I got a last minute call to dress a show full of puppets from the Jim Hensen shop.
Jim Hensen is the designer and creator of Kermit the Frog.
As I've never worked on a show with puppets, I jumped at the opportunity. And it turns out, I loved it. These were not puppets as I had imagined. They were actors dressed in 'pods' (which is a politically correct way of describing a suit that adds mass to a body), with large heads with mouths that move, controlled by hydraulics.
I did 2 shows today, and have 1 tomorrow. It's been a long day, but I felt right at home.
Dressing the puppets/ puppeteers was too cool. Layers and layers of costumes. The actors were pretty self sufficient until they had the heads on, then they needed a lot of help. They also had to come off stage periodically in the costumes weren't 'behaving' and needed adjustment because they couldn't do it themselves. So I stood just off stage the whole show waiting, in case they needed me.
Then, once the curtain comes down, I would race on stage and get the actors out of their suits as fast as possible. After an hour and a half dancing around in 'pods' and giant heads, the actors were soaked!
And then finally it's time to dry the suits and heads, and throw everything else in the wash.
Also, I realized most puppets of this kind are 'left-handed'. Why? Because the actors inside them are right handed and use their right hands for the palm trigger of the hydraulic mouths. So, obviously they have to use their other hand to grab props on stage.
Cool right?
-Brandolyn
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