...strengthen our trust in our own creativity and expressiveness." B.D.
Brigitte B. Dörner
I'm a self taught artist and puppet maker, living in Prague, the most magical and beautiful of all cities. Since my early childhood days my inner world has been very vivid and colourful, so it wasn't always easy for reality to cope with that. I do believe in Dragons, Love and Miracles, and my strong conviction is, that our souls purpose is to follow our bliss, and that's what I'm trying to do.
I was about ten years old, when I made my first doll, and since it was something like playing then, now it became a passion, that takes in a huge part of my heart and my daily life.
My puppets are made from different media, most of them from air drying clay or paper clay, but in 2010 I started to work in wood, either.
While the sculpted dolls and marionettes are mainly collectible items, made for decoration, the stage puppets and wooden marionettes are created by professional technics to perform on stage.
For any questions about my puppets, please feel free to contact me.
To see, which puppets are currently for sale you are welcome to visit my Etsy-shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DarkSmileStudio
I was about ten years old, when I made my first doll, and since it was something like playing then, now it became a passion, that takes in a huge part of my heart and my daily life.
My puppets are made from different media, most of them from air drying clay or paper clay, but in 2010 I started to work in wood, either.
While the sculpted dolls and marionettes are mainly collectible items, made for decoration, the stage puppets and wooden marionettes are created by professional technics to perform on stage.
For any questions about my puppets, please feel free to contact me.
To see, which puppets are currently for sale you are welcome to visit my Etsy-shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DarkSmileStudio
My long and winding road, hopefully never ending:
Current projects:
- Just joined Prague Shakespeare Company as props designer for their production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, directed by Guy
Roberts (www.pragueshakespeare.org).
- Working for a local Puppet Theater and a private collection of historic puppets
- Since September 2013 teaching puppetry in several afternoon clubs at Novy Porg school in Prague
- Working on my own Stop Motion Animation film project
- Working on my own puppet play, a fairy tale about the eternal struggle between religions
Recent Projects:
- Working on props and set for RENT, the Musical, directed by Steve Josephson
- Stop Motion Animation class with Mirek Trejtnar, www.puppetsinprague.eu
- Props assistant for Prague Playhouses' Glass Menagerie/Tennessee Williams
- Making three puppets and one mask in this years production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It's produced by Prague Playhouse Acting Studio and
directed by Michael Pitthan, who also did the PFTC mask workshop with me.
- Puppeteer Assistant for The Character Shop, Filming a Commercial at Barrandov Studios
- A collaboration between PFTC (Prague Film and Theatre Centre) and special guest actor Michael Pitthan: "How would your alter Ego look?" - a three evening mask
workshop.
- Making the two, well, one and a half, puppets for Husam Abeds' performance of Nos Nseis (Half a Half), a folk tale about a boy, who manages to succeed over a
mean witch with only a trick...
- Providing a workshop for adults how to make a simple Table Top Puppet with Dafa Puppet Theatre in Amman, Jordan
- Providing two finger-puppet workshops in collaboration with Husam Abed from Dafa Puppet Theatre at Amman Fe Ramadan Festival, Jordan.
- Creating a huge puppet, the Harpy in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", for Novy Porg Gymnasium, a bilingual school
here in Prague
- Marionette Workshop for Orient Spirit Development, a workshop for kids with special needs in Jordan, January 2012
- Marionette Workshop with Husam Abed from Dafa Puppet Theatre for schoolars of the Theodor-Schneller-School
in Amman in collaboration with Goethe-Institute Jordan, January 2012
- Workshop for adults - Marionette Appetizer - at Blessed One's Assisiation, Amman, Jordan, January 2012
- Designing two tabletop puppets with elements of Bunraku technique for the new show of Dafa Puppet Theatre in Amman, Jordan
- Designing paper puppets for Baba Studio Prague
Since summer 2010:
- Taking part in the Marionette carving workshop with Mirek Trejtnar,
- Working as a freelancer for Baba Studio Prague, providing marketing support for the German market, creative and
administrative work until summer 2012
- Developing and guiding my first tour under the name Mystic Prague - Tours Of Enchantment, based on the
Tarot of Prague by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov, Magic Realist Press and Baba Studio Prague.
March 2010:
Move to Prague
5th Life: Self-employed with an own shop for African interior, design and accessoires for about four years
4th Life:
Education and working as a bookseller for about ten years.
3rd Life:
Machine worker at an industrial bookbinder
2nd Life:
Study of Archeology and History of Arts at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen
1st Life after school:
Education as a bookbinder in craft
Further Educations:
- Councelor for organic food
- Psychotherapy based on the law of alternative practitioners
School:
- Primary school
- Grammar school with special emphasis on the instruction in arts and music with Abitur (University entrance
qualification)
Fun/Interests:
- Country Side, Mala Skala/Liberecky kraj in particular
- Used to sing in a choir during some of my former lives
- Dancing, basically Salsa and a little bit of Belly Dancing
- Playing the piano
- Started making puppets at the age of about ten
- Reading and writing, Poetry
- Photographing and picture manipulation
- Reiki, Fortune Telling and Shamanism, basically dreamwork
- Bric a Brac, junk stores and flea markets
PLANS/DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE:
- Moving into the green/country side/having a Magic Cottage there
- Dancing Tango
- Travelling to Ireland, Morocco, Tobago and Egypt
- Professional Card Reading
- Playing Accordeon and Celtic Harp
- Creating animated movies
... only to mention a few...
- Just joined Prague Shakespeare Company as props designer for their production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, directed by Guy
Roberts (www.pragueshakespeare.org).
- Working for a local Puppet Theater and a private collection of historic puppets
- Since September 2013 teaching puppetry in several afternoon clubs at Novy Porg school in Prague
- Working on my own Stop Motion Animation film project
- Working on my own puppet play, a fairy tale about the eternal struggle between religions
Recent Projects:
- Working on props and set for RENT, the Musical, directed by Steve Josephson
- Stop Motion Animation class with Mirek Trejtnar, www.puppetsinprague.eu
- Props assistant for Prague Playhouses' Glass Menagerie/Tennessee Williams
- Making three puppets and one mask in this years production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It's produced by Prague Playhouse Acting Studio and
directed by Michael Pitthan, who also did the PFTC mask workshop with me.
- Puppeteer Assistant for The Character Shop, Filming a Commercial at Barrandov Studios
- A collaboration between PFTC (Prague Film and Theatre Centre) and special guest actor Michael Pitthan: "How would your alter Ego look?" - a three evening mask
workshop.
- Making the two, well, one and a half, puppets for Husam Abeds' performance of Nos Nseis (Half a Half), a folk tale about a boy, who manages to succeed over a
mean witch with only a trick...
- Providing a workshop for adults how to make a simple Table Top Puppet with Dafa Puppet Theatre in Amman, Jordan
- Providing two finger-puppet workshops in collaboration with Husam Abed from Dafa Puppet Theatre at Amman Fe Ramadan Festival, Jordan.
- Creating a huge puppet, the Harpy in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", for Novy Porg Gymnasium, a bilingual school
here in Prague
- Marionette Workshop for Orient Spirit Development, a workshop for kids with special needs in Jordan, January 2012
- Marionette Workshop with Husam Abed from Dafa Puppet Theatre for schoolars of the Theodor-Schneller-School
in Amman in collaboration with Goethe-Institute Jordan, January 2012
- Workshop for adults - Marionette Appetizer - at Blessed One's Assisiation, Amman, Jordan, January 2012
- Designing two tabletop puppets with elements of Bunraku technique for the new show of Dafa Puppet Theatre in Amman, Jordan
- Designing paper puppets for Baba Studio Prague
Since summer 2010:
- Taking part in the Marionette carving workshop with Mirek Trejtnar,
- Working as a freelancer for Baba Studio Prague, providing marketing support for the German market, creative and
administrative work until summer 2012
- Developing and guiding my first tour under the name Mystic Prague - Tours Of Enchantment, based on the
Tarot of Prague by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov, Magic Realist Press and Baba Studio Prague.
March 2010:
Move to Prague
5th Life: Self-employed with an own shop for African interior, design and accessoires for about four years
4th Life:
Education and working as a bookseller for about ten years.
3rd Life:
Machine worker at an industrial bookbinder
2nd Life:
Study of Archeology and History of Arts at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen
1st Life after school:
Education as a bookbinder in craft
Further Educations:
- Councelor for organic food
- Psychotherapy based on the law of alternative practitioners
School:
- Primary school
- Grammar school with special emphasis on the instruction in arts and music with Abitur (University entrance
qualification)
Fun/Interests:
- Country Side, Mala Skala/Liberecky kraj in particular
- Used to sing in a choir during some of my former lives
- Dancing, basically Salsa and a little bit of Belly Dancing
- Playing the piano
- Started making puppets at the age of about ten
- Reading and writing, Poetry
- Photographing and picture manipulation
- Reiki, Fortune Telling and Shamanism, basically dreamwork
- Bric a Brac, junk stores and flea markets
PLANS/DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE:
- Moving into the green/country side/having a Magic Cottage there
- Dancing Tango
- Travelling to Ireland, Morocco, Tobago and Egypt
- Professional Card Reading
- Playing Accordeon and Celtic Harp
- Creating animated movies
... only to mention a few...
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