Bizarre. I designed these puppets years ago and evidentally they are being used in a remount now. Willamette Week reviewed the production and had this to say about my work. The puppets, designed by Mary Robinette Kowall [sic] ((Oddly, I only ran across this because, for the first time, I ran a search on a […]
Willamette Week reviews Cinderella Read More »
Puppetry isn’t all fun and games. It’s got a long history of being used as a means of political satire and in Burma, that got two puppeteers and comedians arrested back in 1996. U Pa Pa Lay and his cousin U Lu Zaw, “The Moustache Brothers”, spent seven years in jail, while Amnesty International have
Puppeteers arrested in Burma Read More »
This is beautifully animated, but there’s one detail which makes me go a little buggy. Watch the baby’s eyes. They are so real, compared to the rest of the figure, that it edges into the uncanny valley. This is a problem that crops up in a lot of different forms of world creation, from set
e-baby and the uncanny valley Read More »
We are packing the puppets now. It is 3 am. They are beautiful.
Puppets on a plane Read More »
It’s 1:15 am. I just got home. The crocodile and leopard are not finished. Tomorrow I’m supposed to temp and after I finish that I’m heading back to the Puppet Kitchen to finish up so that the puppets can get on a plane at 6am on Tuesday. Oh yeah, and I have to send the
We finished the fish today. Got good work done on the crocodile and leopard. Best of all, an old friend came into town and dropped by to help out. (Hi Rob!) Afterwards, Rob and my Rob and I went out to catch up. Life is good.
The fish are out the door Read More »
I thought you might be interested in seeing what the to-do list on a puppet build looks like. This is the one for the fish. Bear in mind as you look at the list that we have to build sixteen of them. Things in bold mean that anyone can do them. Ask office about painting
Fish: The to-do list Read More »
I think the crocodile might eat us alive. The fish are well on their way to completion. We had a bevy of helpers today, including the wonderful Kris Dikeman who had responded to my call for volunteers. I’m at home now and Rob has made me a gin and tonic. This and then bed are
Long day, many fish and a crocodile Read More »
Emily DeCola has been hired to create puppets for the African Children’s Choir. She started with these design drawings and has hired me to help her build the puppets. My primary job on the fish is to take her drawings and translate them into patterns that can be quickly reproduced for the sixteen fish puppets
I spent the day shopping for fish supplies. You know, the usual stuff: bathmats, spray adhesive, tarps… It took far, far longer than it should have, in part because I needed 16 very specific bathmats and had to hit two different stores just to get three. I will post photos, but for the moment, I
I met with Emily DeCola today to talk about a building gig that I’ll be working for her on next week. I’ll be helping her build 16 fish and a crocodile. Now… if you have an interest in puppet building and are in the NYC area, we can use some volunteer help. You’ll be fed
Today I auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. Their production uses a bunraku-style puppet for Madame Butterfly’s child. This style of puppet normally takes three performers and they were casting understudies; the principals were pre-cast. First of all, receiving an email which says, “go to the back of the Met to the
Auditioning for the Met Read More »
Jodi came over this afternoon and we spent a while with one of my rehearsal puppets practicing some overt manipulation. We’ve got an audition tomorrow and figured it would be a good idea to brush up. The thing is, that we’ve performed for so long together that we got back into the groove really fast,
In the question of what would happen for us about Iceland, those of you who voted for the angry sheep have won the day. This was actually my code phrase for “We may be asking for too much money.” Because we have a two year commitment to the apartment in NYC, we needed to be
The answer about Iceland Read More »