PUPPET SHOW POST-MORTEM...

The puppet show went well, I think (hard to tell from behind the stage); some folks have said they liked it. And some folks are sorry they missed it (which means they might come to the next one). We did have a packed house, but that was deliberate: we had the parents of the elementary-school kids whose work was in the Art Show, and the parents and friends of the school kids performing in the Open Mike—a captive audience.

Helped, I think, to spend a little time behind the stage earlier in the day, working with “my” puppets, having Hansolo practice holding the miniature Les Paul (so he didn’t drop it), reading through the script, &c. I always try to visit the venue before a musical performance, imagining the place full of people, and figuring out where everything is, and where I am; I guess this works the same way. In the end, we were able to pull off the performance having had only one rehearsal.

There is reportedly an educator who maintained one learns by experiencing the thing-to-be-learned with as many of the senses as possible. You read it (sight), read it aloud (hearing), write it down, and so forth. I guess the playing around behind stage was the “tactile” part. (I didn’t do “taste.” I ain’t licking no socks.)

Not sure what to do for the next one—but I’m pretty sure there will be a next one; this “playwright” stuff is exciting. Shakespeare probably felt the same way after a performance of one of his plays. Like Shakespeare, I deal with a set troupe of actors (six of them—Princess Leah, Luke, Hansolo, Yoda, Darth, and Chewy the Wookie), and must have parts for all of them—and the plot structure has to be a fairy tale. The troupe has done the three little pigs (that was “Pig Wars”), and “The Three Billypigs Gruff” (that’s how Darth got his fancy cape that reads “Trolls Rule!”), and now “Sleeping Piggy” (introducing Chewy the Wookie as one of the Handsome Princes).

So what’s next? How about Cinderella? (We’d have to do gender reversal, because we don’t have enough girls—but we have a habit of twisting these fairy tales into barely recognizable form, anyway.) Darth could play the title role, and Luke and Hansolo could be the evil stepbrothers, and Yoda the Fairy Godmother. (Yoda already has a set of wings, from being the Evil Fairy in “Sleeping Piggy.”) Leah, of course, is the airhead princess desperate for a mate. And Darth could lose his helmet at the ball, and Chewy, as the Royal Vizier, could travel the country making people try it on. Could work.

It’ll need a song, of course—that’s become kind of traditional with these plays—but I’ll wait on that until after I see the video of “Sleeping Piggy” and see how well the song I wrote for that came out. It was different, having the troupe on stage as a band performing the song, and the practice might be worth repeating—but if I do it exactly the same way, that’ll become a tradition, too, and we’ll have to do it every time. I’m not sure I want to lock myself into that.

Still to do: I need to clip the puppet show from the videotape of the whole evening, and add titles and credits; the Arts Center’s new Macintosh computers and film software are supposed to arrive this coming week, and using that may be easier than converting the video into a form that can be manipulated by “Alice” (who’s a PC)—though I am familiar with Alice’s software and its limitations, and can generate (I think) a decent product with it.

And now I can do the other stuff that’s been hanging fire—the “50 Ways” music video, and the lead guitar part for Scott Garriott’s “Clown in Paradise.” Vocal parts for the album should happen this week (and should be able to be done in one take, as usual). Play practice for TAPA’s “Southern Hospitality” (which opens April 1) has gotten to the sections with my bit part, so I need to be there. Time to schedule the filming of my segments for the film class documentary. And more jobs to apply for—one of which I’m actually qualified for.

Joe