In case someone reads this who's not familiar with the European furry fandom: one of the highlights of each year's Eurofurence convention is a so-called pawpet show, a puppet show for (almost) grown-ups. I'm honoured to be allowed to contribute to that show as a stagehand and occasionally supporting puppeteer for the fourth year now.
While the team has grown in size (all in all we had, I believe, 21 people being involved last year, I haven't counted this year yet), it has also grown in spirit. Everyone knows her/his place in the production and what is expected of her or him. Especially our head puppeteers (tanidareal, Eisfuchs, Fairlight and lynard_) have become so excellent performers that it has become really hard to catch up with them when you play a supporting character...
The development of the show is very interesting. Sure, the light and sound equipment gets better and larger each year (thanks to nachtfuchs and Jaryic), backdrops (tanidareal and props (Eisfuchs, Reesa and Xan) more sophisticated. But especially the props seem to fit much better into the story nowadays. Maybe because as cheetah_spotty and Eisfuchs write a real story about the characters now. Looking back at the early shows it seems that the action often centered around the gadgets thrown (sometimes literally) at the main figures, whereas now these figures have become characters, thrown into funny, obscure and even tragic situations. Additionally, Eisfuchs and aragontigerseye started to build puppets, which is a (small) step away from Folkmanis puppets -- but of course we won't change to something else for the main characters.
The rehearsal last weekend was prolific, though I got quite tired and a bit grumpy near the end... We had to move a very complicated scene where I play a... [um, sorry can't tell you without risking to end up in a pink tutu on the stage, thrown at with wet sponges, to the song "It's a Small World"] It is a gag which involves visual comedy, some weird lines and requires exact timing to work. To make it even more complicated, I have to synchronize with Xan, Fairlight and several sound effects. Woah, that thing is demanding. But it worked surprisingly well, opposed to the previous rehearsal where I (at an even later time) didn't even understand the scene... I sure hope that it'll work in front of our audience as well, because that's what counts in the end. But it shows that I have to improve quite a lot if I want to call myself a puppeteer.
In any case, I can't wait for the next rehearsal (the last one at the rehearsal stage in Kettwig before the final rehearsals on the convention.) And even though it does not only sound like lots of work (it actually is), I'm having a lot of fun with some dear friends and I'm already looking forward to next year's show.
Comments
tanidareal.livejournal.com 18 years, 10 months ago
Very nice report! :D Without risking the thing with the tutu *g*.
Link | ReplyAnd don't worry about getting a little grumpy in the end - I think we all felt the same as we were all very exhausted. ;)
cheetah-spotty.livejournal.com 18 years, 10 months ago
I've just planned the sound FX and numbered them in the script ... I'm equally horrified of that particular scene ... :)
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