A Puppet afternoon. 26-Mar-17
One day an unexpected invitation arrived. It was from our „Czech puppeteer queen“ and our dear friend Lenka Muchova - It was for a special celebratory presentation and exhibition of Czech and Slovak puppetry in Australia, which she organised for the occasion of the inscribing of the Czech and Slovak puppetry on the Unesco list as - „A non material cultural inheritance of humanity“ - to an event held in the premises of the CzechoSlovak country club at Kemps Creek on the outskirts of Sydney the Sunday of the 26th March ,2017 at 3 pm.
On Lenka's invitation a guest speaker Mr Richard Bradshaw, famous Autralian puppeteer and former director of the Australian branch of the international puppeteer‘s organisation UNIMA of about 80 countries - (founded in 1929 in Prague Czechoslovakia ) Mr Bradshaw gave a very captivating speech about past Czech and Slovak puppeteers and their cultural influence in Australia
In the expertly organised exhibition we could see :
1/ -The original surviving puppet theatre stage, scenery, and puppets of the Sydney Magic Puppets created by Frank Popovsky a multitalented artist and inventor and the Slovak puppeteer Milena Valisova (Amanda Valis) in 1970
2/- Scripts and scenarios of plays of the Paperbag Theatre Company of Eva and Karel Rehorek in Adelaide (SA) in the 1970's ./1980's
3/- Scene and puppets by Josef Kabrt from the studio Jiri Trnka‘s“ Brothers in Trick“, -creator of the world famous animated film Czechoslovakian - French coproduction in 1973 - “Planete sauvage “Fantastic Planet ( from the collections of Lenka Muchova)
4/- Decor and puppets exhibits from the John Cervenka collections
5/- Original historical puppets and scenery of a traditional Czech Family puppet theatre of Ludmila Muchova - designer with the Czech National Theatre in Prague, (Lenka's mother) - and also some puppet work made by Lenka
6/- and many others ,too numerous to mention
Among the many of the who is who in the puppet and theatre world present at the Country club celebrations, I am sure that the spirits of Eva Rehorek and Frank Popovsky were present and pleased
Mentioning the visitors we had the honor to receive was Ms Hana Flanderova, General consul of the Czech Republic, the puppeteer Mr Dennis Murphy www.murphyspuppets.com.au/about.html the secretary of Unima Australia Kay Yasugi, www.pupperoos.com/, Ali Goss from New York, -a puppeteer who traveled to Australia to study local puppetry but found out much more about Czech and Slovak puppetry, Among the many others guests was puppeteer Jill. And Judy Harris from Gosford, former director of the Kuringai Art centre ( where incidentaly Lenka teaches in workshops puppet making).
All this was made possible by the many helpers and Lenka's friends such as Erik Janousek student and puppeteer from the Czech Republic, Australian stage designer and creator of hand made art toys by the Czech John Cervenka.,Oliver Fiala, university professor and director with his wife Heather, and many others.
A special mention must be given to Pavel Sadek with his profesiohal help as audio specialist,for TV and Film, in Prague and son of the Czech film director Dr. Frantisek Sadek who's acclaimed work, animated film created in colaboration with famous Hermina Tyrlova known as the „ Mother of Czech animation“ in 1946 , the world famous first toy film „Vzpoura hracek“ -(The Revolt of Toys )
ua-cam.com/video/jqFpnSTjgVU/v-deo.html
All‘s well that ends well - a very pleasant happening
Review prepared by Lenka Muchova 2017
George Švehla 11/04/2017