VCA Production-Puppetry presents an eight week puppet theatre intensive with internationally-acclaimed Master puppeteer Eric Bass and his wife Ines Zeller-Bass (Founding members of Sandglass Puppet Theatre - USA)
Monday 29 September to Saturday 22 November 2008
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne  

Grab this rare opportunity for intense training in puppetry performance, puppet making, and performance construction. Immerse yourself in a Masterclass with these renowned puppetry artists.

The masterclass culminates in a public season of original works, (Nov 13 – Nov 22)
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

For more information on the project and the application process, contact Gilly McInnes at the VCA on 03 9685 9376 or email
gmcinnes @ unimelb.edu.au

Click here for more information

Click here for information on the appliction process

Click here for link to website of Sandglass Theatre

Milan-based set designer and artist Edoardo Sanchi will be on campus at the Victorian College of the Arts from Monday 23 July until late October as part of the Simplot International Masterclass Series 2007.
Sanchi will be mentoring and workshopping with students from VCA Production and VCA Art. He will work closely with individual postgraduate design students, supervising them as they complete their sets and costumes for upcoming performance seasons.
Sanchi is acclaimed throughout Europe for his innovative approach to set design. Recent design credits include La Mano by the experimental theatre company Teatro delle Albe in Belgium, Ravenna and Chicago, Ascanio in Alba at La Scala Milan, Tannhäuser for Theater Erfurt in Germany, and Il ritorno del Don Calandrino by Cimaroso conducted by Ricardo Muti at the Pfingsfestpiele in Salzburg.
“As a stage designer in constant demand in Europe, we are extremely lucky to have secured Edoardo’s services as a guest teacher here at the VCA,” said Richard Roberts, Head of VCA Production.
“One of our goals here is that students are exposed to a wide range of artists and practitioners from a variety of cultural environments. As a leading European designer and teacher, we are delighted to be able to welcome Edoardo to the VCA as part of that programme.”
Sanchi is the second guest artist to visit the VCA in 2007 as part of the Simplot International Masterclass Series - choreographer Stephen Petronio was in residence at VCA Dance earlier this year.
Sponsorship from Simplot Australia enables the VCA to invite prominent international artists, performers and directors to the campus to work with students.
Edoardo Sanchi graduated from the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan where he is currently Professor overseeing the masters degree in set design. From 1986 to 1990 he worked as assistant to the designers Margherita Palli, Gabris Ferrari, Michel Lebois, Quirino Conti and Gianni Quaranta, signing his own stage and costume designs from 1981 onwards and exhibiting his work as a sculptor in Milan. He has collaborated as set designer with directors Luca Ronconi, Franco Branciaroli, Antonio Calenda and Jerome Savary, Franco Zeffirelli, David Brandon, Stefano Monti, Giorgio Marini, Italo
Nunziata, Franco Ripa di Meana, Ruggiero Cappuccio, Marco Martinelli and Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Marco Martinelli and Micha Van Hoecke.
Richard Roberts and Edoardo Sanchi are available for interview
Media enquiries: Jon Myer, Media Relations Officer
03 9685 9385, 0408 082 066 or jmyer@unimelb.edu.au

Click here to link to Edoardo's online CV:

http://www.canvasmanagement.com/artist.php?id=83&lang=e

Internationally acclaimed Canadian theatre artist Ronnie Burkett was a guest teacher and lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts from 19 – 31 March, 2007.

Ronnie Burkett is one of the world’s leading and most provocative puppeteers and has created an unprecedented adult audience for puppet theatre.
After recent critically acclaimed seasons in Sydney and New Zealand, this master puppeteer will be in Melbourne exclusively to conduct intensive workshops, with students in VCA Production and VCA Puppetry.

“Our students will have a unique opportunity to work closely with this one man virtuoso as he shares his talents as a writer, actor, performer, puppeteer, and visual artist,” said Peter Wilson, Head of Puppetry at the VCA.

“Burkett’s visit is a real coup for the VCA and in particular for our postgraduate Puppetry students who will have unprecedented access to one of the great puppetry artists of all time,” he said.

The public will also have the chance to hear Ronnie Burkett speak when he gives a lecture at the VCA’s Federation Hall on Wednesday 21 March, as a part of the Artist in the World Lecture Series presented by the VCA’s Centre For Ideas. Burkett will discuss his roles and
responsibilities as a performing artist – particularly in the world of puppetry.

Captivated by puppetry since the age of seven, Ronnie Burkett began touring his puppet shows at fourteen and has been on the road ever since.

Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes was formed in 1986, dedicated to returning the puppet to the legitimate stage in theatre for adults. Since this time, the company has played to great critical and public acclaim in Canada and internationally (including at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2002 and 2004).

Burkett’s work minutely observes how humans behave, finding the best and worst in people, wrapping that up in a package that always includes large dollops of sentiment, anger, camp, and a fearless, frightening truthfulness. Ronnie Burkett lives in Toronto, and is presently working on two new productions – Billy Twinkle, Requiem for a Golden Boy and Penny Plain.

Philippe Genty, renowned creator of puppetry/dance based visual theatre and Mary Underwood his wife and choreographer, visited the VCA in October for a 7 week ‘Stage’, working with puppetry and animateur students from both School of Production and the Drama school.
Genty is among the most innovative puppeteers working today, an artist who blends puppetry, theatrical imagery and choreography in his groundbreaking performances.
Philippe Genty studied as a graphic designer in Paris before setting out in 1961 on a four-year tour, performing his first puppet work on four continents. The creation of the Genty company began in 1968. In the 40 years since then, he and his company have played stages in every corner of the world, developing a choreographic vocabulary that embraces puppetry, illusion and mime.
Using tricks of perspective, optical illusions and puppets of all sizes, Philippe Genty's company creates lyrical and captivating dream worlds. The themes are universal, the ideas thought-provoking and the techniques of puppetry, dance and mime are both entertaining and spectacular.  Some of his most famous and successful productions have included Round like a Cube, Desires Parade, Dedale, Stowaways, Ligne de Fuite (Vanishing Point) and La Fin des Terres.

Image Gallery
Click here to see photographs of Genty in workshop at the VCA and for images from his work La Fin des Terres (The End of the Land)

VCA Workshops photographed by Jeff Busby
La Fin des Terres photographed by Pascal Francois

VCA Production would like to thank the generous support given to the the Masterclass programme by the Simplot Corporation, the Myer Foundation, Alliance Francaise and Lyndsey Cattermole AM and the Australia Council.