Montana Puppet Guild

Monthly Meetings

 Meetings are every 1st Thursday of each month at 7p.m.at Sherry Johns house, 216 N. Riding Road in Kalispell.

 Meeting Agenda: A meeting with people who are  interested in puppets and we will be constructing puppets for a future performance.

To make sure that we are having a meeting, please call 261-2029 (Sherry) or 755-2315 (Sylvie)

or you can find our email address under the link "contact us".

We hope to see you there. 

This Months Agenda: 

May  9th, 2009

Monthly Flathead Valley MPG meeting:

TWO SHOWCASES:  Sylvie Wood will demonstrate how to make the EASIEST puppet ever!  You will be awed!

Sherry Johns presents her VERY SHORT puppet show "That's the Way Mothers Are" based upon the book by the same name.  This is a show she prepared for a Mother/Daughter Salad Supper at the Columbia Falls Methodist Church.

BUSINESS: We'll begin planning our group performance.  WHEN do we want to perform?  Do you have a particular story or original story line you can recommend?  It's time to get the creative juices flowing!

Meet at Sherry's house at 7:30 PM., Thursday, May 7th.   Bring all friends who are interested in puppetry. Call 752-8226 for directions.

 

OCTOBER, 2007 MEETING

Mark this on your calendar. We'll meet IN MISSOULA on Saturday, October 27th. There will be a car pool from Kalispell.

Keep checking this site for details as they come together.

Silly September Meeting

As you can see from the zany picture below, we were goofy at our first puppet meeting of the season! Kay Barker, Sylvie Wood, and Sherry Johns assembled the puppet theatre, donated by Peggy and Rolly Meinholtz of Missoula. Sylvie led the effort with her inspired, "I see! This goes right here!"

It was decided the theatre should go to Cornelius Hedges School in Kalispell since there is strong support for student puppetry in the school. On Monday, the 17th, Sylvie contacted the school librarian, Nancy Penza who is half of the puppet instruction team. Nancy was ecstatic with the offer!

Thank you, Peggy and Rolly Meinholtz. Your puppet theatre has a loving home that will give it MUCH attention!

For another view of the theatre, go to Puppet Gallery.

April 14, 2007

It's the NATIONAL DAY OF PUPPETRY in Montana.  Besides enjoying two hours of a grand variety of good puppetry, we have our ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING, as well.  Meet at Julie's Center Street Cafe, 200 East Center Street in Kalispell for the 11:00 A.M. early-lunch-and-business-meeting.  After making some VERY IMPORTANT decisions about 2007 and celebrating our NEW PRESIDENT, we'll trek down the street to Center Mall for puppetry fun.  What energy we'll create!

March 4, 2007: Theatre San Fil

Our NEXT gathering is something BIG in more ways than one! 

#1:  Theatre Sans Fil (theatre without strings), a professional puppet theatre from Montreal, will be performing at the O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish.  It has been MANY years since we've had professional puppeteers performing in our valley!

#2:  "Larger-than-life" puppets, using the classical technique of Japanese Bunraku theater, will bring HANSEL AND GRETEL to life for us.  This production is a musical meant for the entire family.

Performance times are 1:00 and 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, March 4th.  Call the Whitefish Theatre Company at 406-862-5371 for tickets.  OR you can contact Sherry Johns at 752-8226 to buy an $18.00 ticket that one member of MPG is unable to use. 

See you there!

February, 2007: Frogs and New Faces

The most recent MPG gathering on Friday, February 9, 2007, was a charmer.  It's too bad you missed it!  Sylvie Wood decorated her living room and dining room with puppets.  There were scrumptious snacks laid out for us.  Althought Sylvie had nothing to do with it, there were six NEW meeting participants!

Debra and three of her children shared their metamorphosis of becoming the Lift 'm' High Puppet and Drama ministry team.  It seems Debra's older son created a puppet theatre and puppets for a badge project.  Of course, this effort got the whole family involved.  After the badge was earned, the puppetry continued.  It has been going on for over a year now, and involves the members of another family, as well.  Lift 'm' High performs every week at sundry churches in the valley, as well as at the Lakeview Care Center in Bigfork, MT.

Brett and his wife also have a puppet ministry, except theirs is in Missoula.  Brett has performed and instructed for One Way Street.  Hopefully, there will be pictures and more information about Brett in future postings.

Besides meeting exciting new puppeteers, we watched the DVD "Kermit's Swamp Years", Sherry's DVD of her outstanding Montessori puppeteers, and were entertained by Brett and his Popcorn Puppet.

It's too bad you missed this "monthly" gathering.  Don't miss the next one!

October 28, 2006: Frog in the Library

We're back into the swing of meeting monthly -- FINALLY!  This month plan to meet Herb McAllister and his marionette, Froggy Doo, at the Flathead County Library at 1:00 P.M.  This is NOT a puppet show.  Instead, it's an opportunity to meet a VERY personable Montana puppeteer who had a children's television show, along with his marionette Froggy Doo, for 22 years.  See "Events" for details.

June 3, 2006: Finish That Puppet!

Let's meet at Sylvie's house at 7:30 P.M. to finish those papier mache puppets we started A YEAR AGO! I know I never had the courage to paint the puppet face! What does YOUR puppet need, a body? Some hair? A little touch-up work? Please give Sylvie a call to let her know you'll be there!

May 6, 2006: Shadow Puppetry

This gathering was cancelled because our delightful host ended up in the hospital with a temperature of 106 degrees! Gerri is now up and running. We'll attempt the shadow puppetry at a later date.

April 29, 2006: Make Your Puppet Move

     Let's make our puppets come alive--again! 

     The intertwined focuses of this gathering will be 1) to create another guild puppet production and 2) improve our puppet manipulation.  Sherry has some hand puppet scripts, short puppet scenes, and one of the puppet manipulation Bibles:  Making Puppets Come Alive by Larry Engler and Carol Fijan.  We'll work on making our puppets "see" and react to objects/other puppets (a lesson from Luman Coad), shake hands, dance, sit, whisper, snore -- all sorts of actions.  Then we'll add dialogue and action/reaction.  Hopefully, the evening will lead us to another performance like we did last summer.  It could be one play or several skits, like a variety show.  In any case, our puppet manipulation should improve, and we'll have another string of enthusiastic puppet rehearsals and performances ahead of us.  Feel free to bring puppets, scripts you've read or have written, and scenario ideas with you.

     Meet at Sherry's house at 7:30 P.M. on Saturday, April 29th.  Call 752-8226 for directions.  Bring interested friends.  Refreshments will be served; feel free to add to them.