Puppet of the Week

Been a while since I’ve written on here, so I thought I would continue my attempted tradition of “Puppet of the Week” that I did one post on then forgot about entirely…sorry.
My puppet (or rather puppets) this time is one I’m very proud of. Back in late January, when I was working with Auburn Area Community Theatre on their production of Seussical Jr., I was asked to create a set of fish puppets for the “Anything’s Possible” number in the show, a song where Jojo’s imagination stretches his bathtub into the ocean. I was excited that I got the job and set of to work, but first I had to decide what kind of puppets I wanted to use, I had been given free reign to make whatever kind of fish puppets I wanted. I debated several different styles, and finally settled on something I thought would work best. I went to the library and looked at all the Dr. Seuss books I could find with fish in them, then sketched/designed 7 different styles of fish (several of which never saw the light of day as puppets, this included what I called “The Cat Fish” a black fish with red white stripes to look like the Cat in the Hat). I then set to work drawing large fish on matte board, cutting them out, painting thm, rigging them to talk (they were singing fish after all), detailing with a sharpie, and finally trimming them with black electrical tape to give them a straight off the page feel. The final product was five rod puppet fish that looked a lot like Dr. Seuss fish if I do say so myself…
The puppeteers for the fish (who were also in the ensemble playing Whoville citizens, Jungle of Nool creatures, and Circus McGurcus animals) were Marleigh Jones (my sister), Ian Downes, Walker Shumock-Bailey, Madison Jennings, and Brittany Price; who all danced the choreographed dance and did the puppet at the same time, a tough job (trust me).
Of my few stage puppet designing jobs this is one I’ll always be very proud of, bringing Dr. Seuss’ famous fish to life. It was a pleasure, and a privilege.

Beauty IS a Beast

Beauty is a Beast. Look at that again. Beauty IS a Beast. It’s not the show you think it is at first glance; there is no enchanted castle, no dancing flatware, no singing candelabras. Just a sort of twisted story about a Princess in need of one heck of an attitude adjustment. Having myself been in Beauty AND the Beast about a year ago I thought I knew what I was getting into… I wasn’t even close.
Auditions were held May 20, we had 9 try out for this 15-person show. Yet another round of auditions were held the following week where we found another 5 members to the cast. Alright, close enough. We held the read-thru a day later where we found out that one of our cast members from the first round of auditions had dropped out, but we also had another 2 kids joining the cast for the read-thru. Yes, yes, yes! The read-thru went very well, and I was satisfied with my picks. A week later when the first rehearsal was under way we received word that another one of the kids had dropped out of the show. So, we continued the search, and found one more kid. Bringing us to, if my math is right, a total of 13 kids. We combined a few roles, and made a few edits here and there and then we started rehearsing.
With thirteen 5th-8th graders there’s gonna be some conflicts, and I was in the middle of a war zone. This one couldn’t sit next to that one, and he couldn’t do this because he was looking at him, etc. The principles were the least of my worries, it was the secondary and supporting cast that caused the most raucous. But things went on (surprisingly) ahead of schedule. Everyone, well almost everyone, memorized lines and blocking quickly, which gave me more time to find stuff for them to do in character. Costumes (most hand-made by my awesome sewin’ sister) were great, choreography was good, the acting was…okay… and it was almost the week of the show!
Show week can be a stressful time, and boy did I feel the stress! Cast members missing from first dress rehearsal without letting anyone know they would be gone, trying to coorinate a new sound and lights operator (and a new stage crew member who couldn't take the pressure leaving us to find yet another one), and trying to make sure the story got across. AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! As the first show started I could feel a change in everyone’s energy, they were projecting, cheating out, it was an entirely different show that it was a week ago. First show was great, except for a section in scene 4 where half the cast started laughing on stage, but let’s not talk about that…
The next show was… eh… everyone was tired, and ready for this thing to be over. And I was with them, it was an exhausting 24 rehearsals. But thankfully, a few of the principle cast members still had enough energy to give the audience a good show.
We played almost to capacity both shows and the kids really did a good job, it was a tough, but fun, road; and I hope everyone remembers their time during Beauty IS a Beast.