wide eyed Christmas show

We are in the middle of the puppet Christmas season.  We have ten shows booked.  Ten!  With all sorts of different audiences and venues.  I wrote the script a few weeks ago, and included six puppets in it.  We have had to pad out a little bit of the script to give me time to change puppets, as some of the changes happen very quickly.  And then the puppets change costumes.  I probably should have thought this through a bit more...

We painted a new Christmas backdrop after excellent backdrop sewing support by the wonderful Kerrie.

And also endured heckling and input in rehearsals by our resident three year old critic.

Performing the sixth show!

I have my hand inside that pink puppet there.  Cheeky thing.

I have really enjoyed the show this year.  It involves a persistent chicken, a Diva Dizzy, a director called Pam and a slightly inappropriate camel.  And a lot of talk about the real story of Christmas, when God stepped into the world.

What a privilege to tell the old old story that is always new with wonder.

how my shoulders got sore from a puppet

Last week I had a cool opportunity to be involved in some filming for kids videos at church.  By 'me' I mean 'Dizzy'.  But she is such a princess she won't go anywhere without me.

It was one of the first times I had ever puppeted deliberately for a camera - so I worked out a few techniques along the way - like lying on a bean bag, and using a skateboard to 'walk' her along. 

And my shoulders got pretty sore by the end of the day.

Totally worth it.

These were Dizzy's 'legs'.....completely convincing...hoping the magic of film works...

Lying on a beanbag in the 'office'..

Awkwardly 'walking' along holding a garden implement.  Not tricky at all....

Film crew in action

Thanks Lisa for taking 'the making of' photos.  I am looking forward to seeing the completed products!

story action

Last week we at Wide Eyed Stories had the privilege of helping out with a family service at Taringa Baptist.  It was great fun, and the kids got involved and everything!

I rocked it out with the ukelele.   I now know 10 chords - oh the possibilities!

That's my hand inside Dizzy.  She was being pretty feisty last Sunday morning.  I talk about her like she is not me.  She is a completely different character.  Completely different.  I would never dream of being as rude as her.  Although I do help her think of her best lines, so the cheekiness must be lurking inside me...

I enjoy doing puppeting very much.  Trying hard to work out how I can make this a full time job - Sesame Street give me a call if there is an opening...

In the meantime I am kicking some goals at work - kids are communicating and stepping along their pathway to being great talkers.  I have been so proud and pleased at some of the students over the last week, for example, when one of the students used his PODD book (book with laminated pictures symbols to point to) to tell me the monster I had drawn him was annoying and scary.  Completely appropriate.  Especially considering my drawing skills.  I would also choose annoying and scary as describing words.

I am spending a lot of time scripting and planning at the moment.  A few shows and our church holiday program are coming up.  Ideas are bubbling.

Onwards.

and the week just hit me in the back of the head

Last week I spent doing the kids holiday program at church.  For me this involves helping set up (making church look like a castle with the help of some minions), puppeting up front all week and looking after the year 6 boys group.  It involves early starts and long days. Remembering scripts, props and crafts supplies.  Having good relationships with people and trying not to be cranky with my children when we get home.  Being able to tell about Jesus to kids who have not heard it before, and to kids who are on a journey of their own.  It was such a good week.

But it has just hit me in the back of the head.

The after holiday program SLAP in the face with a wet fish of housework reality and school and work and grocery shopping.

But reflecting on the week...

These are the collages I encouraged my boys group to do - they turned out beautifully!
(Background note - I was expecting to have a girls group and had planned to do collage - ended up with a boys group and stubbornly continued with the collage task - you know, since I had bought all the stuff and everything - I think they really liked it...really)

One of my favourite things I was involved in during the week was a dance elective.  We got to dance on the stage at the end of the week.  In Knight costumes.  I'm not going to say that wasn't my idea.  I wore blue.  I have a secret desire to be a backing dancer now.

We are so gangsta knight.

Lovely Lisa.  Love her.

I also was so encouraged to hear these boys singing and playing a song I had lyric ed (is that a word?).  The music was from a pop song and I just popped some words in from 1 Corinthains 13 about love.  It turned out well.

Puppeting.  In a castle.  Talking to a red knight.

Fun fun fun.  I am so blessed to be in a place where I can use the creative gifts God has given me with kids.  Surely complete silliness is a gift?

in the middle

of two weeks of holidays.

Well not really holidays.  Last week I did five puppet shows in the council libraries.  I forgot to bring my camera (!) but took this terrible one with the ipad.

What I learned about doing shows in the libraries:
- make sure you put a masking line of DANGER to separate the stage area from the area where the kids are. Emphasize the DANGER of crossing this line.  One kid kept throwing his shoes onto the stage.  No I don't know why either.
- arrive really early.  It looks efficient, and then you can catch up on your reading in the library.
- giggle a lot with your performing partner.  This provides lots of energy and unexpected humour.  A high level of energy is important to keep the attention of the under five set.  And the bored parent set.
- reduce the number of props you decide to have in your show.  We had a lot of props.  And when faced with a three storey stair climb with a puppet box you can regret the amount of props there are.
- be thankful for all the people who come - from the small select group to the large crowd (we had about 150 at Chermside libary!).  It amazed me that families would turn up and take a risk on a performance they knew nothing about - thanks families!

I really enjoyed it - and went through moments of 'I would love to do this more' to 'why does that kids keep throwing shoes' to 'I'm tired, pass me a cup of tea' to 'this is really fun and energising'.

Maybe my career as a puppeteer is just beginning.

Also this week Annika went on a SMADD (song music art drama dance) camp.  She has returned tired and dramatic.  Re-entry into normal family world after camp world is always tricky.

She chose the drama elective on camp.  Unsurprisingly.

We stopped off on the way home at this aptly named cafe.

This coming week we have church kids holiday program.  I think I am ready.  I think.  Much more puppetting ahead.

I am very happy she is home.  I missed her terribly.

My dramatic girl.  I don't know where she gets it from.

:)

wide eyed Christmas season

Well - it is a bit of a stretch calling it a Christmas season.  But I count more than one show a season.  And this year we have been booked for 12 shows!  That's right - an even dozen of storytelling puppetry.  We have even been paid for some of it!  It has been so much easier doing a script multiple times.  Characters have developed, jokes get funnier (for us anyway), and setting up gets slicker.

Photos below by Naman Briner (lovely having an in house photographer husband...).  CSI stands for Christmas story investigation.

This has been a very fun job at the end of the year.  Hopefully we will get more shows! - sorry Lisa there are no photos of you!

And I think I have overcommitted again this week.  QPAC choir rehearsals every night, three puppet shows, helping organise Creek Road carols and performing in them, organising the grade three break up party at school tomorrow, agreeing to having 6 grade fives around tomorrow afternoon for silly games and giggling, Christmas shopping, break up dinners, house stuff and being civil to my family.

Bring on Monday when I fly to Sydney and collapse.

introducing my new star...

I wanted a star puppet for all of the Wide Eyed Christmas shows.  So a star was born.

Here's how I made my first star puppet:

1. took a template that my engineeringly minded husband had scale drawn to the foam shop - where they cut out a star shape with a LASER CUTTER from high density foam.

2. visited my lovely friend Kerrie who problem-solved how to put a mouth on the star puppet - with podiatry-foam shaped like lips, and a button stuck to the bottom lip through which we threaded fishing line.  We put a piece of black plastic behind the mouth so the lip would move smoothly and not get stuck on the foam.  Foam to foam friction is strong.  Thanks Kerrie for puppet crafting problem solving friendship!

And I had some spare ping pong balls around the house, so they became eyes once I added a bit of black felt.

3. asked my children to help me glitter the star puppet.  They did not enjoy this or fight about who was holding the glitter bottle at all. (....)

4.  asked wonderful husband to construct a rod to stick up the star's....well...bottom.  Painted it black.  Found a kite string holder deep in my children's room and attached it to the star's mouth so I could operate it without slicing off my fingers with fishing line.

5.  And introducing....

Twinkle!

She is a bit anxious, and afraid of heights.  And she saw what happened on the very first Christmas.

I have been standing in front of a mirror practising operating her mouth and expressions.  And she had her first show yesterday.  She needed her puffer - she got a bit out of breath and anxious.

Why is my left eye always squinty in photos?  And check out my puppeteering forearms!  If only the rest of me got so toned....

bloom where you are planted

I have spent the last week participating in the kids holiday program at church.  It was a fantastic week of people pulling together and using the gifts God has given them - from baking to talking to playing with kids to crafting to singing to organising to wiping snotty noses to making coffee to praying to acting ridiculous.  I used what God has given me in spades.  Which is the skills to completely overact with a puppet.

Dizzy meeting her fan base.  I really like this picture - I never usually get to see what the kid's faces are like.

Lisa and I really got into a rhythm of performance this week - very very funny. We had a script as a more of a general guide, and went on secret spy missions every day.  I think this year we overdid the props and preparation a bit - but we now have a new appreciation for scriptwriters.  We even did fingerprint scans using an old scanner.  And had a secret tunnel with a hair dryer for wind effects.

I also learned three new chords for the ukelele as we used the Zaccheus song transposed up a fourth and added a djembe for 'spice'.

So what has amazed me over the last week is the ability people have to grow in the space they have.  I have watched young people blossom and children grow in their faith.  God planted us all together in one space for a week, and the sowing and harvesting was plentiful.  I feel blessed to be in a place and around people where my creativity can flourish.  And even though I have itchy feet from time to time and think the grass is greener in a different job, a different town, a different place - I know now more than ever to bloom where I am planted.

new show

Tomorrow we are doing a new wide eyed stories show at a local primary school.  This afternoon we had a final run through before a critical audience made up of our progeny (6 between Juliet and I).  The new show involves three of my favourite puppets - Dizzy, Frankincense and Margaret - a ukelele (since I learnt four chords a month ago the world is my ukelele oyster) - excellent overacting by both Juliet and myself - a helium balloon trick that could go terribly wrong - and enough props to fill the back of the Prado.  And a very funny script (Lisa you may need to learn this one - it is sticking around for a while!).

Comments from the test audience this afternoon at the pre show screening included:
'we liked it when the balloons flew up'
'mummy you are funny and embarassing'
'that song is awesome'
'woo woo' (from the one year old)
'can I have a drink of water?' (three year old)
'can I have one of the balloons?' (three year old)
'can I touch Dizzy?' (three year old)
'can I have a balloon?' (eight year old)

We will see how it all goes tomorrow.  Three shows.  150 kids.

We may need bags of lollies and giant cups of tea.

The cast:

Princess Dizzy herself - it is very hard to get a good photo of her eyes....

Margaret. She will be playing the role of a magpie.  I don't want to type cast but...

Frankincense.  Making his premiere wide eyed stories appearance.

Overactors squashing a kid between them.  Lookout.

library show done and dusted

This post is a little delayed.  But that's okay.

I did seven library shows in the council libraries during January - only three were interupted by the floods.  And one library went completely under water so there was no puppet show there!  It was a great experience -  I enjoyed working with Wayne over a couple of weeks so we could get a rhythm going and also have the show pretty slick.  I continued to make mistakes right until the last show - script mistakes, timing mistakes - but it seemed to work out.  It was very fun being a puppeteer and being paid for what I love to do.  My skills are improving.  And the kids laughed and laughed which is good.  It was interesting seeing the different audiences in the different libraries  - eg Chermside library had a huge crowd of primary aged kids in a separate meeting room, whereas Nundah library had a small but enthusiastic crowd of under five year olds.

Some pictures!

Wayne (Domino) in front of the set - the show was about recyling hence the huge bins (which were handy to store props and naughty jesters)

Dizzy waving hello to someone - probably her fan base.  She gets the crowds!

Wayne and I - yay the show is finished and we can go get a caramel milkshake

Having a quick chat to Margaret - she went extremely well in her inaugural performance

Some kids that kept hanging around so I used them mercilessly as roadies.  That'll teach 'em.  They now know how to bump out a puppet box.

Hope there are more library shows in the future - but the council budget may have more important things to do like fix the flooded libraries for the shows to be in.

library time

Tomorrow I start the the first of ten puppet shows in the Brisbane City Council libraries.  With Domino the Jester.  That's right - Dizzy is on tour.  Well, around the suburbs of Brisbane.

I feel a bit nervous, but also pretty excited.  It is a great opportunity.  I have wanted to be a puppeteer for a long time, probably since doing my first show over the back of the couch when I was eight.  I think as a career that earns you some money and helps with piano lessons and food to eat speech therapy is better - but there has always been that little nagging in my head that I want to be one of the people working on the Muppet show or Sesame Street.  Probably not that achievable while being a mum, youth pastor's wife and based in Brisbane.  But taking Dizzy around Brisbane is a fun thing.  And able to be done during school holidays.

Being 37 and realising a little part of a dream is a great thing.  I hope I remember my lines and the show goes great.  I will take some photos and report back!

magpie puppet

I wanted a magpie puppet to use in some storytelling shows in 2011.  After lots of searching on the internet - there were NO magpie puppets available (well, for less than the $400 it takes to make a customised puppet.)  So, I asked my sister-in-law if she was up for making one for me.  Without a pattern.  Reverse engineered from a current puppet I have.

She said yep, let's give it a go.

So here is how we (I use that term loosely - I mostly watched, affirmed her choices and broke the bobbin on the sewing machine) made a magpie puppet on the three days after Christmas in 2010.  In between watching cricket, geo caching (future blog posts on this) and children wrangling.

Step one - take a close look at the puppet you want to copy from.  Poor Mr Orange got turned inside out so many times he probably felt very violated.

2. Make some wings from black fabric (we found a great shiny flat fur fabric at the local shop in Armidale.  It looks like flat feathers) and fill with flat foam.

3. Make the body out of the fabric and add a tail filled with flat foam.

4. Make a prototype of the head - try this three times until you get a beak kind of shaped head.

5. Then make the head in black fabric with a red felt mouth.

6.  Cut a ping pong ball in half and fill with silicon.  Just for fun.

Ok, these are the eyes.

7.  Attach the head to the body, with the wings joining in as well at the neckline.  It was a tense moment as my SIL sewed this inside out - had she pinned the wings on the right way...?

yes
She is a legend.

8.  Attach the eyes where I had added red and black felt to bring them to life.

9.  Add some white felt to make it look like a magpie - we had to consult the bird watching book, and while it is not totally accurate, it is fairly magpie-like.

10. Finally (drum roll please.....)

Meet MARGARET!

She was originally called Maggie during the construction period, but as she was completed, her personality started asserting herself.  She prefers Margaret, and she loves to feather her nest.  She has scatter twigs, and a subscription to "Nest in Style".

She defends her territory fiercely and she always has an opinion on most topics.  She will pick up tiny objects and scraps around her nest area and convert them to works of art in her craftastic space.

 Welcome Margaret.  Looking forward to getting to know you better.


Thank you to my excellent sister-in-law Katie, without whose skills this project would not be possible.  The total estimated cost of this puppet was about $20.  And three days work after Christmas.