My Little Pony Live: The World's Biggest Tea Party (2008)

I’ve mentioned before that I’m no stranger to Costumed Character work…so when I got a video sent to me with the ponies from My Little Pony Live, I was curious.

My friend, Marsian De Lellis (who is an amazing performance artist and puppeteer), sent me a video of the ponies lip syncing to Dreamgirls and Wicked! This makes me want to see the show!! I think they actually do a great job with the sync and the eye mechanism inside the head. And the back legs just getting residual movement actually works for me (plus who would want to be the back end of a little pony on a long tour…umm…no one). Unfortunately, the show closed in April 2008 and is now only available on DVD.

So while you wait for your copy of the DVD to arrive, enjoy this glimpse into the backstage world of a costumed character actor’s fun:

Puppet Up improv, now Stuffed and Unstrung

I’m so excited because a really funny puppet improv show that The Jim Henson Company was producing in Los Angeles, and had a short run on TBS, is coming to NYC!

I first heard of it as “Puppet Up” and gobbled up the new clips on the TBS site or on YouTube (the little pug dog, Piddles, is my favorite). It’s kind of like “Who’s Line is it Anyway” with puppets.

The new stage production of the show is called “Stuffed and Unstrung.” It’s a madcap multimedia romp in which the skilled art of puppetry and comedic intelligent nonsense collide. Unpredictable, irreverent and rebellious, it’s never the same show twice as a team of expert puppeteers sets off on a trail of twisted sketches and songs at breakneck pace while interaction with the audience prompts the spontaneous storylines unfolding on stage.

With live musical accompaniment and Patrick Bristow as host, Stuffed and Unstrung features a cast of six puppeteers in an uninhibited live puppet performance. This production serves up “two shows in one” as the hilarious puppet action is projected on large screens flanking the stage, while the puppeteers display their skillful talents below all in full view of the audience. They are working in traditional television style puppetry, so the puppeteers are watching monitors while the image of the performance above their heads is projected for the audience to see.

The show opens March 17 at the Union Square Theater with shows Wednesday - Saturday. Tickets are a little pricey at $50, but it should be a really fun night. And my friend, Tyler Bunch, will be in the cast! Not sure if Leslie Carrara-Rudolph will be, but she’s in town, so there’s a good chance. GET TICKETS!

James Bobin

Jason Segel of TV’s How I Met Your Mother has been co-writing the next Muppet Movie. I love this, since I know Jason’s a huge fan of the muppets — confirmed by the stirring finale to the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”

Recently announced was the addition of James Bobin as Director. YES! I am also a big fan of Flight of the Conchords (oh…Jermaine…sigh) and bringing out the funny in the Muppets is really what they’ve been missing in all of their hyped appearances lately. I remember how clever and funny the Muppets were, and I would love for them to find that again.

Here’s the performance “Dracula’s Lament” by Jason on Craig Ferguson’s show (Craig played a puppet character with a Folkmanis puppet the whole show!)

Photo: Scott Irvine; “The Devil You Know,” by Ping Chong

Under the Radar Festival, affiliated with the Public Theater, showcases 20 productions over 12 days (it runs Jan 6 - Jan 19) at nine locations.

There seems to be a serge in puppetry pieces in the festivals going on now. Yay! Larry Rohter of The New York Times asked why all the puppets, and got one of my favorite answers EVER:

“This is puppetry for adults,” Mark Russell, the artistic director and producer of Under the Radar said. “It’s not about clowns and mime, it’s very sophisticated work. But what’s nice is that when you see a puppet, it brings out the little kid in you, and sometimes you open your heart to experience things you wouldn’t otherwise. There is both a certain distancing and intimacy that comes across.”

I went to see The Devil You Know (pictured here) and thought it was beautiful. It’s a modern interpretation of the classic American short story The Devil and Daniel Webster about a poor farmer who sells his soul in exchange for riches. The production uses marionette and bunraku-style puppetry, revolving puppet stages, recorded dialogue and original music and multi-media projections.

And I was happy to see a few of my puppet friends in the cast! I am SO not a marionettist and have major respect for those who can make a stringed puppet really come to life; the performances were very, very good. Kudos, all.

Take a look at the puppets in action with commentary by director Ping Chong and marionette artist and composer Erik Sanko and set designer Jessica Grindstaff of Phantom Limb Company:

The 20-foot-high King Kong being built by CTC at a workshop in West Melbourne. The finished creature will be controlled by 70 motors. Photo: Simon Schluter

The company that brought us Walking with Dinosaurs (named one of the top 5 most popular shows in the world in 2009 by Pollstar) is in development on a new larger-than-life puppetry experience. This time The Creature Technology Company (CTC) out of West Melbourne, Australia, is bringing King Kong to life!

The stage adaptation of the 1933 film is set to debut at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2011.

King Kong Live on Stage will use up to five models of King Kong with each operated by three puppeteers using remote technology called a ”voodoo rig” from backstage. In other words, he’ll be a CRAZY huge puppet using the tradition of Bunraku puppetry manipulation. How freaking cool is that??!!

The creative director Sonny Tilders was recently interviewed on ABC radio.
Listen to the interview here: ABC Radio

And check out the full article on The Age by Raymond Gill

Hey All!

I finally have video up of the debut performance of “Uninvited,” the table-top piece I recently developed!

I was inspired to create this piece when I went to a Birdland performance by the band Groovelily (Milburn/Vigoda) of the their musical “Sleeping Beauty Wakes.” I could just see this awesome, craggly, ugly, fairy stomping around and pissed off because she wasn’t invited to the ball. She’s left out partly because she’s different than everyone else, so what a perfect use of a puppet…especailly if the whole rest of the cast is human. She becomes that much more of an outcast.

I wrote to the band and asked them for permission to use the song, they sent me the sheet music, and have been SO incredibly supportive of the piece as I shared the original concept sketches and such.

It’s a table-top puppetry piece with a puppet designed and built by David Michael Friend. The incredibly talented Kate Katz and Honey Goodenough joined me on the puppet. Clearly I couldn’t have done it without all of these folks. Hope you like it!

This is AMAZING and one of my favorite things about puppetry…ANYTHING can be a puppet. It took me a long while to figure this one out, too. I think because I just totally bought into little Ginocchio.

By keeping each movement clean with a clear start and finish before you go to the next movement, you create a kind of clarity of intention and truly brings the character to life. This is a masterclass. I’m in awe.

TEATRO HUGO & INES was founded in 1986 by Peruvian mime artist Hugo Suarez and Bosnian performer Ines Pasic. Their paths crossed in Italy where Hugo was performing mime on the streets. Ines, a trained pianist from the Sarajevo Conservatory, began to study pantomime with Hugo and quickly discovered that her dexterity on the keyboard had provided her with tools that would be useful in mime. They since have discovered the expressive possibilities of each different part of the human body: the hands, the feet, the knees, the face, giving life to a theater of surprising characters. The Hugo & Ines Theater has produced the following shows: Return to Darkness in 1987, The Adventures of Ginocchio in 1989 and Short Stories in 1996. Beloved the world over, Hugo and Ines have toured festivals from Europe to Hong Kong.

Another great video from the Muppet Studio hot off the presses and pretty funny. It’s no Bohemian Rhapsody (which has over 10 million views on YouTube right now)…but it does have a lot of Beaker, which is awesome.

This just in from the official MuppetsStudio YouTube Channel — every Muppet EVER sings Bohemian Rhapsody. And they get around the “not kid friendly” part by having Animal just say Mama a million times in a row.

The tags on the video say it all really: Gonzo Camilla Chickens Rowlf Animal Pepe King Prawn Monsters Bunny Beaker Bobo Bear Penguins Dr. Bunsen Honeydew Mahna Snowths Lew Zealand Beauregard Crazy Harry Fozzie Statler Waldorf Sam Eagle Swedish Chef Turkey Electric Mayhem Floyd Teeth Zoot Janice Julius Strangepork Newsman Sal Minella Johnny Fiama Miss Piggy Scooter Kermit Frog

Who’s your favorite? I gotta go with Rowlf.

Chamki of Galli Galli Sim Sim

I have a Sesame Street calendar I’ve spoken of before (a gift from my costume character boss, Judy Sladky) which features muppets from all over the world. I was especially taken with this ADORABLE little girl puppet from India’s show, Galli Galli Sim Sim, Chamki.

She wears the dress of the national school uniform in order to encourage kids (especially girls) to go to school. She learns karate and as “Chamki Detective” solves mysteries on Galli. The puppeteer has a lot of energy and that really shines through the character.

In areas of India without electricity, kids watch Galli Galli Sim Sim on a bioscope, which is on a cart with wheels that literally rolls up to their front door. The kids look through a binocular-like device and flip through the pictures one by one. The mobile community viewings have reached one out of three caregivers and two out of three preschool children in targeted slums.

They should be so proud! Check out the video of all of the good this show is doing for their country’s children: