Building the "Monster"

Sunday was the first official gathering of the first phase of the Puppet Improv Project. Several like-minded imps and I got together to talk about improvising with puppets. It was exciting to see the puppets people brought. Not everyone made theirs, but we have a good start on our puppet arsenal. We played with the puppets we brought and took a look at what might work for the run with FTM (Flying Theater Machine) that starts in March.

Those of us that tried to make our puppets (Amy, Gene, David & I) didn't quite finished in time. I learned the hard way that improvising the building of the puppet is NOT a good idea. A better policy is to A) browse for reference, B) brainstorm ideas, C) make a plan (a sketch), so that then you can "Measure Twice, Cut/Sew Once".

I'm building a "Prairie Chicken" to go with our Western/Tall Tales theme for the show. My puppet was still in pieces when the group started arriving. I had most of the pieces, but lacked a glue gun to put them together. Amy brought hers and helped me work out some funky deets. Here are some photos of the puppet as a WIP (Work In Progress).




It's interesting to me to see how much the puppet personality changes with the size, color, and position of the eyes.