Back to “Normal”

Puppets:

Finally finished the Juliette Gordon Low show for the Puppet People.  It’s fabulous.  There will be performances, and a video production to orchestrate, but the serious crunch is over.  Little Boy is adjusting to NOT going to the puppet studio every afternoon.  He’s a little let down about it, but he’s decompressing nicely.

Little Boy and his best friend O, wearing puppet monster feet. Good times, good times.

Unschooling:

Now that our big puppet project is over, we have more hours in the week available to do school type stuff.  We’ve got another solar energy experiment to try, writing to practice, and lots of books to catch up on.

Our favorite part of homeschooling is the dress code.

Gardening:

We’ve got seeds to plant (corn, cantaloupe, pickling cucumbers), and a few seedlings to transplant.  Water the garden, weed the strawberry patch, re-mulch the beds that the chickens got into (grrr!).

Seeds started in saved containers. Red bell pepper, cilantro, parsley, chives, basil, holy basil, cucumber.

Homestead:

We’ve got fleas.  Uch.  The Herban Cowboy and I spent Sunday shaking rugs and blankets, sweeping, spraying, vacuuming and moving furniture.  I’m so annoyed with the fleas, but FINE.  Whatever.  I should thank the fleas for lighting a fire under my butt and forcing me to clean my house.  As much puppet stuff as we’ve been doing, housecleaning has definitely fallen by the wayside.  All that’s really left to tackle is the bathroom….

Clean kitchen with flowers from the azalea bushes out front (picked especially for Mommy).

Animals:

The flea problem is unfortunately going to require toxic chemicals.  Frontline or some crap like that.  As for the chickens, they need their coop cleaned, but it’s a little thing, so it only takes about 15 minutes to scoop it clean and throw fresh wood shavings in there.

SO glad we went with the small coop.

*******

The To Do List is long today.  But the good news is, the Herban Cowboy will be home by lunchtime.  Which means there will be twice as many hands working the To Do List, and twice as much playing when we’re done with the chores.

Still With The Puppets?

The deadline looms.  The Puppet People have less than 2 weeks to finish production and rehearsal on the show about Savannah badass Juliette Gordon Low.  There are several balls in the air right now, and a small but dedicated crew are working our butts off on all of them at the same time.

The stage has been set up, but drapes need to be custom stitched, and hammock “shelves” made inside for storing puppets during the show.

The puppets are mostly done.  There are still a few bodies to complete and costumes to be futzed with.  Still so many details to add:  yarn wigs, painted lips, rods and fishing line added to hands, jewelry stitched on.  Stuff like that.

A real Girl Scout meets the puppet Girl Scout.

The audio is also mostly done.  We’ve got a rough copy to rehearse with, and the final audio is being tweaked, with sound effects and music layered in.  I spent a few hours last night going line by line through it with the sound dude Nate, who is amazingly talented.  It’s a tedious process, but it was fun making all kind of sound effects, from rimshots to thuds to animal sounds to belches (I totally nailed the belch).

The video portions are being worked mostly by our video goddess Morgann, who is using videos, still shots, and photoshop to create the rear-projection video that will serve as the background for the show.  Of course, it can’t all be done on the computer.  Some of the shots have to be set up and filmed.  For example, halfway through the show we “break” for commercial:  a Billy Mays parody.  We dressed a puppet with a plaid shirt and Billy Mays beard, set up a table with boxes of Girl Scout cookies and put up a kitchen backdrop.  We filmed the spot, matching lip sync and audio track.

Morgann, wearing a puppet wig. I'm thinking it's time to take a break.

It’s definitely the most ambitious project I’ve worked on at Puppet People.  It’s been a bit stressful, since I’m busier than I like to be.  As a result, my house is currently filthy and I’ve bought WAY too many meals out in the last few weeks.

But what a great experience it is, especially for the Little Boy.  He’s been with me the whole time.  At first, when I was glued to the computer as I wrote and rewrote the script.  Then, the days spent playing with his friend O at the studio while the grownups made puppets.  He’s had to be quiet as a mouse during voice recordings, trying desperately not to laugh at the goofy sounds coming out of his mom and dad (Herban Cowboy did lots of voices for the show as well).  He’s gone with us on trips around town to buy fabric and props.  He’s sat in on meetings, where we all discuss what we’re doing and what still needs to be done.  He’s helped with video shoots, holding puppets and moving sets around.  He’ll be there as we rush to finish everything, and he’ll be watching rehearsals, seeing all the work we’ve done come together in a final product.

Yes, that's my Herban Cowboy down center.

Theatre is an amazing learning process for children.  Little Boy is learning SO MUCH by being around all this craziness.  He’s learning how to finish what he starts, communicate effectively with others on a project, work within budget constraints, and how to work through something tedious without giving up.  He’s had to practice patience and cultivate a willingness to step outside of his comfort zone.  I’ve been so proud of him throughout this whole crazy thing.

Picture This

Little Boy recently became a pest about “borrowing” my phone to take pictures of everything around him.  So I got him a camera.  I’m not big on buying toys, in fact I usually make him save his own money for toys he wants, but I felt like a camera was different.  It’s an orange and yellow V-Tech thing that also has games and records video.  And I can upload it all to the computer.

So here’s a photographic tour of my Little Boy’s life in the last few weeks…

What the hell?

Okay, he's down on River Street. Angela must have taken this. She took him down there the day I was doing a puppet photo shoot.

The Savannah River?

Driving around Savannah's Historic District with the Puppet People.

Somewhere downtown...

The cashier at Piggly Wiggly took this one. They're all in love with him there. Shameless hussies.

And now please enjoy this picture of one of our sofa pillows!

Such a beautiful, artistic photograph, to be cherished from one generation to the next. Also I need to wash my curtains.

Why did I let him take this picture?

Cute son. Real cute.

Oh, ew. Blurry puppets are creepy.

This was when he was hanging out with his best friend and her granddad. "Daddoo" must have taken this one.

Miss Angela, the puppet lady herself.

Reading nutrition labels. Good habits start young.

Pickles!

Nice one of Mommy's feet.

We're not getting that.

Seriously. We're not getting that. Walk away.

Hot Sauce!

A shot of the neighbor's screened in back porch. This was taken from our garden. I love all the old pines in this neighborhood.

The azaleas in the front yard.

Little Boy's Grandma and Mommy.

An alien robot is stealing my chickens!

His Dad.

The view from my Boy's backyard. This is his world.

 

Puppets? Yes, really. Puppets.

Little Boy posing with the big puppets.

Sometimes I work.  Not a lot, and not regularly, but sometimes, someone, somewhere is in need of my particular set of skills.  And they are willing to pay me to unleash them.  This goes against my grain as a naturally lazy person, but if the project is fun enough, you usually don’t have to twist my arm very hard.

One of the companies I associate with when the mood strikes is the Puppet People of Savannah.  There’s an actual puppetry company in the small town of Savannah, owned and operated by Savannah native Angela Beasley.  Angela loves nothing more in the world than making puppets, and after more than 30 years, she’s accumulated quite a lot of unique creations.  She started when she was a young mother, making puppets in her attic and doing shows at her children’s friends’ birthday parties.  Since then she’s traveled to Canada and Mexico and all points in between, even working a job once in Buenos Aires!  Puppet People does children’s birthday parties, family cabaret, senior shows, adult roasts, festivals, parades, and custom shows of all kinds.  Depending on the project, all sorts of artists could be needed:  painters, sculptors, actors, dancers, costumers, singers, writers, comedians, musicians and whoever else comes to share their talent.

My husband and I met on a Puppet People job in Iowa.  Our first week ever knowing each other was spent performing improv comedy in life size puppets in a city neither of us had ever been to before.  So Little Boy is kind of a Puppet People legacy.  Angela’s granddaughter was born a week before our Boy, so they’re totally best friends (with all the drama that comes with it–ha ha).

Angela in her element.

Anyway, I do a few things here and there when Angela needs help.  Workshops, puppet shows, puppet bulding, costuming, writing, editing, networking — even cleanup and yardwork when extra hands are needed.

So what’s all the fuss lately?  Why have I been too busy to call my sister (sorry B)?  It’s all this Juliette Gordon Low and the Girl Scouts USA stuff.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts USA.  For those of you who don’t live in Savannah, Juliette Gordon Low was born here and started the Girl Scouts here.  She’s pretty huge here.  So Puppet People is creating a show about her.

I (along with three other people) wrote a script for a show about what an amazing badass Juliette Gordon Low was.  To be honest, when Angela first talked to me about the project, all I could think was, “BORING!  Good luck getting anything out of ME, Lady!”  I thought Daisy (as she was called — I KNOW, right?) was just the old lady who started the Girl Scouts.  And I only ever made it to “Brownie” status anyway, so why should I care?

It turns out the life story of this grouchy looking old lady is a feminist’s wet dream.  An unconventional and outspoken girl during the Victorian era, who dared to educate and inspire all kinds of girls (not just rich white ones).  She traveled the world, acting, painting and scuplting.  She married for love and had her heart broken.  She loved fishing and swimming and camping and horseback riding!  Hello!  Sign me up, please!

The script has been written (by no less than 4 people, including me).  The puppets are being assembled and costumed, and the props are being gathered.  We’re organizing the voice talent and making appointments to record all the audio (songs, dialogue, sound effects, etc).  Next we’ll call in the puppeteers and start rehearsing, while adding details and fixing problems that inevitably arise.  The first shows are the first of April.

Toni makes a puppet costume, while Little Boy smacks her around with a set of foam puppet arms.

It’s been fun to do puppetry in my professional life.  I earned a BFA in Theatre, and attended three different colleges before I graduated, and none of them ever even mentioned puppetry.  Yet here I am, earning money doing it, and applying all the skills I learned in college:  writing, improv, costuming, set construction, character development, and perhaps more stuff if I sat here and thought about it.

I’ve been putting in a few hours a day, and Little Boy has been coming with me.  He loves being at the studio.  He puts on puppet shows while we’re working, draws designs for new puppets, and plays with his friend O (when she comes after school).

Not a bad way to spend a day, but I’ll be glad when I get back to my difficult schedule of knitting and napping and reading…..