested in puppetry. Growing up with classic television shows, including Sesame Street and Mister Rodgers Neighborhood. Then his parents took him to “Sesame Street Live” and exposed him to the theatre. He fell in love, and immediately after, he began putting on his own live shows in my basement for family members, guests, and neighborhood kids that incorporated puppetry, song, and dance.
While Connor was in school, he forgot about puppetry but was writing stories, making up characters, drawing, taking theatre/art classes, doing voices, and producing videos.
In 2011, Connor rediscovered his love of puppetry through “The Muppets – 2011” when Disney re-launched them for a new generation. All the memories flooded back, and he remembered how these characters made him feel and realized this was something special. Months later, Connor discovered “Being Elmo – A Puppeteers Journey” and finally got to see what it was to be a puppeteer. Connor saw the pure joy the art of puppetry brought to people’s lives and realized it was a combination of so many arts he was already pursuing. At that moment, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
During high school, Connor began actively pursuing local workshops and classes outside of school. Connor discovered Stan Winston School of Character Arts and had the opportunity to learn different techniques, including puppet fabrication, mold making, and more. It was through this, and lots of trial and error that he began learning how to build puppets.
In 2014, Connor founded Creventive Puppet Company and began producing educational puppet productions for family audiences.
Outside of his work, Connor has performed as a puppeteer for Opera In Focus, Sea Beast Puppet Company, The Field Museum, Jabberwocky Marionettes, Jeannie McQueenie Productions, and more.
Connor has also been fortunate to teach the art of puppetry at Buck’s Rock Performing and Creative Arts camp as the head of the puppetry shop in 2017. In addition, he began offering educational puppet performance and building workshops for the public, teaching at libraries, schools, public events, and conventions, which has allowed him to travel throughout the USA.
In addition to puppetry, Connor was a part-time preschool teacher working in early childhood education and development. He volunteers his time to organizations such as the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild as their vice president and the Kiwanis Club of Oak Park River Forest, where he has done multiple hospital visits to children with his puppet characters and built costumed wheelchairs for children with disabilities.
In 2017, Connor was awarded the Mike and Frances Oznowicz Young Adult scholarship to attend the Puppeteers of America’s National Puppetry Festival in Saint Paul, MN.
Connor hopes to continue exploring and pushing the boundaries of early childhood education through the art of puppetry in the future.
Puppet Variety Show at Mather's Cafe
On January 24th, 2018 - The Chicagoland Puppetry Guild hosted it's first family-friendly, 1hr, puppet variety show at Mather's More than a Cafe.
This Puppet Variety show featured various styles of puppetry including: hand, rod, tabletop, marionette, vent, and toy theatre presented by various members of the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild.
Puppet Acts by: Steven Widerman and Mark Blashford presenting "Mr. Ritz", Chris Crawczyk presenting "The Reunion", Alejandro Rivera presents "Socky the Sock Puppet's Joke Time", Fred Birchtold, Zeezy Posner presents" The Story of Purim", Terri Reimer presents "The Incredible Circus Small", hosted by Connor Asher and Jeremy J. Giggles.
The event was organized by Susan Witek as an outreach program for the CPG to involve and encourage the art of puppetry with the public.
Special thank you to Mather's More Than A Cafe!
PofA National Puppetry Festival in St. Paul, MN
On July 16th, I had the opportunity to go to my first major puppetry festival: the "Puppeteers of America's National Puppetry Festival" held at Concordia University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I was awardedthe "MIKE & FRANCES OZNOWICZ MEMORIAL YOUNG ADULT SCHOLARSHIP" in early January to attend the event.
The festival is a week long celebration of the art of puppetry. An opportunity to connect with many other fellow puppeteers, learn from various instructors with experience in all backgrounds of puppetry, see shows from around the world, and sharing the art of puppetry with fellow festival go-ers.
While there, I was able to take many workshops/classes including: Silicone Techniques with Tom McLaughlin, Shadow Puppetry Intensive with Sea Beast Puppet Company, Needle Felting with Pam Corcoran, 3D Television Puppetry with Steve Widerman and more.
I also performed throughout the festival, in my own performances during the National Potpourri, Shadow Puppetry Intensive workshop and lent my hands to others including: Mark Keeler, Thom Stanley, Thomas Boguszewski and more.
The shows were thrilling! Some of the shows I saw were: "National Puppet Slam 2017", "The National Potpourri", "The SeaBeast Puppet Company Shadow Puppet Intensive Workshop slam", "Reel Puppetry Film Festival", "The Ugly Duckling - Teatro de las Estaciones", "The Story of Crowboy - In the Heart of Beast Theatre, "Ubu the King - Rough House", "Lollipops for Breakfast - The Gottabees, "Ashes - Plexus Polaire, Norway-France", "Cardboard Explosion - Puppet Showplace Theatre", "Punch and Judy - Parasol Puppets", "Punch and Judy - Mousetrap Puppets", "Molly and the Magic Boot, Open Eye Figure Theatre", "Hansel and Gretel - National Marionette Theatre", "Tides - Company Gare Centrale", and the "Fringe".
The Puppetry Store was also at the festival, ran throughout the Festival by Gordon Smuder, Stacey Gordon, and more. The store featured everything you could ever want in puppetry including simple hand puppets, complicated marionettes, puppet books/journals, puppeteer performance gear, t-shirts, Muppets merch and so much more.
Each day began with breakfast, followed by early morning workshops. After the workshops, we would break for lunch then shows would begin in the early evening running through the night time. In between everyone is generally networking/catching up to talk about professional dollie wiggling. After the shows, it was NECESSARY to get sleep in order to function/stay awake for shows throughout the festival. (I recommend Monster Energy drink....I needed a lot for how exhausted I was near the end of the festival).
On the final closing day, the Puppeteers of America held a festival day for the public. Shows including "Punch and Judy", "Molly and the Magic Boot", and walk-about puppeteers were everywhere greeting and entertaining the public. There was also a puppet parade, where all the puppeteers could join in and walk around the college campus to encourage, and inspire the art of puppetry for the public.
I'm so grateful to the Puppeteers of America for this incredible opportunity to expand and learn more about my art form. I made wonderful connections with so many, learnt from valuable resources and plan on giving back all I learned to the puppetry community in the future.
-Connor Asher
Buck's Rock Performance & Creative Arts Camp
This past summer, CPG member: Connor Asher worked at Buck's Rock Performance & Creative Arts Camp as the head of the puppetry shop in New Milford, CT.
During his time there, he directed 2 shows: A Puppet Slam (A collection of shorts, each camper was allowed to write/direct/build and perform their own 2-5minute puppet slam piece in front of a large audience). Connor also directed a "Peter Pan - Puppet Show" based on the classic narrative by Michael John. During his time at the camp, Connor also assisted on 2 other theatre productions, including: "Animal Farm" and "The Wizard of Oz". As the head puppet builder, trainer and performer.
On top of this, Connor ran a puppetry shop founded by "Sesame Workshop/The Jim Henson Company", from 9am-6pm for kids ranging from 5yrs-17yrs old, daily having a total of 10-15+kids at any given point. Connor worked on puppet design, building, and performance with the campers throughout the day. Connor's goal was to heavily introduce the campers to new styles of puppetry.
In order to make this goal possible, he started a visiting artists series. Bringing in 2 professional puppeteers to speak to the campers/staff at Buck's Rock, to tell their background as a puppeteer and demonstrate a style of puppetry.
The first guest was: Tyler Bunch (Muppets, Sesame Street, Julie's Greenroom) who demonstrated television puppetry. Our second guest was: "Paul McGinnis" (Sesame Street, Little Shop of Horrors - Broadway, The Wiz) who demonstrated bunraku/table-top style puppetry for the guests, showing the importance of versatility in puppetry.
On July 16th, Connor took a leave of absence from the camp to attend the "Puppeteers of America's National Puppetry Festival" in Saint Paul, MN.
After the festival/camp ended, Connor went to New York for a day and was invited to visit "PuppetHeap", in Hoboken, NJ. PuppetHeap is best known for their work in commercials/tv/film, also known for the shop hired to build "The Muppet" characters. While there, Connor was able to meet the talented team of puppeteers, ask questions, and see some of the Muppets that were going to be used in the upcoming "Hollywood Bowl" performance. Connor was invited to see the show in LosAngeles, then will return back to Chicago, IL to continue his work at Creventive Puppet Company & the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild.
World Day of Puppetry Celebration - 2017
In June, the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild gathered to host World Day of Puppetry held at the Matteson Public Library.
