AN EVENING OF BULGARIAN PUPPETRY with NIKOTINE by Milena Milanova, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, October 25 - 26, 2013

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present

An Evening of Bulgarian Puppetry
touring, world-class puppetry for adults, 
featuring Nikotine (an adaptation of Chekhov's play "On the Evils of Tobacco").
***two nights only***

October 25 and 26, 2013 at 6 p.m. AND 8 p.m. (running time is 1 hour and 15 minutes)
Co-presented by Trouble Puppet Theater Co. and Salvage Vanguard Theater in an intimate studio venue.  Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map
Tickets: sliding scale $15 - $50 plus fees via

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Nikotine
Written, Directed & Starring Milena Milanova

Nikolai Nikotine is humiliated and terrorized by his wife. He appears before the audience, at her insistence, to discuss the evils of smoking. Embarking on a public psychotherapy session, Nikotine lies and tells the truth, loves and hates, makes important decisions, tests our patience, sings and dances, and introduces us to his only friends, trying in vain the whole time to speak against one of his few remaining pleasures in life: smoking.
This adaptation of On the Evils of Tobacco by Anton Chekhov stars actress/interpreter Milena Milanova and a grumpy Russian puppet in a cabaret-style atmosphere, where the audience can experience the Slavic spirit in both its cruel and amusing incarnations.
Praise for Nikotine: "Combining puppetry with some beautiful scenes of physical theatre, 'Nikotine' is at the same time sweet, unique and strangely addictive." - Martin Miller, Hairline
"The connection between Milanova and her puppet is immediately obvious and a pleasure to behold." - Julie Dawson, Edinburgh Reporter
"Throughout, this is puppetry of a very high order indeed, and Milanova's considerable skills outshine those of many highly competent puppet companies." - Bill Dunlop, Edinburgh Guide
Awards for Nikotine:
The Union of Polish Actors First Prize
The UNIMA Poland Prize First Prize at the 7th International Gala Star Drama Festival
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/459565

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

THE HEAD by Connor Hopkins, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, September 26 - October 12, 2013

[resident at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

presents

 
 The Head: A Trouble Puppet Show

by Connor Hopkins
Sept. 26–Oct. 12, 2013, 8 pm
Thursdays – Saturdays, 6pm Sundays

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722 - click for map

ASL interpretation offered on selected nights. Group sales welcome. Director/cast talkbacks available for groups of five or more.
**This show contains content and copious amounts of language not suitable for children.** 

Tickets$10–$20 at the door or via






Trouble Puppet Theater Co. presents The Head, a darkly hilarious original work of puppet theater for grown-ups. Inside the Man's head, an overworked Mechanic struggles with faulty machinery and the head's other residents, the Personal Demons, to navigate through the day.

The Mechanic maintains and operates the machinery that makes it possible for The Man to get out of bed, go to work, have conversations, and otherwise live daily life. The Man's issues, poor judgment, and bad habits chronically make the little Mechanic's job more difficult. When the Personal Demons climb out of the shadows of the Limbic Lobe, all hell breaks loose inside and outside the Head.

Trouble Puppet's bunraku-style tabletop puppets are each manipulated by as many as 3 puppeteers and are designed and built by Connor Hopkins, our assistant builder, and invited guest builders from out of town. The puppets, the set, and the show are a visually and technically remarkable spectacle, with a gorgeous original score.

A completely original work by the company who brought Austin award-winning productions of The Jungle, Frankenstein, Riddley Walker, Toil & Trouble, and The Cruel Circus. Written and directed by Artistic Director Connor Hopkins (winner of B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Drama as well as Outstanding Original Script and The Austin Examiner's Best New Play Written by an Austinite), The Head features music by Justin Sherburn, lighting by Megan Reilly, sound design by K. Eliot Haynes, costume design by Monica Gibson, graphic design by Chris Owen. Performers: Jose Villarreal, Noel Gaulin, Rachel Wiese, Parker Dority, David Higgins, Travis Bedard, Kim Adams, Nathan Lahay, Elyce Lahay, Chris Gibson.

Trouble Puppet Theater Company: Founded in 2004, Trouble Puppet is dedicated to the creation of exceptional works of puppet theater, to the promotion of the art of puppetry, and to the support of its practitioners. We reach as far as we can into the possibilities that puppetry offers, in its many forms and styles, and seek to balance risk and exploration with a drive for excellent craft and technique. Our work is inspired not only by our artistic passion but by our social, political, and human convictions: that there can be no end to the struggle for knowledge and compassion, against injustice and intolerance . . . and boring theater.

Trouble Puppet is a sponsored project of Salvage Vanguard Theater. This production is supported by the Jim Henson Foundation.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

THE FOURTH AUSTIN PUPPET INCIDENT, June 28 - 29, 2013

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[workshopping and performing at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map]

present

The Austin Puppet Incident

Whimsical, bawdy, lyrical, inventive! An evening of short puppet works by a variety of local and national artists.

June 28 8 pm & 10 pm
June 29 8 pm & 10 pm

Glass Half Full Theatre and Trouble Puppet Theater Company bring you the fourth Austin Puppet Incident, featuring short puppet acts for adults in a variety of styles, from shadow puppets to hand puppets to a puppet flea circus. Two nights only!

The Austin Puppet Incident is a joint creation of Glass Half Full Theatre and Trouble Puppet Theater Company to present the work of local and national puppet artists on the Austin stage. Our summer slam includes a puppet flea circus, shadow puppetry, a lyrical shadow box piece, a Punch and Judy show, a comical 15th-century Hamlet-esque mendicant puppetry fit-up, and more!

The Austin Puppet Incident is supported by the Puppet Slam Network.

12 general admission, $10 student/senior/group

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: The Collector, Animal Cracker Conspiracy Puppet Company at the Salvage Vanguard, November 23 - 25 only

Trouble Puppet welcomes guest company Animal Cracker Conspiracy and

The Collector

Nov. 23-25

Austin Premiere! 3 Nights Only!

at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, in the second stage.

Three shows only! Tickets are $15 ($12 for students/seniors, $10 for groups of 5+).
Friday, Nov. 23, 8 pm; Saturday, Nov. 24: 8 pm; Sunday, Nov. 25: 2 pm

www.thecollectorshow.info

San Diego–based Animal Cracker Conspiracy Puppet Company, special guests of Trouble Puppet Theater Co., presents The Collector, a genre-stretching, surreal, multimedia tale about a lowly debt collector who travels through the urban landscape, undergoing a radical transformation of spirit. 

The Collector is a contemporary puppet theater work that enfolds the audience in a gritty environment of toy theater, animated objects, miniature protagonists and antagonists, all unfolding in dialogue-less mystery. This alternate reality is underscored by original film and constructed soundscapes. 

Created and performed by Bridget Rountree and Iain Gunn of Animal Cracker Conspiracy Puppet Company.

The Collector is a mysterious tale, set in an alternate reality, about a lowly debt collector, who, under the management of a mechanical, tyrannical overseer, undergoes a radical transformation of spirit in the process of collecting outstanding debts. As he travels through the urban landscape the boundaries between object and self collide. The story unfolds into a multidimensional mixed media performance through Orwellian, neo-Victorian lenses. Performed with toy theatre, table-top puppets, object theatre, and stop motion animation The agitprop nature of this alternate reality is underscored by original film and constructed soundscapes by sound artist Margaret Noble.

The Austin premier of "The Collector" is made possible by grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, The Sator Arts Foundation, Synergy Art Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and continued support from the San Diego Guild of Puppetry.

Click on either image below to go the the video promo on The Collector Show website:

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)