Star Dreamer, Path Maker
Totnes Talks podcast interviewer Tony Gee is launching his new novel Star Dreamer, Path Maker at Bogan House on Wednesday, July 30th between 4pm -8pm. There will be storytelling, readings from the book, a labyrinth to thread and quite possibly, a few puppets! In keeping, with Tony’s forty years as a working artist in Totnes, this will be an event with lots of interactive opportunities.
Star Dreamer, Path Maker is an exciting bronze age adventure set between ancient Britain and the Mediterranean. Tony says, “It’s the intrepid adventures of two young people leading them to the invent an extraordinary map of life. The Story came from the ideas of Totnes based puppeteer, Ken Beagley, whom I worked with across my career. When Ken suddenly got terminally ill, we spent time creating a story from Ken’s long engagement with the Cretan Labyrinth.” At Bogan House next Wednesday from 4pm -8pm, there is a chance to hear more about Tony’s various tales and adventures as he launches his first novel, written in honour of his old friend Ken.
Tony’s work in Totnes began in the mid 1980s when with his friend Patrick Cooper, they founded Little Jest Puppets. They were based at Arts Access at Number 1 The Plains. There they began work on producing a show called Child of the Wood about Robin Hood’s childhood. After just one show, they got invited to perform at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and a glorious adventure began.
Forty years later, the two friends performed in separate performances at the Totnes Fringe Festival having followed different paths but always remaining connected through a common passion for theatre and story. In 1989 Tony founded Far&Wide Puppets, and began running large-scale workshops. An early one of these shows was an attempt to set a new world record for The Biggest Puppet Show on Earth at Totnes Civic Hall. Tony and the team went on to set the world record twice!
This event catapulted Tony into a new orbit which, true to the name of his company, was to take him all over the globe. He ran workshop residencies in schools across Devon, Finland, South West London, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland and as far afield as Taiwan and Canada. He taught at various universities including Concordia in Montreal, the Royal College of Arts and, nearer home at Dartington College of Arts where the Moveable Feast Workshop Company was founded. His most recent show at the Civic Hall was made by 60 young people in 2022 from Totnes and Kingsbridge about climate change and was called “The Talking Forest”. It was made into a film. https://vimeo.com/user44682206/tf
Two years ago, Tony made the decision to stop making the huge shows with young people that had brought so much joy and in the words of a primary school headteacher in Cambridge,
“Changed the ethos of our school and was named as an absolute highlight of their time at school by many of our pupils.”
Since then, Tony has produced three books. One on running workshops, “Workshop – the Art of Creative Inquiry”; the next was “Making Worlds” – beautifully, hand-illustrated by Buckfastleigh artist, Charlie Narewski Scullion, which is a manual to make, easy but brilliant puppets and a storybook of world creation myths that Tony and team brought to life with countless thousands of children. Now, Star Dreamer, Path Maker, tony’s first novel, has been published and you can hear all about it and many other tales at Bogan House, Wednesday July 30th between 4pm -8pm. Pop in or stick around and be regaled with tales!