Two great personalities remembered by John Blundall

Hubert Roman
We have just learnt the sad news of the death of Hubert Roman on 10 May 2010. He was a great personality who worked a lot for the promotion of the art of puppetry in Belgium and within UNIMA.
He was Secretary Treasurer of the French section of the UNIMA Belgium, Treasurer of the Belgian UNIMA Centre and Member of Honour of UNIMA, after many years like member of the Executive Committee.
I first met Hubert when our Studio and Performance Group performed at the first Amateur International Puppet Festival in the 1960s. His company performed a large scale contemporary work full of humour. We became the two youngest members of the UNIMA Executive Committee. In the leisure time during meetings he kept everybody laughing with his endless jokes. He will be missed.

Hoichi Okamoto
We just received the very sad message that Hoichi Okamoto, the founder of Dondoro Theatre in Japan, has died on the 6 July 2010 age 62 years.
Everybody knows this famous artist and his show where, alone on the stage with his puppet, without word, he fascinated the public with the charm and the purity of his play.
He inspired so many artists around the world and the best way to remember this great artist is to see the video link in the RH column -->
Senosuki Takeda introduced Hoichi Okomoto to the West during one of the great UNIMA Festivals many years ago. The members of the jury for that festival were invited to see his performance. We entered a dark cavernous space in an ancient building. It was dark, and the only illumination was rows of candles marking out a large square performing space. Okomoto walked slowly, Butoh style, around the outer space in absolute silence and proceeded to enter the performing space with a beautiful life-size Japanese female figure. The poetic and dramatic piece performed with the skills and disciplines reminiscent of the finest elements of Japanese performing arts created a spellbinding experience that made him an over-night success. He was a kind, quiet and gentle man who shared his unique talent with audiences worldwide.