Power City is the most beautiful city in the world, clean, pure – perfect; but not by accident. Local hero Laser Beak Man works hard to keep it that way. Drawing energy from the underground Magna Crystals that power the City his beak has the ability to shoot lasers that turn bad to good. That is until Peter Bartman, evil genius, and Laser Beak Man’s estranged childhood friend, steals the Magna Crystals using the Thriller Driller. Robbed of his super powers, Laser Beak Man must find a way to stop his oldest nemesis from destroying Power City. In a story jam packed with the trademark humour and visual puns that come from his literal interpretation of language, LASER BEAK MAN is a new visual theatre work under development by the Dead Puppet Society and Tim Sharp that explodes with colour and energy.

Venue Format
Theatre
Technical Rating
A, B
Touring Party
14

Hell bent on bringing our own brand of magical entertainment to the world, our work is created for a wide variety of audiences. We shy away from conventional views of the world and seek to mythologise the modern experience through provoking curiosity and wonder. Focussed on visual theatre, and contemporary applications of puppetry, we believe that this ancient form, given new life can generate deeply imaginative experiences. We think that puppetry has been caught too long in the world of shallow entertainment and slapstick comedy and seek to innovate and educate in order to demonstrate the potential that non-human performers have, and advocate their use in mainstream theatre. This is not puppet-theatre. It’s a Dead Puppet Society.

Company Website
deadpuppetsociety.com.au

Unique Selling Point

Tim Sharp was diagnosed with Autism when he was three years old. Doctors explained to his mother that he would never speak. But Judy was determined to find a way to communicate with her son and introduced him to drawing. When he was eleven, Tim invented Laser Beak Man who allowed him to express his sense of humour and intelligence as well as his quirky way of looking at the world. Since that time, Tim has become a globally recognised artist. Dead Puppet Society’s adaptation will meld puppetry, animation and live music to bring Tim’s drawings to life on stage.

Marketing Materials

A draft marketing kit is available, teacher's notes will be developed for the world premiere, along with a unique workshop program. Original LASER BEAK MAN artwork by Tim Sharp also available to tour as an exhibition alongside the production.

Community Engagement

LASER BEAK MAN promotes inclusion, with the creative team all being young artists working together to create quality visual theatre.

In order to engage with local communities the DPS is available to deliver workshops introducing the art of puppetry with a particular focus on manipulation techniques and construction. These can be run with various demographics, including school groups (both secondary and primary), local artists, or interested adults. These workshops could be either packaged with the show or run independently if the community is interested.

The company can also provide professional development opportunities for local teachers to allow for a deeper engagement with the performance and facilitating the experience of their students if they come to see the show. Over the last six years DPS has provided similar workshops for teachers in regional and rural areas, through this tour we'd be able to connect with the large proportion of teachers whose school's couldn’t normally afford to fly artists out for training and to work with their students.

Additionally, we can provide workshops introducing visual theatre practice for local artists and arts workers with a focus on both creating work and teaching workshops geared towards puppetry and visual dramaturgy practice.