How Has the Puppet Slam Network Helped You?

50 Responses to the 2012 Slam Survey Question: How has the Puppet Slam Network helped you?

Café Concret (Montreal), Egotrip Productions 2011, Photo: Bekky O'Neil

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It's always great to keep in touch with other puppeteers. Having more resources is always helpful and useful.

- The 24-Hour Puppet Show Challenge #ATL

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The PSN has helped us locate performers from other cities and even other states who are interested in sharing their talents and experiments in short-form puppetry with Central Florida. We’re excited to be working with our South Florida friends to establish a circuit of slam performance opportunities in 2012.

- Action Puppet Force #Orlando

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The Puppet Slam Network has inspired us, it has given us a welcome kick in the ass, and it has raised the bar- we are continually improving and learning from our slam. Receiving funding from the PSN has taken the majority of doubt out of our process and made ballast our commitment.

- Adult Puppet Cabaret #SanDiego

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It has connected me to other organizers who I have personally contacted and scheduled slam dates based on touring puppet shows that I wanted to showcase at All the Saints’ Slam. It has enabled an interest in learning more about social networks, and since first receiving the Slam Grant, I have made both a Facebook account and put together a You Tube channel. I plan on adding to my You Tube channel, and starting a blog and Facebook account just for All the Saints’ Spaghetti Dinners, highlighting the Puppet Slam Network and its calendar.

- All The Saints Theater Co's Spaghetti Dinner! #Richmond

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It has provided an opportunity to rent a space and bring puppeteers in from out of the region to perform in Austin, which allowed us to expose Austin audiences to kinds of puppetry they haven’t seen here. Also allowed us to perform in a larger venue, and to defray costs for technicians and administration, which allowed us to give a bigger percentage to the O”Neill Alumni Scholarship fund.

- Austin Puppet Incident #Austin

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The Slam Network has helped us greatly with connecting with puppetry artists and publicizing our events.

- Band of Puppets Fest #Brooklyn

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In addition to being awarded the grant last year, the slam network has helped me network and connect with other slam producers around the country. Comparing formulas and exchanging tips has helped me organize and better my puppet slams. I’ve been alerted to other slams happening and occasionally have been able to catch performances unexpectedly while traveling!

- Beady Little Eyes Puppet Slam #Portland

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Grant money has enabled us pay artists, freeing up ticket revenue to print promotional material and pay rent

- Blood From a Turnip #Providence

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Our association with the Network has increased the visibility of our annual exhibition of short adult works of puppetry. We have been contacted by national and international puppeteers expressing an interest in the program. Hopefully soon the travel and date arrangements will synch with one of these puppeteers and they will be able to perform in the event.

- Bobbindoctrin’s Puppet Slam #Houston

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The Puppetslam Network has been essential to the continuity of Café Concret. We began receiving Puppetslam grants when a startup Seed Grant from Concordia University ran out. This has allowed for ongoing subsidy of our costs not covered by box office income and the good will of in-kind donations of food and labor. These expenses have primarily gone towards space rental and travel costs for out of town performers, a number of whom come from the thriving puppetry community of nearby Northern New England.

- Café Concret #Montreal

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It has helped us maintain visibility both within and outside the CalArts community, kept people apprised of our activities and upcoming events, and raised awareness of our work in the puppetry community at large.

- CalArts Puppet Cabaret #Valencia

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The first year, we had a very small house for our slam. Around 20 people. Last year we had over 50 people. This year we had over 65. I feel that the network helped us achieve a higher number of audience members. We had a raffle for the O’Neill at our August slam and, due to our larger house, we were able to raise $175! In part, thanks to the Slam Network.

- CoLAB Arts Puppet Slam #NewBrunswick

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Via advertising our Kabarett and reaching puppeteers and the puppet community beyond our own immediate circle.

- Das WunderKammer Puppet Kabarett #Brooklyn

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The funds are an enormous help, as we pay our artists, as well as cover travel, accommodation, marketing, and venue costs. We really really appreciate the grant!!

- Dolly Wiggler Cabaret #Calgary

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It has increased my awareness of other like-minded individuals hosting similar events across the continent.

- Feed the Birds Cabaret #Toronto

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The funding allowed us to do our cabaret! Thank you! We love that we have been connected with this national movement! You advertised our event on your social media – giving people all over the country an opportunity to here about our puppet theater and our cabaret! Loaned us HMPD 1 that we showed during the day at our Puppet Sale – thank you!!!

- For the Love of Puppets Cabaret #Minneapolis

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Through the National Puppet Slam at the National Puppet Festival in Atlanta, GA, July 2011, and through ongoing e-mail conversations, the PSN has inspired members of our Seattle community to organize and hold a puppet slam for the first time in a long time.

- The Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam #Seattle

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The grant has allowed us to pay travel, meal costs & honorariums to performers.

- Great Arizona Puppet Slam #Phoenix

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Soirees have not yet been part of the Puppet Slam Network.

- Great Small Works Soiree #Brooklyn

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Being part of a broad association of fellow puppeteers and puppetry supporters gives strength to our own efforts. The Network has given credibility to an obscure theater form—the Slam—and has helped to develop audiences for Slams all over the country.

- Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner #NYC

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The grant that was given to Wham Bam Puppet Slam this year helped Lyon Hill go up to Asheville to perform. While there he made contacts with performers who have agreed to come to our puppet slam.

- Spork In Hand Puppet Slam #Columbia

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The PSN helped us publicize our first ever slam. Along with this, they have connected us to established slams and their locations.

- KC Puppet Slam #KansasCity

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The Puppet Slam Network gave artist Jessica Simon the opportunity to show her work “The Talleys” at Nasty Brutish & Short. She was selected by NB&S co-curator Seth Bockley to perform at Open Eye Figure Theater in Minneapolis and subsequently attended the 2011 National Puppetry Festival. When she returned to Chicago, Jessica took over from Seth Bockley co-curating NB&S at Links Hall with Julia Miller. Her first step as co-curator was to gather Chicago puppet artists to continue the conversations from the national festival and create a strong local community. The Network was really the catalyst for all this by supporting a regular series of cabarets here.

- Nasty, Brutish & Short: a Puppet Cabaret #Chicago

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The Grants made the show incredible by allowing so many incredible acts not only perform but also attend the festival who never would have been able to otherwise

- The National Puppet Slam #ATL

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It initially helped us to get a regular slam off the ground, for which we are grateful.

- Pinocchio’s Puppet Slam #AltamonteSprings

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To open a pathway for a ‘performer trade’ pool and insure that slams happening in the same region have more variety.

- Playhouse Puppetry Slam! #GlenEcho

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The Puppet Slam Network has helped us connect to other artists in our region for guest performers at our slams and to better educate us about the broader field of short form adult puppetry nationally. The Puppet Slam website is a very helpful central resource for discovering what other organizations in the form are doing.

- Professor Willikers Puppet Slam #Arcata

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It allows me to fund the many puppet slams here in Atlanta and allows me to provide an environment that is safe to fail in and try again.

- The Puckin’ Fuppet Show #ATL

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With the Puppet Slam Network’s support we’ve been able to implement the hugely-successful “PUNCH card” program, where we printed cards and gave prizes when audience members got their cards PUNCHed. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without last year’s grant. I also love how they’ve helped us cross-market on Facebook and online in general.

- PUNCH #NYC

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Puppet Slam Network has provided funds which have helped provide fees for technical equipment, Board Ops, Stage Manager and House and Box office staff. Remaining funds have been divided amongst the performers, contributing to a renewed sense that the art we create is a valued effort produced by hard working artists who have earned remuneration for their work. Puppet Slam Network has also helped promote the V4V Slam by providing one more outlet for posting its dates.

- Puppet Art Attacks Slam #NYC

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This is the first time I am applying for funds from the Puppet Slam Network – my past slams were all self-produced, run and organized using personal funds, volunteers and venue donation. I do look forward to the support and networking your organization may supply in aiding with future slams here in Philadelphia.

- Puppet Manualfesto #Philadelphia

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They included us in their look ahead sections and the newsletter for the month of our slam.

- Puppet Meltdown #Chicago

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It has helped me network with other slams across America. The concept of Puppet Pandemic, a collection of works created at the O’Neill Puppetry Conference, has begun to tour and we have hosted other fundraising events in conjunction with The Puppet Co. in Glen Echo, and The Puppet Showplace in Brookline. We were also the premiere puppet slam in Austin Texas, in cooperation with Trouble Puppet and Glass Half Full’s puppet Slam called The Austin Puppet Incident: Puppet Pandemic!

Personally, it has helped me tour “Nothing Compares to you” to the National Puppetry Festival in Atlanta. Without the Puppet Slam Grant I would not have been able to attend the festival. I am fantastically grateful for the additional funding. Thank you again!

- Puppet Pandemic #NYC

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Communication is always important. It’s good to have a centralized place to learn about other slams, make sure our schedules don’t conflict, etc. It’s good to have a hub for the community.

With your help, we’ve been able to expand what we can offer our performers. We have decided to use your donation to do the following:

Guaranteed Stipend: Instead of being depending on sales and tips, we can now guarantee a high stipend to the performers. This officially makes us the highest-paying slam in the city.

Materials Fund: We have created a “Materials Fund” to help defray the costs of puppet builds for the show. Performers can request this money in addition the amount of their stipend.

Video: We will be able to pay our videographer to create the high-quality videos of each act. In
the past, we have had to rely on these being created in his free time, if at all.

Online videos of past shows have quickly become the most popular part of our website, reaching an audience beyond New York and driving traffic to the puppeteers’ individual websites.

Puppeteers are sent a free, high-quality copy of the video, which they can use for their personal reels. This is one of the things we do that generates the most interest among our performers.

Merchandise: We are creating tee shirts (designed by Eric Wright) to help spread the word about the show and provide some additional income to maintain the above improvements beyond the amount of your original donation.

Administrative Costs: We’ll be using some of the funds to defray administrative costs of organizing the slam. These costs cannot be completely covered under the current model, but your backing will help ease the burden.

As Puppet Playlist continues to grow, we hope to find ever more ways to support the puppeteers who perform with us. We are thrilled to be able to implement the items listed above.

- Puppet Playlist #NYC

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Just joining but I hope to get good publicity to attract both audience and performers. In the future to perhaps benefit from a grant.

- Puppet Pot Pie #Hartford

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It has developed our personal and professional awareness of puppet slams across the country. It has assisted in convincing producers, artists and venues about impact of slams and articulating the creativity seen in the Slam movement.

- Puppet Rampage – The Slam #FtLauderdale

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The Puppet Slam Network has increased our awareness of the excellent short-form puppetry being presented around the country, and has inspired us to maintain a high standard of excellence for our own slam. The PSN also brought us recognition from the puppetry press—we were part of the article that appeared in Puppetry International last winter. Through the festival travel grants the PSN also helped us send a performer to the National Puppetry Festival. Through the slam grant process, the PSN puts pressure on us to do a better job documenting and tracking our Puppet Showplace Slam which is definitely a good thing for our organization. Finally, the PSN links us to the online/social media world of American puppet slams and their organizers. We appreciate this opportunity to be part of an online community and ongoing conversation about puppet slams.

- Puppet Showplace Slam #Brookline

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Since receiving a puppet slam network grant, we have really been able to build the puppetry community in Baltimore. More performers/puppeteers have been able to find us, both through our own online presence and through mention of our slams in Puppet Slam Network e-blasts and online updates. New performers, including folks who performed at the Puppet Playlist in NYC, have contacted us, asking to perform in Baltimore. Local artists have made new work specifically to be presented at the Puppet Slamwich! Younger and less experienced artists have found a supportive and welcoming venue to share their work. Many people who have attended the slams have talked to us about their newfound appreciation of experimental and adult oriented puppetry. Others have recruited puppeteers and performers for their own theatrical and performance events, which means that puppeteers are getting more gigs! The grant money has also made it possible for us to pay our performers for their participation in the slams, which is really important.

- Puppet Slamwich! #Baltimore

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It’s been wonderful to have financial support for our cabarets!! It has allowed us to give stipends to performers (which has been especially important for puppeteers who travel from out of town) and to buy some basic lighting and other stage materials that make the cabarets better. We have also learned about slams across the country and grow from the rich relationships and exchanges we have with puppeteers involved in other slams.

- Puppet Underground Cabarets #DC

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So far we haven’t worked with the Network but I think it would be very valuable for us.

- Puppetzilla #LA

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Here in Puerto Rico, I can attest to the PSN helping to bring together the puppet community. Being on an island can be quite isolating and the sense of the puppeteers being in a wider dialogue with puppeteers from the US I think has helped artists here see a wider variety of work.

- The Singing Picture Show #NYC

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The Puppet Slam Network has been very helpful in motivating and advising us on our first Australian Slam. In being involved with other US slams during my visit, I was able to see the quality of the work that gets produced and the viability of creating our own slam nights. It has so far increased my networks of colleagues around the world, provided easy access to other puppetry events and slam nights around the Americas and increased my knowledge and understanding of puppetry based events. The support and enthusiasm surrounding the idea of creating an Australian Slam has been a positive experience, and the network has been there to help and answer any questions I had about joining. They have also been actively promoting us and our webpage, creating an online buzz about it that surpasses anything I could have created by myself. It has so far been a wonderful working experience.

- Slam Noir #Melbourne

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The PSN let us know that there was a community of people creating the same type of event that we were interested in creating. It located documentation of similar projects in one place so that we could see how others are doing it. We just became aware of the available grant, and will be applying next year after we have a successful slam under our belts.

- Slamdango! #Mobile

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We have been able to pay performers…this is huge. It is also great to be part of a larger network.

- Sobre La Mesa #SanJuan

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We are new to the Puppet Slam network and we look forward to a great partnership.

- Strung Out Puppet Cabaret #Cincinnati

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The grant itself has enabled us to pay performers which is much appreciated and it is extremely interesting and helpful to be able to see the work in other puppet slams.

- Titeretada: Noches de Cabaret #SanJuan

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The Puppet Slam Network has made it possible for us to bring in a variety of outside artists that we otherwise could not have afforded. It is also great to be part of a nation-wide network of slams. We appreciate the publicity that the Puppet Slam Network also affords us

- UConn Puppet Slam #Storrs

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The Puppet Slam network has helped us tremendously with the grant we received for this season, with it, we are able to create wonderful events for our community to see adult puppetry and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Also, the Puppet Slam network keeps us abreast of what our peers are doing in other slams throughout the country. Meeting with other slam organizers and potential organizers at the Slam Symposium at the National Puppetry Festival was a unique and wonderful opportunity, both to help new slams get started, and to learn how to make ours better. It’s a great network of people, and I look forward to working more with them.

- Wham Bam Puppet Slam #Asheville

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It has helped the Winnipeg Puppet Slam find it's identity, given local puppet artists a sense of participating in something larger than our own community and given us the motivation and inspiration to continue to develop and grow.

- Winnipeg Puppet Slam #Winnipeg