We’re hitting the open road, er, skies this morning and jetting off to Winnipeg!
We’ll be in The `Peg all weekend long injecting a little Unraku puppet zaniness in to The Central Canada Comic Con. We’ll be doing a little puppet improv, interacting with the crowds and riffing with some of the characters from a new show we’ve been developing since the summer.
If you’re in town for the convention, stop by our booth, say “hi” and fill out a ballot for your chance to win an iPod Touch and an iTunes Gift Certificate just because, well, you’re awesome!
Unraku is officially moved into our new studio space! We have shuffled (and re-shuffled) and then shuffled our stuff around again, and gotten down to working on fabulous masterpieces.
Mathieu saving the day in broken lighting equipment armour.
Mathieu came from Montreal to help us get settled, and everyone in Toronto got down to business. Keys were lost. Keys were found, and when they weren’t, bolt cutters entered the picture. The point is, we had the tools to get the job done!
Highlights of our new space include a loft shop area, which is full of fabulous things like jars of eyeballs and much-coveted bags of fun fur and hands on sticks. We still need to make a shopping trip for some sewing necessities like black thread, but in general, it is a feast for a puppet-makers eyes!
On the main level we have an amazingly comfy couch, areas to film and edit and a mini-fridge and a mouse I affectionately call “Horace”. He likes pizza and potato chips. A lot. And he’s not so good at sharing.
So here we are, a big, slightly wacky bunch, with glints in our eyes, eyes on our hands, hands in the mini fridge, and a mini fridge in our new home.
We’re a puppetry studio based (mostly) in Toronto, Canada that’s made up of an eclectic mix of artists from Canada and the United States. Our work draws inspiration from all different kinds of puppetry and the name “Unraku” is a play on Bunraku, an ancient form of Japanese puppetry.
Unraku was founded in early 2008 and grew out of a series of workshops in Bunraku-style puppetry that culminated in this performance:
Our six original members had so much fun doing this together they decided to form a company to create more work. We spent most of 2008 devoted to theatre and live performances, but this year decided to turn our attention to making short films and performing puppetry online. In the past year we’ve also expanded, adding new members to the company from Toronto, Montreal and the United States.
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Flickr