Lessons Learned This Year

1. There is no big enough room in all of Bellevue College to have the puppet shows.
2. No more paper-mache hands for my glove puppets--you can't hold anything with them and they get damaged easily.
3. Signs not fliers
4. Bring a CD player every time just in case.
5. Children's imagination is boundless...they didn't believe there was no small Issunboshi puppet, they saw it.
6. A standing stage was a good fit for the room
7. My lights are too bright...need to work on that.
8. 11am show might be too early to start
9. No one can plan for every possible negative set-back...no matter how my engineering heart wants to disagree, I must admit that.
10. Flat fans not folding
11. Never use another neck besides Joan King's comfort neck
12. Always check you have the right backdrop up before the show begins. *sigh*

That's it for now!

Some Snapshots of Saturday

Before the show

The shrine scene

The Exercise Scene

The Daimyo Meeting

Yojimbo Meeting

Oni Fight

After the Show

Finding Us at BCC

Yes, once again we have been moved...this time to a room that can hold 100 people (because we busted the fire code limit on the last room). I made a map to the room we will be in (E-129):

Click on the image above to get the full sized map.

Akandoji

Reprising his most acclaimed role as the supreme oni will be the Red Oni. After being soundly put down by Momotaro, he has decided it would be safer to pick on Princesses and really short samurai. Good luck with that! He will be the 6th puppet seen on stage.

He can be seen in his second show: The Inch-High Samurai, at 11am on 9/11/2010 at the Aki Matsuri held at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, WA.
That's tomorrow!
I'm sorry we don't have time to introduce you to the rest of the characters. Unfortunately, if you want to see them, you must come to the show. It's free...and there is also free parking. We won't even hit you up for money...well okay, we might hit you up for some raffle tickets but you can say "no". Also there is a t-shirt we might try to sell you...and a donation box you could contribute to. Also tons of really good Japanese food you can't get anywhere else--we might try to sell you that. Hmmm...well, let's just say, it's as free as you want it to be.

The Princess

After I finished the Shrine Maiden and the Daimyo, I had a good pattern for the puppet kimono so I was dying to build the Princess. She is the one type of character I had yet to make for one of my Japanese shows and I looked forward to it.
Here she is:

She will debut in her first show: The Inch-High Samurai, at 11am on 9/11/2010 at the Aki Matsuri held at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, WA.
She will be the 4th puppet seen on stage. Be sure to see her start!

Daimyo

Here is the Diamyo, a Japanese Lord. He is the first character to meet Issunboshi, The Inch-High Samurai when he arrives in the big city.

This puppet was also created by me in time to make the display at Puppet-o-rama. So he was the 2nd puppet completed. He will be the 3rd puppet seen on stage.
He will debut in her first show: The Inch-High Samurai, at 11am on 9/11/2010 at the Aki Matsuri held at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, WA.
Be sure to see his start!

Okasan

The second character I'd like to show you is The Inch-High Samurai's mother, which he lovingly calls Okasan:

Her head was done by me, but she was costumed by Pam Clark. She was the 4th puppet finished for the show and will be the second puppet seen on stage.
She will debut in her first show: The Inch-High Samurai, at 11am on 9/11/2010 at the Aki Matsuri held at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, WA.
Be sure to see her start!

First Character

The first of my new puppets I'd like to show you is the Shrine Maiden:

She was the first puppet completed and will be the first character seen on stage. She was entirely created by me in a huge hurry so that she could be in the display at the Puppet Festival: Puppet-o-rama.
She will debut in her first show: The Inch-High Samurai, at 11am on 9/11/2010 at the Aki Matsuri held at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, WA.
Be sure to see her start!

My Stage Ready for Aki Matsuri

I am so happy to have a new stage all ready to go for Aki Matsuri next weekend. It's the debut of the "Inch-High Samurai" and we will be performing at 11am and 1:45pm way over in the E building. It's going to be real work to spread the word that the puppets are moved over there. But the rooms which are big enough for a puppet show audience were limited.
It should be a fun show. I know I have not talked much about it on my blog. I have been very busy making the puppets. I will introduce you to the characters in the next few posts. So check back!