Neville Tranter (1955, Toowoomba, Australia) completed his drama studies with the US director Robert Gist in Queensland in 1976, having also trained with the Billbar Puppet Theatre. He founded the Stuffed Puppet Theatre the same year. After the Stuffed Puppet Theatre had taken part in the Festival of Fools in Amsterdam in 1978, Neville Tranter moved to the Netherlands, where his visual and emotional adult puppet theatre developed to assume its present form. In his own brutal, ruthless but poetic way, he confronts the audience with their fears and dreams, urges and desires, personified by what are often life size talking puppets. Combining a minimal decor with sophisticated music, lighting and sound, using the oldest devices of the theatre as well as state of the art technology, solo on stage, with nothing but his puppets plus a number of assistants behind the scenes, Neville Tranter is capable of evoking images that the audience will not forget for a long time. His combination of down to earth humour, deadly seriousness and virtuoso puppetry has already made permanent converts of may who had presumed that for them, puppetry had nothing to offer.

PRODUCTIONS BY STUFFED PUPPET THEATRE

·         1982  STUDIES IN FANTASY
·         1984  THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
·         1985  MANUPILATOR & UNDERDOG
·         1988  ROOM 5
·         1990  MACBETH!
·         1993  THE NIGHTCLUB
·         1994  KASPAR HAUSER, with Beppe Costa and Ria Marks
·         1996  SALOMÉ
·         1996  MACBETH! video-production
·         1998  MOLIÈRE
·         1999  RE: FRANKENSTEIN, with Reinmar Henschke, Harald Kündgen,
                    Wolf Dix and  die Ameisenkinder
·         2000  RE: FRANKENSTEIN with music by Ferdinand Bakker & Kim
                    Haworth
·         2003  SCHICKLGRUBER, ALIAS ADOLF HITLER. A coproduction of
                    Stuffed Puppet Theatre with Kleine Spui, Schauspielhaus Wien
                    in collaboration with Wiener Festwochen and Novapool Berlin
·         2006  VAMPYR 

AWARDS WON BY NEVILLE TRANTER

·         1989  Figurentheater Festival Erlangen prize / Germany
·         1994  Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Wilhelmshaven / Germany for
                    THE NIGHTCLUB
·         1996  Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Schwerte / Germany for MACBETH!
·         2001  Best performance World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague /
                    Czech Republic for MOLIERE
·         2001  Sirene d’oro - Arrivano dal Mare in Cervia / Italy
·         2002  Jugendjury Preis – Synergura, Erfurt / Germany for MOLIERE
          2002  Grand Prix – Pif, Zagreb / Croatia for MOLIERE
·         2004  Kleinkunstpreis der Stadt Schwerte / Germany for
                    SCHICKLGRUBER, ALIAS ADOLF HITLER
·         2005  Wim Meilijnk prijs (award of the Dutch Puppetry Society /
                    Nederlandse Vereniging voor het Poppenspel) 

FILM & TV BY NEVILLE TRANTER

·         1989  THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, a 43 minute film (16 mm) based on
                    the theatre production, directed by Frans Weisz
         1996/1997  Manipulation puppets in "Koppen dicht" and "Otje"
                    (youth TV productions)
·         1999  Television registration of RE:FRANKENSTEIN.
                    Integral Broadcast by ZDF/3SAT (german subtitles) and ARTE
                   (french and german subtitles)  

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS  (selection)

·         Adelaïde Festival (Australia)
·         Festival of the Arts (New Zealand)
·         Olympic Festival (Barcelona/ Spain)
·         La Semaine Mondiale de la Marionnette (Québec/ Canada)
·         Festival Mondial de Théâtres de Marionnettes
          (Charleville-Mézières/ France)
·         Semaine Internationale de Marionnettes (Neuchâtel/ Switzerland)
·         Theatre Project (Baltimore/ USA)
          Internationales FigurenTheaterFestival
          (Erlangen, Nürnberg, Fürth/ Germany)
·         Images (Arnhem/ The Netherlands)
·         Internasjonale Figurteaterfestival (Kristiansand/ Norway)
          95 + 97 + 99 + 01 +03
·         Festival du Théâtre Européen Grenoble (Grenoble/ France)
·         World Puppetry Festival 98 (Iida/ Japan)
·         Filo 98 + 2003 (Londrina/ Brasil)
·         Non Stop Puppets 98 (Stockholm/ Sweden)
·         Giboulées de la Marionette (Strasbourg/ France)
·         Festival Baltoscandal 98 (Rakvere/ Estonia)
·         Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre 98 (New York/ USA)
·         visions98 (Brighton/ U.K.)
·         Tampère International Theatre festival (Tampère/ Finland)
·         Mini-Lutke99 (Ljubljana/ Slovenia)
·         Pif99 + Pif02(Zagreb/ Croatia)
·         Frankenstein, ein Monsterfestival 99(Weimar/ Germany)
·         Fidena 2000 + 2003 (Bochum/ Germany)
·         Unkraut, Erde, Mensch (Berlin, Germany)
·         Synergura 00 + 02 (Erfurt/ Germany)
·         XV111th Unima World Festival (Magdeburg/ Germany)
·         Non Stop Puppets 2000 (Helsinki/ Finland & Stockholm/ Sweden)
·         Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zürich/ Switzerland)
·         9e + 10th festival internacional de marionetas do Porto
          (Porto/ Portugal)
·         Bath Int. Puppet Festival 00 + 01 (Bath/ U.K.)
·         Biennale International des Arts de la Marionnette 01 (Paris/ France)
·         World Festival of Puppet Art 01 (Prague/ Czech Republic)
·         10th Spectacular Puppet Show Festival of Curitiba (Brasil)
·         Arrivano dal mare 01 (Cervia/ Italy)
·         La Strada 01 +02 + 03 + 04 (Graz/ Austria)
·         Int. Festival de teatro de Bonecos 01 + 03 (Belo Horizonte/ Brasil)
·         Animacao em Cena (São  Paulo/ Brasil)
·         Homo Novus 01 (Riga/ Latvia)
·         Szene Bünte Wähne 01 (Vienna/ Austria)
·         Festival de Otoño 01 (Madrid, Spain)
·         Wiener Festwochen 03
·         Festival de titellles (Barcelona, Spain)
·         BIAM, Paris 05
·         Sept Collines, St Etienne France 05 

USA/ NETHERLANDS TOURING AND EXCHANGE PROJECT 1993-1996 in collaboration with the Netherlands Theatre Institute
·         USA/ New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta in 1993, 1994, 1995
          and 1997 

OTHER

Exhibitions of Neville Tranter's paintings

·         1997  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)
·         1998  USA, Snug Harbour Cultural Center Gallery
                   (Staten Island, New York)
·         1998  USA, Dance Theater Workshop (Manhattan, New York)
·         1998  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)
·         1999  Germany, Tafelhalle (Nürnberg)
·         2000  Switzerland, Theatre Ticino (Wädenswil)
·         2001  Netherlands, Paleis van Justitie (Amsterdam)
·         2001  Germany, Tafelhalle (Nürnberg)
·         2003  Netherlands, Ostadetheater (Amsterdam)
·         2005  Danmark, KunstCentret (Silkeborg Bad) 

Performance in Dierigenten, puppetry and classical music. With the Osiris trio (dir. Frans Weisz) Concertgebouw Amsterdam 2004 (+ 06)

Performance in Oresteia, opera production from Muziektheater Hollands Diep, Dordrecht NL (dir. Cilia Hogerzeil) 2005

Neville Tranter will both direct and perform in Acis & Galathea, an opera from Händel by Schlachthaustheater Bern, Switzerland (from January 07)

Neville Tranter coaches and directs other theatre productions (director of 1001 Nacht; Ila van der Pouw, 2004, and of Cas & Polle, Theater Theo Terra, 2005).  

Neville Tranter gives occasionally courses and workshops (Theaterschool Arnhem, NL; Inst. Int. des M.,Charleville-Mezières/ Fr.; Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch”, Berlin etc).