Prinella in The Clouds

Here's a different twist on the first act of the Prinella puppet show that I've shared with you in previous posts: It's a word cloud generated by wordle.com. I'm not exactly sure what I would use a word cloud for but isn't that the case of many things you find on the Web?

When we last left the princess, she was comforting a sick dragon named Elemenopeo (after this book that I love: Elemenopeo). He tells her that she needs a key and a wand to open her chest of treasure. So off to get those things the Princess, Bella and all the kids go. They play pin the wand on the princess and the sword on the prince. Through some magic that I won't describe here, the wand and key appear. And, at that very moment the princess noticed that someone had dropped a clue...the birthday girl, Prinella, gets a book.

Prinella, being an exceptionally smart princess (must have gotten her intelligence from her mother the queen), realized that this was actually an encoded message. The princess noticed that there were several princesses in the book and thought if maybe they counted all the Princesses and came up with the number they could use this to find another clue.

"What’s the number? Six?" says Elemenopeo. "Hum…Let’s see. Doesn’t ring a bell. Wait, wait, now I remember. We used to make up little jokes and riddles. We had quite a bit of fun back in the day. You know, before he started doing this evil dragon stuff...."

Franz and Elemenopeo

Since no quality puppet show is complete without its puppets, I thought I'd introduce two of the puppets: On the left is Elemenopeo, (name originated from this book) and Franz. Franz has played the narrator in the Princess play and Billy in Star Wars. He's really French but does a great american accent. Elemenopeo has mostly played himself -- a nervous hypochondriac with Jewish tendencies (oy, vey!).

Ella, Elemenopeo, Franz in "PrinElla"

When we last left the Princess, she had discovered that her treasure had been stolen. After solving a riddle, she (and the audience) make their way to the secret hiding place (through an obstacle course). In the hiding place, they discover that it is guarded by a very scary dragon.

"Roooaaaarrrr!" But then, “Cough, cough, cough,” Elemenopeo hacks.

"Are you okay?" The princess asks.

“OY VEY!" He bellows, "I have a terrible cold. Terrible! It has me laid out in bed flat as a pancake - if you could call this cold, damp floor a bed. And the fever…OY! I can’t take it. Not to mention that I was told by my evil twin, cousin on my mother’s husband’s brother’s side, that I was to sit here in this dark cave and guard his treasure while he did stuff like shopping and eating chocolate..."

Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop

I was chatting puppets with a dear friend of mine. I told him how our shows don't have high production value but the kids love them. He brought up one of his childhood favorites that I thought I'd share with you: Shari Lewis and her puppet Lambchop. In 1952, Lewis and her puppetry won first prize on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" television show. In March 1956, Shari and Lamb Chop were on Captain Kangaroo and by 1960 she had her own television program. A very cute and memorable sock puppet.






This got me thinking of how I started puppettering almost 2 years ago. Here's what happened: In order to invite the four friends that Ella wanted at her party I had to invite every kid in her preschool (a possible sign that our childhood insecurities have truly run amuck?). As a mom who had just added a newborn to the household, hosting 24+ kids in my home was the last thing I wanted. So I rented space at the community center. When I saw the puppet theatre, I recalled my childhood fav. -- Mr Roger's "The Land of Make-Believe." When that music played and the train rolled through the tunnel, I couldn't wait to see King Friday and Queen Sarah. I especially loved the know-it-all, Owl X (a possible sign that I, too, as second born, was a know it all?). Poof! I had to do a show.

Off to my computer I went. I wrote: "Once upon a time in a far away land there lived a beautiful Princess named Princess Ella Skoglund (her subjects called her Prinella for short). Prinella was very happy in her beautiful castle over-looking her fair kingdom. One day the royal butterfly, named Bella, fluttered in to the castle and said, “Prinella, Prinella, someone has stolen your entire, humongous, luxurious fortune! All your jewels, gold coins, lip-gloss and hair bands are gone, gone, GONE!”...

Pickles, Darth Vader and Boogers

I drove fifteen minutes to a guy's very beige, very unmade east side apartment, to secure the Darth Vader Voice Changer helmet at 8PM the night before the show! For twenty bucks, I owned the distinct James Earl Jones voice, complete with that deep mechanical breathing that is hard to recreate without scuba equipment. The show had its grand finale. However, a little voice (not Darth's) piped in (way too passively), "Asa, whenever you do these last minute things, they end up biting you." But I knew this couldn't be the case, a real Darth Vader voice would be the piece de resistance!

In the morning, I constructed a lightsaber to make sure it could be done in a short amount of time.


Instructions:
1. Cut 3 foot pieces of foam pipe insulation that is about 1" diameter.
2. Duct tape the handle using any of these handle designs (or one of your own creations.)
3. Use blue painters tape to complete "light" part.
4. Place small circular/star/oval foam stickers on the handle as buttons.

In the morning, Ella rifled through the bag and grabbed the light saber. She and I batted around balloons. I knew the activities would be a big hit!

Off to the show we go. Sara eased the van to the curb and we were both high from popping wintergreen lifesavers. Here's a picture of Sara and Jen ready for action:






We met Liz and Brian and they were totally laid back. My confidence was in good form. Smiling, I put my bag down and went back out to retreive the rest of the stuff. When I came back in, the boys were playing with the Darth Vader mask. So much for the element of surprise, I thought. That's when another thought hit me, The ending of the show might need some work. And then another thought pushed its way in, Maybe I should've practiced a bit more. Then, I'm not sure this puppet show was such a good idea. Followed by a flood of thoughts like, is there a degree i should get in puppetteering?


The next thing I knew, we were in a swirl of setting up, answering questions, providing instructions, and - Poof! - the party was in full swing. The lightsabers were constructed without a hitch. And the boys were fed cheese sticks, told to keep their "bummies" on the chair -- snicker. snicker. Finally, the Star Wars theme song was piping out of my compter and the show was on.


The boys laughed when Charley said he'd give up his underwear to see the Star Wars movie. They also laughed when Charley said that the water tasted like boogers. And, they laughed when Billy and Charley found themselves with pickles. So, a formula of boogers, undies and weird food does work. Thanks to Bruce Hale for that tip. The activities are my favorite part. The kids just come alive even with the simplest tasks.

By Act 3, I was thinking, Success! Hah.

I secured the Mask on my head for the grand finale -- Darth Vader's appearance. Just as I turned around, all those previous thoughts about puppetteering lessons came flooding back. I started to speak and then realized, I can't see my lines! I tried to remember... I need to sound mad. Right! I pushed the buttons to sound mad....breathing...you don't know the power of the dark side...breathing...the force is with you...breathing...etc. Finally, I remembered that I need to get the pickles. I said, "Give me the pickles."

Meanwhile, Sara and Jen had no idea what was going on as nothing that I said was in the script! But eventually Darth Vader got the pickles and the boys got back to Wayne's house and then it was over and I felt like a complete dork. Hah! What fun. There's nothing like making a fool out of yourself in front of a handful of kids and a few adults to reinforce that foible about last minute changes.

Lest you think the event was a failure, it was not. We got rave reviews from the parents and one boy was even overheard saying, "That was the best party I've ever been to!"

The show will go on (more practiced and slightly modified). We will donate a show to Conservation Northwest. And, Sara and I will donate one to our kid's schools: John Hay and St. Anne's. There is also, of course, the upcoming podcast.


Today's quote:
"If you ever think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito."



-Anita Roddick

Welcome

Here is the first of many (I hope) blogs about amateur pupeteering, writing, and living in Seattle with two girls (age 2 and 5), a great husband and an ancient dog (age 16). Why should you find this interesting? I have no idea. However, I know enough about writing to follow the first rule which is: consider your audience. I will attempt to do so. For my audience of one (myself), I will start writing about things that cross my path.

For example, I have spent two days anxiously searching craigslist, Amazon, eBay, for a Darth Vader Voice Changer mask. I am hoping to purchase it for less that the retail price of 199.00! Why is it so expensive? Not because it works. It actually doesn't. This mask is sort of like duct tape in that the tape works well for a bunch of things (removal of plantar warts, taping wounds in emergency rooms, prom dress, see more) but not for the actual thing it's supposed to: "one should not use duct tape to seal ducts - Wikipedia."

Similarly, the mask does not make your voice sound like Darth Vader. Why the expense? The zillions of Star Wars fans out there think that this is a collector's item -- never to be taken out of the box and actually used. As a mom who is trying to keep the kid clutter to a minimum, the notion of storing something like that is, well, as disturbing as trying to donate a few of the thousands of stuffed animals upstairs that are breedling as I write.

Obviously, I'm not a collector and I don't have seven year old boys, so why on earth am I looking for this thing? A simple use not advertised on the box: A puppet show.

My dear friend Sara and I donated a custom puppet show to benefit the Water 1st organization. To make good on that, we have created a Star Wars puppet show for fans (7 year olds) who have never actually seen the movie. We perform this Saturday. And, I'm hoping the buyer read the fact that it's an AMATEUR show because, wey-ll, there's a big difference between what we do and the real thing. Pupeteering is a pretty serious business. We'll see if we can live up to the expectation that "this is all their kids are talking about."

I may make a podcast of one of these so stay tuned. For now, here's a picture of one of the Prinella shows that I did for my daughter's 4th birthday. Format: The kids watch a show and at certain points in the plot (loose plot) they break out to participate in activities (obstacle course, pin the wand on the princess, etc) related to the theme or adventure. Of course, the Star Wars one has more boy activities like lightsaber construction and practice. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, in honor of the useless usefulness of the darth vader mask, I'll end this beginning-to-a-blog with a quote about endings that doubles as a disclaimer (phew).

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. - Winston Churchill.

Disclaimer (in case it wasn't clear): While I am a writer, I am not a grammarian so don't think about correcting me. I can't stand that, unless you are paying me in which case I will do my best to get it right the first time.