FIVE GOOD REASONS TO SEE…THE JUNIOR MIGHTY LITTLE PUPPET SHOW!

1. It has puppets!

Like the title suggests The Junior Mighty Little Puppet Show has puppets in it…but these puppets are like nothing you’ve seen before.  This brand-new show is specifically designed for kids, but parents will be sure to have a brilliant time as well!

What’s unique about our puppets? They have been custom-built by the extremely talented people at The Puppet Workshop specifically for improvised puppetry.

After making their debut at last years’ Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a more adult orientated format, our puppets (called The Ritas) are thrilled to be back for MICF 2017.  The Ritas are brightly coloured and blank-faced, and we have large selection of eyes & noses that can be attached and removed to The Ritas whenever – and however – we want!

This means we can create new and exciting puppet characters for every performance.

2. Kids can create the characters!

That’s right, the Ritas were specifically created so new puppet characters could be created before each scene. In The Junior Mighty Little Puppet Show the audience will be able to see the characters built before their very eyes, and have the opportunity to vote on their favourite eyes and noses to create characters from!

Some lucky kids will even be able to put the eyes and noses right on to invent the new puppet faces. We wanted our puppets have the potential to be just as spontaneous as the scenes they will be in.

3. It’s a choose your own adventure style show

Not only does the audience play a role in creating the characters, you also get to choose which story you want to see through to the end! Audience members get to vote on which character’s story you want to see continue at each stage, and watch our improvisers build a narrative around that choice!

4. We have an amazing troupe of improvising puppeteers!

For this show we handpicked performers from the Melbourne Comedy and Improvisation community who have experience with puppetry.

It takes an intensely focused performer to improvise while operating a puppet and it takes a very humble, generous performer to improvise in a scene with one.

We’ve really lucked out.

For MICF 2017 we have: Amanda Knights, Caitlin Yolland, Corey Glamuzina, David Innes, Hallie Goodman, Jaime G. Cerda, Jaklene Vukasinovic, Petra Elliott and Scott McAteer

 

5. We have a sensational host!

Our amazing host Rob Lloyd has been working professionally as an actor, comedian & improviser for over 15 years.   Rob is also the star of the ABC Me educational adventure series Bertram Poppingstock: Problem Solver.  Rob is the Artistic Director of The Mighty Littles and is excited to host The Junior Mighty Little Puppet Show.

The Junior Mighty Little Puppet Show is on at The Melbourne Town Hall from April 1 at 2.15

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/the-junior-mighty-little-puppet-show

 

 

5 Good Reasons to See The Mighty Little Puppet Show

1. We’re back!

We were actually quiet surprised when our little show had quiet a successful world premiere at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. We had wonderful reviews, great feedback and really supportive audiences. So it seemed only natural to bring the show back for Melbourne Fringe…and at The Butterfly Club, one of Melbourne’s best fringe theatre and cabaret venues.

2. It has puppets!

If you missed us at MICF The Mighty Little Puppet Show has puppets in it…but these puppets are like nothing you’ve seen before.

What’s unique about our puppets is that they are custom-built, by the extremely talented people at The Puppet Workshop.

Our puppets (called The Ritas) are brightly coloured and blank-faced, we’ve also had large selection of eyes & noses build that can be attached and removed to The Ritas whenever we want.

Meaning we can create new and interesting puppet characters for every performance.

3. It is an improvised show!

Yup…every show will be improvised so no two shows will be the same. The Ritas were specifically created because The Mighty Little Puppet Show is completely improvised.

We wanted our puppets have the potential to be just as spontaneous as the scenes they will be in.

4. We have a NEW stellar line-up of Special Guest Stars!

We were fortunate to have some of Melbourne’s most respected, popular & experienced performers guest star with the Ritas for our Comedy Festival season.
This Fringe is no different, we have assembled a stellar line-up of stars from the Melbourne Comedy scene, who are ready to raise hell with our puppet crew.

Our guests include:

-Lliam Amor, Elly Squire, Ross Daniels, Damian Callinan, Dilruk Jayasinha and Lauren Bok.

5. We have NEW members to our amazing troupe of impro-puppeteers!

We are very excited to welcome three new cast members to this Fringe season.
We have:
-Hallie Goodman (an puppeteer & improviser from New York how has worked with The Improv Conspiracy).
-Amanda Knights (A regular performer with Impro Melbourne & First Draft Theatre).
-Danny Alder (An actor/improviser who was seen in Eastenders & was a regular performer with impro/comedy troupe The Crew).
They will be joining our senior Mighty Little troupe members who will be returning for Fringe duties: Scott McAteer, Caitlin Yolland, Petra Elliott & Rob Lloyd.

The Mighty Little Puppet Show is at The Butterfly Club from Monday Sept 19 to 25 – 10pm. No show Friday.

Tickets can be purchased at: https://thebutterflyclub.com/show/the-mighty-littles

For more info: https://melbournefringe.com.au/program?event/the-mighty-little-puppet-show/9f769e57-2b1a-4c3c-963a-f039b1dfeba8

10 Things You Can’t Do On Stage

By Colin Flaherty

Rules are meant to be broken and that is the conceit behind this very Fringe show. Caitlin “Coby” Yolland & Jaklene Vukasinovic set out to flagrantly disregard all that their drama training had instilled in them. It was an ambitious endeavour but raised questions about whether their method was the most entertaining and effective one.

This is a show devised by a pair of recent Drama graduates keen to show off what they have learnt in University and apply it literally to a performance piece. It also gave them a platform to display their acting chops, most notably as improvisers. Through some songs, numerous improvised scenes and general banter, they broke the theatrical rules, pointed them out and discussed them; some were glossed over while others received in-depth exploration.

The main problem with using improvisations to illustrate the rules was that some may question the purity of their spontaneity. They had to demonstrate a violation clearly so they needed to have some sort of pre-planned structure to do so, which may seem like a cop out to Impro fans. Typical of most Impro theirs was a mixed bag in terms of success, sometimes missing some obvious threads that could be followed to laughs. When they did manage to hit upon an interesting thread they were talented enough to develop it into amusing ideas to delight the audience.

Their banter appeared to be a mixture of scripted and off the cuff dialogue that, while keeping with the mood of the piece, may seem too messy and unprofessional for some audience members expecting a bit more polish. However, the duo’s stage personas were delightful and perky making an hour in their company an enjoyable experience but a lot of the time you wished that they would just get to the point without all the faffing about. I know that this banter sometimes led to some ‘rule breaking’ but when it didn’t we were in danger of drifting off.

This show is certainly geared towards young thespians and is likely to float the boat of drama students. Although there are a number of amusing moments to raise some laughs, it may not be enough to maintain the interest of the general public.

10 Things You Can’t Do On Stage is on at The Portland Hotel at 8pm until October 4.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/10-things-you-can-t-do-on-stage/