Labapalooza

Filmmaker Gwen Warnock created a heart-warming tale of a space-pioneering monkey and it’s not just for kids.

“It’s based on actual animal launches in the 1950’s and 60’s in the US. For us the challenge was trying to figure out if we could tell a tragedy with two loveable puppets,“ said Puppeteer and Filmmaker Gwen Warnock.

The film is part of Labapalooza, a festival featuring avant-garde puppet theater from local and international artists, ranging from New York actors to professionally trained puppeteers.

“It’s a wide range of people, a lot of musicians, composer, writers,“ said Co-Director Matt Acheson.

Practicing a craft that’s been around for centuries.

“It’s present in almost every culture and it’s really been used through history to actually explore stuff that’s really profound and deep,“ said Co-Director Tom Lee.

Labapalooza is loaded with live acts, intricate displays of works in progress, stop motion animation and other short films from saint Anne’s puppet lab.

“It’s definitely a more mature conceptual theater work here, more experimental,“ said Acheson.

With acts ranging from the story of 19 Century Italian sleep walker to Jewish mystical folk tales.

“It gives people a nice taste of puppetry and the potential of puppetry,“ said Acheson.