Most of the time a set designer draws a pretty picture and then a TD (technical director) makes it a reality. I think I’ve been able to do that with one set. Most of the time, because of the limitations of puppets, I have to think about the mechanical as I’m designing. Also, because I’m […]
Touring to schools is different from touring to venues in one major way. The performers set up the show in schools. In venues, you frequently have stagehands. School tours also often have to set up and tear down the same show at two different locations in a day. Here’s what I’m thinking about when I
School tour set design goals Read More »
I’ve had three different people ask me how my day was, to which I answered “fine.” They then pressed for details expecting, no doubt, me to regail them with tales of puppets gone bad. Alas. I’m working on a spreadsheet, which I explained. Two of the people did not believe me when I explained that
Sometimes it’s better not to know. Read More »
I’m not often jealous of my friends, but in this case… oh yes. Thank heavens, Santa has already come, or I’d wind up on the naughty list for my covetous thoughts. In the Sunday New York Times, I learned that the original stop-motion Rudolph and Santa puppets are on exhibit at the Center for Puppetry
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Puppets in the New York Times Read More »
I just found out that George Latshaw passed away. When I was in college, I got an internship at the Center for Puppetry Arts. To add to my good fortune, I was assigned to the cast of Wizard of Oz, directed by George Latshaw. I had already read his book, The Complete Book of Puppetry,
Last year, I designed the set of Arabian Nights for McCarter theater’s touring production. They have re-imagined the show, eliminating the frame story and making other changes significant enough that the existing set doesn’t make sense any more. At the same time, there are scenes within the show that they did like and want to
Arabian Nights revisited Read More »
So. For those of you who have only recently begun reading my blog, I’ll do a little backstory. In 2000, I had a wrist injury and wound up having to take about two years off from puppetry while things healed. I got a job at the Portland Spirit, a river cruise dinner boat, in their
Oh my. I just realized that, in Shades of Milk and Honey, I’ve created a world where it’s quite likely that shadow puppetry would never have arisen. In fact, I think that puppetry and mask work may only have come up as a form of sham glamour. This is very strange for me. I’m thinking
So for the last two days I was at work, shooting commercials and other small things for the show. It felt really, really good to do some puppetry again. Mostly it was my standard routine of fetching carts, and hats for the puppeteer. I did do some hand work for a couple of different shots.
Puppets, dialogue and me Read More »
Modern Mechanix » Punch and Judy Theater Hides Camera from Children For some reason, to me, this is a creepy use of puppetry.
Punch and Judy Theater Hides Camera from Children Read More »
Unfortunately, the battery on my camera died so I don’t have very many pictures of this part of the process. I first removed the lower jaw and then carved out an upper and lower palate for the bear. While I’ll fiberglass all of it, I’ll wind up cutting some away later giving the bear a
Prepping for fiberglass Read More »
In puppetry we say that breathe carries the emotion. The only time a person notices another person breathing is when it’s important, when it’s carrying information. The simplest example is what happens when you look at someone lying down. You automatically notice if they are breathing, to make certain they aren’t dead. But there are
Reading Aloud 7: Breathing Read More »
I read the discussion on Miss Snark, the literary agent about Sock Puppets and I’m saddened to see puppets once again taking a bashing. Back in the early days of the blog I’d surf around the net to see what people were saying about me. One of the recurring themes I found both hilarious and
Puppets getting a bad name, again. Read More »
I went in today to hold up puppets for a photoshoot. They needed all of pictures of all of the puppets in all of their costumes. It went surprisingly quickly, thanks to the photographer and our wranglers and wardrobe department. The photographer was standing in front of a mirror, so I could see to focus
To kind of shake things up a little, I thought I’d explain what these things mean this time. Things said at work. I need to get his head in my lap. Will it be faster if we just take her arms off? What kind of head do you want? Our director said, “I need more
New things said at work. Read More »