Lessons Learned from Momotaro this Year

1. When you say you have sound stuff to sound guys, be sure to tell them if you like it or not. When you say “I’ve got a wireless headset mic.” They hear: “I must use my own mic, because I love it and you must make it happen.” When you really meant: “I’ve got a lousy cheep-o karaoke wireless headset mic that we can use if we don’t have the budget to get everyone the cool ones.” Communication…it’s key.
2. A thin cotton sheet for a rug…secured down…is the perfect medium to muffle rolling stools.
3. Duct-Tape is not adequate to secure said cotton sheet. Need to do something else…
4. If you are performing during the day by a bank of windows but holding your dress rehearsal at night…don’t turn off the lights in the room.
5. Dress rehearsal went to late again. Must start earlier if possible.
   
6. A blanket on a classroom floor for kids to sit on is a safety hazard—Near-Miss City, I tell you. No wonder they use those foamy interlocking things in pre-schools.
7. Never hang a rod puppet upside-down by the rod. Just…don’t do it.
8. We need speakers outside of the room so the people at the window can hear.
9. The classroom idea was golden but two stages up at the same time takes up a lot of room. Not sure what to do about that.Having us bother there was a double draw.
   
10. The show times this year were better than last year especially on Sunday
11. Never write a script that is 100% dependent on four puppeteers…make them more flexible in the future
12. Music between scenes = Major Plus
13. Lights + Dimmer = Another Major Plus (Thank you, National Puppetry Festival)
14. Really small props are unnecessary
15. Rod puppets are nice...but they always require two hands for realistic movement. I don't think I'll mix the two styles again.
16. Strapping the whizzer to the prop stick I'm holding at the time was a good idea.
17. The playboard skirt looked ever so much better.
18. Joan's comfortable puppet necks were a major improvement
19. Don't do hard hands in a puppet show requiring fight scenes and major prop manipulation. Unless I feel like making hands and repairing hands over and over again.

I'm sure I'll think of more later...

Final Shows of Momotaro at the Aki Matsuri

What? Yes, I plan to build a new show next year, so this last weekend was the final time you could have seen Momotaro at the Aki Matsuri.
You’ll never do Momotaro again?
I’m not saying that. In fact, it looks like a group in Spokane is interested in having us perform. Also, if Sakura Con has us perform at the next one, it’ll be Momotaro because I don’t think I could have a new show up by Easter. Also, there’s some talk of a road trip to Boise, ID to do a show for Mandy’s class.
So, perhaps this last weekend might not have been your last chance. Of course, if you are my mother, Frieda, Matthew, Marsha, OR anyone who came last year, then you have nothing to worry about.

My Hero
This year my sister was difficult to replace. We tried to replace her with three different puppeteers but something or other caused them all to not last. It got to the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and I had no one. I despaired of my predicament and vowed never to build a show that couldn’t--in an emergency--be done by just two puppeteers. There turned out to be two places in Momotaro that we just couldn’t do it all with only three puppeteers. I also bent the ear of the fellow Bob found to do our sound: John Utz. He mentioned that he had a 9-year old daughter who might like to help. By this time we’d divided Mandy’s puppets: Dog – me, Gold Oni – Mylinda and to make that work it required that Beckett take Green Oni. It also required us to manipulate each others characters a bit. For example, I had to take Gold Oni during the sumo match and Beckett took the bird to drop the stone on Gold Oni.
When Eileen Utz came on board, it was too late to give her one of Mandy’s character. But she was able to do a lot of the behind the scenes prop management and she took on the flat puppets during the boat scene. At the climax, she manipulated the dog for us. Without her, we could not have done it without major script revisions. So she really was our hero of the weekend.
Eileen turned out to be a very competent prop manager. She also was fearless of going out and handing out fliers to help us drum up an audience. (Perhaps a little too fearless…because she and Beckett went in two different directions alone at one point and that worried her father.) She has a strong voice and a dedication to be admired. She also expressed an interest in puppetry which I found gratifying. I hope that she will join us again.

The room turned out to be too small but I think if it got much bigger, we'd be lost to the back of the room. Our puppets stand at around a foot tall if held up correctly. Nearly every show done in the cafeteria at the Nat'l Fest was lost to the back of the room.
What's my solution? I'd rather do three shows a day than put us on a main stage.
I'm rather pleased that the puppet fest we are planning for Seattle University next August has a black box for the shows. That's ideal in my mind.

How Does Your Muppet Walk?

On Tuesday, as I promised, I attended Brian Henson’s talk. It was sold out…well, members didn’t have to pay and got first dibs so I guess it wasn’t sold out…just there were no tickets left for the general public. There was a queue of hopefuls waiting outside on the off chance a member didn’t show, but I understand only 2 of them got in. I found a spot down in front…second row behind a taped off portion of the first row where his demonstration camera and floor monitor was. It turned out to be a really excellent seat.
The show was a little late in beginning, but I had a book so I didn’t worry. The first thing I thought when I saw him was he looks a lot more like his father than when I saw him last…on the Labyrinth DVD special features. But then, he was 17 years old during the making of that movie.
He took us through the journey the Henson family has taken television puppetry. The star of the show, however, was his father. The audience responded the best when he shared a story of his father or showed a clip of him. He is a very funny and entertaining fellow and the audience was absolutely delighted by his Muppet armadillo demonstration. It was a cute puppet too, which it was obsessed with its left ear which was improperly folded in the carrying case and looked a little crushed. At one point he told us all that they, the company, could tell who was running a Muppet by how the puppet walked. He demonstrated several walks and labeled them: “This is how Frank Oz walks a puppet.” It was a very funny segment and also a big hit.
He talked about mechanical developments and digital developments and showed many clips of the journey from “Sam and Friends” to “Sid the Science Kid”. These kind of things make me think…why am I not doing that too? I’m an engineer…I’m a puppeteer…I’m really good and really fast at computer software. In college, I aced all the mechanical engineering classes and the Fortran class. Why in the world didn’t I read the writing on the wall back then? It’s because I’m no quitter even when things should be quit. It’s a flaw of mine. But he had some advice for me too. He said when someone asked the question of how to break into his business, “Just do it.” Anyone can get a puppet and a camera and make something to post somewhere like YouTube. He’s right about that. He also said ‘doing’ was the best way to learn. If you are good, you’ll come to the attention of the right people.
Juicy news: they’re working on “Where the Wild Things Are” but it’s a big secret. He wanted to tell us all about the new techniques they’d developed for that movie but he couldn’t. Bummer. Also, they’re making a sequel to The Dark Crystal! I can’t wait!