In Which I Suffer for My Art

A few of you know I'm into puppetry. I purchased a strolling stage and some puppets, got business cards, and billed myself as a party animal. But since I am not doing puppetry in the church preschool area anymore, I'm really out of practice. I've been too busy to do parties, and I can't really hustle up the business when I'm doing three other projects. That's okay, because I'll get a chance to do some later, but I hate getting rusty.

So this company comes along and has a Training School tour, and after much work and advocacy on my part, actually comes to our church to hold it. I'm thinking our whole team, all 5 campuses, will have people there, and we can all learn a ton of new fun stuff and get so much better! Which is sorely needed in some places.

Um, no. My campus is the only one where people showed, and there were 4 of us. Puppetry is fun, evidently, but not a serious pursuit. Now I know that sounds stupid at first glance. Puppetry? Serious? Come ON!

But really, when you watch Sesame Street or Lazy Town or Muppets or Yoda even, you are NOT thinking that there's some goofball messing around under there with his hand up the character's back. You are watching the CHARACTER, and believing in it. These are all examples where it's done so well, it only occurs once in a while for you to wonder how it's done. THAT is excellent puppetry. You don't just ignore the puppeteer; you cease to think about him at all.

And that's where I want to be one day. There are several elements you have to master; lip-synching, realistic movements, arm-rod manipulation, vocal characterization (if you are speaking, and not synching to something pre-recorded,) height and posture, and entrances and exits. They have classes at these workshops to hit each of those elements and more. But there's one class that they offer called Xtreme Puppetry 3xperience, and it's basically Puppet Boot Camp. Day one, you learn a number and perform it after 1.5 hours, and day two, you learn an entirely different number, and perform that after about 2.5 hours.

Think about that. Learn a piece of music and choreography to it in a couple of hours. And perform in front of an audience not of laypeople, but of puppeteers.

So the first day we did blacklight puppetry, and I'd never done that. If they send the copy of the tape they made, then I can see what it looks like.

The second day, we did a sweet little piece called "Say Something Good About America." The music was a march in the style of a kids' school production. We "auditioned" for parts, and this time I got the lead, evidently due to my ability to lip-synch the spoken word. (Yea me!) So in the production, there are 5 of us operating about 10 puppets as well as flags and "fireworks" and other props. The stage is small, but 5 people fit nicely. Until we start having the puppets do marches in circles and such. Then there are 5 of us in that small space trying to move puppets in line with each other, and not trip over each other. I'm on the outside of the marching line, so I have to make the full circle on the outside, hunched over so nobody can see me. Try this; squat down knees bent halfway to a sitting position. Put one arm up alongside your ear. Move the hand in time to music, and walk backwards in a circle for a hour. Thighs love this, I swear.

After we performed it, the puppet people took the curtains down and had us repeat the performance so the audience could see how we did it. THAT was the part where I felt anxious. I mean, then people would see when I messed up, or how awkwardly I had to move in order to do the moves.

But it was so sweet to have the lead, and so sweet to realize how much we accomplished in a few hours; a show good enough to be used as an example to other puppeteers.

I am so sore, I hurt in places I didn't know had muscles. And I'm desperate to do it all again. The hardest part is when it's over.