Are you a professional puppeteer, presenter, theatre artist, or animator? Come to Puppet Festival Mississauga! Puppet Festival Mississauga is an international festival of puppetry and animation held in the city of Mississauga, Ontario Canada, each March. Puppet Festival Mississauga is the largest festival of puppetry in Ontario. We provide a host of ways that you can be involved in Puppet Festival Mississauga, from presenting your work, participating in workshops and networking events for artists, and more. Evey year, we present a variety of events for artists at Puppet Festival Mississauga as part of our Discovery Series.
What is The Discovery Series?
The Discovery Series is a section of Puppet Festival Mississauga, specifically designed for artists, professionals in the industry, and members of the puppetry community. We present a variety of programs, networking events and activities to participate in. Read more about all of our events and how you can get involved in Puppet Festival, whether you are a presenter, puppeteer, or animator.
Events For Presenters At Puppet Festival Mississauga
Do you present theatre, live events, or puppetry shows? Come to Puppet Festival Mississauga! Each year, we invite presenters from across Canada and around the world to our festival. Puppet Festival Mississauga will provide you with a full itinerary of events, meals as well as full access to shows, exhibitions, showcases, networking and industry events. We may also be able to provide accommodation, travel and per diems dependant upon distance to our festival.
We also host a presenters panel each year during Puppet Festival Mississauga, followed by a networking event. During our Presenters Panel, you have the opportunity to participate as a panelist and speak to artists and producers about your role, what you are looking for as a presenter and how artists can help you better fulfill the programming needs of your organization.
If you are a presenter and would be interested in participating in Puppet Festival, contact us.
Events For Puppeteers At Puppet Festival Mississauga
There are many ways to be involved in Puppet Festival Mississauga as a puppeteer, from presenting your work and getting paid for it, to participating in networking events, being a panelist and more! Read more to find out all the ways that you can participate and get the most out of your experience at Puppet Festival Mississauga.
Submit Your Puppet Show To Our Festival
One of the best way to get involved in our festival is to have your show presented at our festival. We hold an ongoing application call for puppeteers and theatre artists to submit their work all year round. We accept work from artists all across the world as well as puppet shows from Canadian and Ontario based artists. Upon submitting your show, we will not only consider you the upcoming festival, but all festivals in the future. We offer to pay for accommodation and per-diems, but do not pay for travel expenses.
Not Quite Ready To Submit Your Work To Puppet Festival Mississauga?
That’s okay, we still offer lots of opportunities to share your work. If you are in the process of developing a new show, want to pitch an idea, or just enjoy performing with other puppeteers consider participating in our showcase, and puppet slams, or learn about residencies that we provide.
Showcase
Participate in the Puppet Festival Mississauga Showcase! During the showcase you have the opportunity to pitch your piece to puppeteers and presenters from across Ontario and around the world. This pitch can come in the form of an excerpt of the piece either performed live or recorded, a keynote speech, interactive talk back, or any other way you believe is best to showcase your work. You may talk about a show that is still in development, still an idea, or a show that is fully produced. After the showcase, puppeteers also have the opportunity to network with presenters. If you would like to participate in our showcase, contact us.
If you have never presented at a showcase but are interested in doing so in the future, we recommend you watch a showcase first before participating. Anyone is welcome to watch a showcase. This way, you will better understand how a showcase is structured and how to pitch your show in the future.
For Ontario Artists
As a company in Ontario and a member of Ontario Puppetry Association and UNIMA Ontario, two organizations aiming to support Ontario Puppetry, we aim to support fellow Ontario puppeteers. If you are an Ontario puppeteer with an idea for showcase, we highly encourage you to participate. Participating in showcase offers you the opportunity to network with international and cross-Canada presenters and artists, sell your show, tour internationally, and gain valuable resources to continue your career as a puppeteer. Get in touch with us, and let’s start a conversation about what your needs as an artist are and how we can best support you.
Puppet Slam
Each year we present a puppet slam as part of Puppet Festival Mississauga. We invite puppeteers to experiment, play together and present new short form puppetry. Puppet Slam is an online revue style puppet show, with multiple performers showcasing their work. Artists participate in puppet slam through a submission process. About a month before the Festival, submissions open for artists with a short piece they would like to share in front of an audience.
Check out our puppet Slam Fom Puppet Festical Mississauga 2022.
Residencies
We also offer residencies for puppeteers to develop and workshop and produce their work. Resources we provide include a 200 seat theatre with a stage for you to use and develop your show.
Puppeteers Meetup And Other Networking Events
The arts industry is small, but the puppetry industry is even smaller! Each Year Puppet Festival Mississauga hosts a networking event for puppeteers, panelists, and theatre artists to meet together in one place. We engage in discussions about the industry, what challenges and successes and how we can come together to make the industry better. This is an excellent chance for puppeteers from across Ontario and around the world to meet and engage. We believe that connecting like-minded puppeteers and sharing our work, our processes, our successes and our failures make us stronger as a community.
As well as the puppeteers meet-up we hold multiple other networking events throughout the festival so that you can meet with fellow puppeteers and make connections!
Puppeteers Panel
Want to meet with and learn from other puppeteers in the industry? Professional puppeteers sit down with each other and talk about their experience in the industry. Anyone, regardless of their experience in puppetry is welcome to sit and watch and ask questions to our panelists. If you would like to be a panelist, contact us.
Workshops
We also hold workshops for puppeteers during the festival. Past workshops have included a puppetry workshop, introduction to the industry workshops for emerging artists, and marketing workshop. If you have an idea for a workshop you want presented at Puppet Festival Mississauga, get in touch.
Sit On A Jury
Sit on a jury and help us select the best of the best puppet shows from Puppet Festival Mississauga each year. Our judges help us present various awards to shows presented at Puppet Festival Mississauga each year. If you would like to participate as a jury member, contact us.
Events For Animators At Puppet Festival Mississauga
We also celebrate the art of animation during Puppet Festival Mississauga, we present short animated films from around the world and present a series of events for animators. See how you can be involved as an animator at Puppet Festival Mississauga.
Submit A Short Animated Film
Submit your work. Each Year we hold an annual submission call for animators on filmfreeway. We select filmmakers from all around the world to participate in our festival. If you would like to submit your film as part of Puppet Festival Mississauga, check out our guidelines here, and be sure to be on the look out for when submissions open.
Sit On A Jury
Be one of the jury members that helps us select what animated short films we will be presenting at Puppet Festival Mississauga. Review all of our short film submissions, and help us select which short animated films to present! To participate as a jury member, get in touch.
Attend Our Animators Panel
Watch our animators panel, where we invite experts in the field of animation from around the world to speak about their experience and thoughts on the industry. Are you a professional animator and film-maker who would like to dit on our panel? Contact Us.
In Conclusion
We have so many different ways that artists can participate in Puppet Festival Mississauga. We always enjoy getting to know the artists community, and Puppet Festival Mississauga is a great way to connect and strengthen our community. Come to Puppet Festival, meet with us, and other artists from across Canada and around the world! We promise you won’t be disappointed!
