From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:23:19 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] the death of elegance?


Too much of the general public don't know any better,
so they don't know anything better than to look for the popular stuff.
They don't seek out puppet stuff, their view about it are still influenced 
by "popular belief" that puppets are for kids, and should therefore be cheap 
and nowhere near a serious discipline.

Potter Puppet Pals are a direct reference to Harry Potter, so it becomes 
automatically cool, despite them obviously lacking the "right stuff".

I see this too often.

But then again, I always see, after every puppet show (excellent, good or 
slightly lacking), people with inflated eyes, blown away by what they have 
just witnessed. I hear their comments about never having suspected that 
puppets could do this, and usually also that they never knew there was a 
puppet presence in their area.
Montreal has a minimum of 12 active puppet companies, and still the public 
is surprised to learn about it.
It's about time the whole industry got creative about increasing visibility.
The main excuse is "we have no budget for publicity,e specially on TV".
My reply is: can we afford not to be more visible?
Can we afford to be left out of the main captive audience "controlled" by 
TV?

When the regular folk wonder what to do for the night or the week-end, the 
reflex is to turn on the TV, even to watch a show just about such a topic. 
Second reflex is to seek out a cultural or entertainment seciont in a 
newspaper or magazine. If we're not in those, we are hidden behind all those 
who are: movies, pop musicians, stand up comics, sports events, fairs, and 
plays.

There are ways to get the exposure we need on TV, without paying a dime.  No 
need to bring about a scandal (although it could work for some), we just 
need to interest the TV shows to want to talk about us.

I've said it before, but I think it bares repeating. 

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