The Studio at Bridgeview

12/19/2020

Anne and Gilbert together for the first time

Puppeteer - Dan Raynor

12/19/2020

Gilbert’s test drive

Puppeteer - Dan Raynor

12/19/2020

There was a two and a half month break between designing, sketching, and cutting Gilbert, and finally getting to carve, joint, paint, costume, and string him. His completion means three of the eight puppets are completed for this show.

08/04/2020

“Diana” from “Anne of Green Gables” has a sassy over-the-shoulder look at the end of her runway strut. Puppeteer - Dan Raynor

08/04/2020

08/04/2020

"Anne" from "Anne of Green Gables" is all finished, fully strung, and showing off her moves. Puppeteer - Dan Raynor

08/04/2020

Naturally, the first marionette to be made for this new show would be the title character. However, I also needed to get her done while I had Gnoli here to do her wig. This is the first puppet we've ever made a bespoke wig for (because we've never had a master wig maker in the family until now). All the other puppets will have carved hair, but I wanted this one to have real hair because Anne's red braids are such a crucial element of the story, and indeed the action of the critical scene. They need to stand out and they need to move. I've left them full length for now, even though I'll eventually shorten them to about waist-length. I may also re-braid them to fall behind her shoulders instead of in front, depending on how the blocking works with the props in the braid-pulling scene. I want to keep my options open for now. It's also the first marionette I've made where I collaborated with another artist so the artwork isn't all mine.

Of course, the whole project is always a group effort. Dan mans the bandsaw to cut the blanks, to cut the carved arms and legs into sections so we can joint them, and to cut the jointing slits. Dan and I also work together to joint the puppet and to string the puppet because we need more than 2 hands and, frankly, Dan's a better marionette stringer than I am.

We've had puppet bags made by almost every member of the family at one point of another, but this time it was Jack's turn. I taught him how to use my sewing machine and guided him through the steps to sew a puppet bag and he made the first two all by himself.

07/21/2020

There is a fully jointed, fully painted “Anne” marionette lying on my project table in my Pseudio. She’s bald and naked because Gnoli is building her a wig and Pais is sewing her a costume.

On the one hand, this unprecented adventure of collaborating with other artists on a marionette is very exciting. On the other hand, it’s killing me to surrender the control of when this is finished to other teammates and to have her suffer the indignity of indefinite suspension.

Meanwhile, this collaboration is necessitating another departure from my usual workflow. I have gridded and sketched the next marionette which Dan is now cutting on the bandsaw so I can begin the second puppet before the first is finished. It’s practical but unsatisfying on an artistically emotional level.

05/27/2020

Here we go again. The script is written and my flat-plans are sketched so the puppet carving stage is about to commence.

As I transition from the planning stage to the making stage, I set up my reference board (not really a story board or a crime board) in my Pseudio with the flat-plans and the line-ups. The purpose of the line-ups is to make sure the whole cast looks right together on stage, with interesting variations in size and shape that will naturally create interesting variations in movements. The purpose of the flat-plans of the bodies is to make sure I cut and carve the individual pieces in the right sizes so when they fit together, the individual marionettes and the cast as a whole have the right dimensions. They also ensure a certain balance once jointed and strung. The flat-plans are used to sketch the saw-lines on the wood for the blanks, as you can see with Anne’s head. The purpose of the flat-plans of the heads is to make sure we take off as much of the wood as we can with the saw but leave as much as I need to carve the face.

My reference board will develop as I go, slowly adding the rest of the flat-plans of the heads and pictures of hairstyles and boots and clothing, because it remains a work in progress until I switch it out to the reference board for the scenery painting stage.

05/13/2020

The balloon from Steve’s and Margi’s “The Wizard of Oz” needed an emergency replacement for tomorrow’s Live Remote performance. This is the fourth iteration of this prop in my memory but who knows how many there were before my time? Dan’s got a few hours to string this together after it dries but before the show. Why do we cut these things so close?

02/21/2019

We finished the artwork on the show with two weeks to rehearse. Rehearsing is a tedious process with a new show because we have to block each scene and figure out where each puppet goes when they enter and where/when they move in relation to each other and the furniture throughout the scenes. We often ran each scene 5-10 times before we locked it in. This is a particularly difficult show to block because three of the marionettes are so big and two of the three sets are crowded with full size furniture. We have to block and rehearse the scene changes, too. We only have a set time during the music and it takes both of us with carefully planned choreography to get the furniture off and on, the scenery changed, and the puppets preset without running into each other in this tight space.
It's an elaborate dance, really. Also, it's a tedious process because invariably things break or don't work quite like we want them to. We're glad it happens at rehearsal instead of at a performance. So we take the time as we work through scenes to fix things and retrofit new designs. I'm gratified that so little needed to be done and they were such small things, really, because that means I thought through most of the potential problems ahead of time and most of my original designs worked in practice as well as theory. I worked on the show for a year without being able to test most of my ideas and how it would all come together. That takes a lot of faith and confidence.

We started out blocking without any of the main curtain sets for simplicity. But we had A LOT of nosy cats all up in our business the whole time. Bang! wouldn't be caught on film but the rest of the little buggers were shameless and I have documentary evidence. Once we were past the first week of blocking for several hours every day, we started running the show start to finish once a day to set it in our memories and to work on the subtle puppetry. Each day we added something more, like the lights, then the curtain. Final dress rehearsal was today because the first preview performance is tomorrow. Just like when I used to direct live theatre, my motto is still, "Don't do anything at a performance you haven't done at at least one rehearsal." Nevertheless, Dan is now diligently rethinking new lights and new poles and I may have to lock him in a closet until the show opens tomorrow.

02/11/2019

Leilea made me a quick Splice video to show the process of laying in the different colors in the final scenery I painted for "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", which is actually for the opening scene.