I have just been invited to perform at a festival in Slovakia in September.  This is currently in the planning stages.  It will be in honour of my very good friend Anton Anderle who sadly died quite suddently last year.  Anton was an excellent performer of a wide range of marionette shows in his native Slovakia, and across Europe.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to invite him to the England in 2005 and again in 2007 to tour with his Smallest Circus in The World as part of the Dynamics International Puppet Festival.  Anton was one of those performers who had the ability to carry forward traditional forms of puppetry, and his work was directly linked to what would be Victorian Times in England.  Yet there was never a sense that he was presented purely museum pieces.  Everything he did was vibrantly alive in the momment of performance and he had a magic ability to transfer performance energy down the strings and into the figures.  He was also a great collector and when I visited his house I was aslonished to be shown a room with a thousand beautifl puppets all hanging without a hand to move them.  I wouldn't presume to put myself on the same level as him, but I am proud to be asked to celebrate what his life with puppets meant by being part of a performance festival.