2010 World Arts Olympus

Can a simple phone call set you on an adventure? Yes, you bet it can! That is exactly what happened to Steve and Marty and the puppets.

Kathy Wilson, our agent from long ago, called one fine afternoon, to ask if we wanted to premiere our DVD of
Witch Key on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, and if we had anything related to the puppets and our new film that we could bring along for a very special event.

That special event turned out to be the 2010 World Arts Olympus Launch Celebration, spearheaded by Robert Slaughter, a world renowned Coordinator of Arts and Culture.

Hosted aboard the Famous Queen Mary Cruise Ship, Hotel and Museum, this virtual expedition was to showcase a very special dream of Robert's to launch a cruise ship to set sail around the world spreading a message of world peace and mutual cooperation through bringing the arts to the general public. Nothing of the kind has ever been attempted up to now.

Artists from around the world arrived to participate in this special four day event, which reserved Sunday as a day set aside for children. Over thirty countries sent films, dancers, painters, writers, costume designers and special performers, making this a truly global event.

What did we bring? Why our new DVD movie,Witch Key,
of course, along with three elaborate displays featuring the new puppets from our film. What an elegant setting for our premiere, we thought, as we were asked to participate in this international children's film and book festival.

With little less than two months to prepare for this once in a lifetime opportunity, we set out to design and create several special programs to not only premiere the film and its characters, but also a series of live puppet demonstrations, exibits, and workshops where children could build a puppet from the movie.

All of this had to break down and travel from Portland to California in our trustworthy old Aerostar van.