Hello Cincinnati!
It is officially Spring, though the Ohio weather seems to disagree. Already we are off to a great season of fun and puppetry shenanigans. The Cincinnati Area Puppetry Guild met on Sunday, March 23 at the Cincinnati Public Library and if you were not there, you missed out on a wonderful time. The CAPG met at 1:30pm to watch The Frisch Marionette Company perform The Wizard of Oz. The show is performed by two puppeteers, Kevin Frisch and Honey Goodenough (yes, that is her real name.) The show is brilliantly choreographed and the marionettes are beautifully hand crafted by Kevin Frisch, combined with clever and catchy tunes to create a fun and completely entertaining show for people of all ages. The music is composed and performed by Kevin’s brother, Steve Frisch, and had us all tapping our toes for the duration of the show.
After the show, the CAPG held an open meeting upstairs at the library to discuss the agenda for the next few months. We have many exciting projects in the works, including National Day of Puppetry in April, a guild puppet building project for a local theatre production, and talk of a puppet slam this year. National Day of Puppetry celebrations will take place on April 26, 2014 at Happen, Inc. in Northside. Go to www.cincinnatipuppetryguild.com/day-of-puppetry for more information.
A topic of discussion was “where do we want to go and how are we going to get there.” As one of the most active puppetry guilds in the Great Lakes region we are looking to become even more active and develop a presence in our city. We had a round table discussion regarding ways to promote awareness of the CAPG within the tri-state area. Each member in attendance had some great ideas for guild promotion and we are still looking for suggestions so if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to share them with the president, Linda Mason…
Which brings us to our next topic: Linda Mason has been the president of the Cincinnati Area Puppetry Guild for many years and announced that she is ready to pass the torch on. The CAPG will be holding elections for a myriad of positions within our organization. In short, there have been “a few people doing all of the work” for a long time and we need to distribute responsibilities among the members to make our guild both effective and productive. If you are able to help with anything from organizing events to hosting workshops for our upcoming events, do not hesitate to come forward.
This is the year of the Cincinnati Puppetry Guild; a time for us to evolve. This meeting had the largest turnout of members in quite some time. The attendees consisted of veteran guild members, unofficial members, and even a couple of new members! Following a wonderful show and a productive meeting, the CAPG met at Buckhead Grill for dinner with our special guests of the evening, Joseph Emory and Honey Goodenough (stop laughing). The food was fantastic but the company was even better.
As a member of the Cincinnati Area Puppetry Guild, I am excited to see where 2014 takes us. Remember, without teamwork we will not progress. It will take each of us collectively utilizing our talents, intelligence, and elbow grease to make our guild a well-oiled machine. Until next time, remember that it is not the hours you put into your work that matter, it is the work you put into your hours.
