This autumn is a good time for puppet-lovers. The biannual visions 2000 Festival of International Animated Theatre is already underway at venues in Birmingham, Brighton, Bracknell, Jersey, Ludlow, Oxford, Portsmouth, Walton on Thames and Walsall (see page 33 for details). Total Theatre Network holds its ninth Critical Practice Debate at the Sallis Benney Theatre, Brighton as part of the visions festival on Saturday October 21st (see page 21 for details). The event – Hands Up: What's New In Puppetry? – will take a timely look at new and emerging collaborations between puppeteers and theatre-makers.

Next month, Total Theatre Network collaborates with Central School of Speech & Drama, the Puppet Centre Trust, and the Theatre Museum on a one-day symposium designed to give both a practical and theoretical perspective on the emergence of puppetry in contemporary theatre-making. The event, Puppetry Into Performance: A User's Guide, takes place at the Theatre Museum, London on November 27th and will feature a panel of internationally distinguished performers and directors who work in the field of animated theatre (see page 21 for details). Amongst these, it is hoped, will be Ariane Mnouchkine, whose latest show for Théâtre du Soleil is reviewed by Penny Francis on page 14 of this issue.

Also in this issue we announce the winners of the Total Theatre Awards 2000, which were held at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. Congratulations to British companies Spymonkey, Shunt and Generally Better Productions, and to international companies Ariel Teatr (Poland), Pig Iron Theatre Company (USA), and BlackSKYwhite (Russia) for winning awards. The 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Monika Pagneux, who has influenced a host of current British physical theatre-makers, including John Wright, who is interviewed in this issue on page 16.

Elsewhere, you will find features on the Plunge Club, Anthony Howell's Analysis of Performance Art Summer School, Kaizen's Arts of Coaching training course, and the Matter of Life & Death festival at BAC, London held earlier this summer. Finally, in a bid to differentiate between the activities of Total Theatre, the networking organisation, and Total Theatre, the magazine which it publishes, you will notice that the organisation has amended its name to Total Theatre Network. We would be grateful if you would kindly remember the change when referring to us in the future.