Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:18:09 -0400 To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org From: MIRJANA HEATH <miryana-AT-shaw.ca> Subject: [Puptcrit] Apathy in puppetry organizations I guess every region has its own reasons for a certain lack of interest in puppetry organizations. Vancouver is another specific situation. The Vancouver Guild of Puppetry (chapter of PoF) has been in existence for 45 years, and 95% of the current members are the same people who started it 45 years ago. When I joined the Guild, I found myself surrounded with members who, for the most part, did not actively pursue puppetry, but got together regularly for pot lucks and social activities. They formed a tight community based on friendships they've build, not as much on puppetry activities, and that turned off all the new, potential members. Younger people would show up once, see there is not much puppetry going on (particularly not much of the "modern style" puppetry, whatever that may mean), and they would leave never to return. That was 3 years ago when I thought there are no puppeteers left in Vancouver Lower Mainland. Then I started running into them, one at the time, only to learn there are many people interested in puppetry, they just have a different way of getting together. Life happens on-line these days, and having meetings and going over the notes and voting on issues does not seem to be the way younger artists want to spend their time. They seem to be more interested in learning as much as possible about puppetry, discussing these issues on-line, and perhaps every now and then having a project where they can gather in some "mini festival" form . Lately we?ve been having a slight increase in activities, thanks to some of the new volunteers. Workshops seem to be very popular, as I mentioned, since there are no other sources of information and hands-on training in Vancouver, so there are more plans to bring lecturers and instructors who can offer interesting topics. Overall, in Vancouver at least, there seems to be a generational gap that caused this "demise" of puppetry. Older generations got too old to continue, and younger ones did not get organized yet, not to mention that the puppetry styles they prefer are significantly different, and that means of communication and forms of organizing are also very different for each generation (as an editor of the newsletter, I face that every issue, since older members want a hard copy mailed to them, with only few who have and read their e-mails regularly). The plans are to improve Guild's web site and offer more interactive pages for discussions and information on local level (no one knows what's going on in town!), and then to get workshops going on more continuous bases. A little survey wouldn?t heart to find out what topics would be most interesting, so that could be the next step. Times are changing and with them must our means of communicating, organizing and cooperating. _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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