MEET THE FINCHES
Starring: Cecilia, Matt, Farrell, Jan, John, Mike
Thanks to: Arturo and everyone else who helped out!

Enjoy the show!

Dress Rehearsal Tomorrow
A list of things.
After spending 4 more hours at the Reve we made a few adjustments. Matt said he'd make a radio for the set. The TV blocked too much action. He recorded the track and it will work nicely. So we need to change the dialog b/w the dad and the kids about the TV station to a radio station (they want to listen to DJ Squeaks after school music hour)
Mike and I worked on our voices with the microphones, but have yet to come up with clear ideas of what we want to sounds like.
He's going to bring in some velcro tomorrow and I am going to get some black cloth for the front of our set.
John, Cecilia, and I took our puppets home to work on syncing the voices.
I made some minor adjustments to the mom (she will be mounted to hold her steady while I operate the eyes and the mouth, I added felt to the eye mechanism's dowel and painted the piping mechanism to match the green kitchen.

Things to do to set up smoothly.
2 ppl. needed for moving stage. 2 in charge of placing shadow stage on top. 2 people velcro/tape the cloth around the stage to prevent light from seeping through and put black cloth under stage. 1 person deals with lights (kitchen light plugged into switch outlet, shadow stage and living room lights are on the dimmer. 1 person deals with microphones.
People may have to do a few things, but we should all divide up tasks so that we make the transition as flawlessly as possible.

Stage Left

Stage Right

Jan talks to puppets.

John and Cecilia's view (without the vomit)

Backstage

Vomit all over my Saturday.
This is going to be interesting if we are all running on no sleep for the final performance (I know I will be). I fixed the mom bird's eyes today when I got home from our 7 1/2 hour puppet practice. What the hell! I don't even sleep that long! Cecilia did an awesome job fixing the script so that we can practice.

Oh yeah and by the way.
I wrote scott radke about his awesome marionettes and asked him about how he got into puppetry. Here is what he said:

"i took some art classes. mostly drawing.
started making puppets just for the heck of it and as a gift for my wife at first.
now i am doing more sculpture based stuff. my puppets were not really meant for performances thought they have been used for that.
they don't move all that great just neat to look at. in really marionette making the main focus is on movement and mine are base more on appearance."

It makes sense, especially once you look at his drawings, because his figures seem to live in a world of their own. Even in static photographs, his marionettes have so much movement and expression.

check out his stuff at scottradke.com (the picture above is taken from his website)

For Jan!
Jan... I guess I am not subscribed to your blog because I can't post on it. Hopefully you will read this before tonight-- We are meeting at 7:30 pm tonight (Thursday) to finish up the set, play with the script and get our voices down!!!

GIRLS NIGHT!
I made it in today a little past 6. Cecilia was there and she and I got a lot of stuff done. We attached the dad to the chair, attached the chair and couch to the wall, completely finished the clock, glued the worm to the wall, made the kitchen backdrop, gesso'd the frame, fixed the dad's eyes, fixed the pole the dad's head is on and... (other miscellaneous things like that). Then, Jan came in and took over... so there is even MORE progress than I can post! Cecilia if you didn't get my note I accidentally ruined the fridge while I was painting the kitchen-- can you print out another one?

Group: If you guys ever need anything from me or need me to come in and help with something... don't hesitate to call me. My number is: 904- 476- 6040.

;-)

I'm going to get into the studio tomorrow at some point... probably around 5 or 5:30. So I will probably end up seeing Cecilia there... if any one else wants to come in it could be a group party-- YAY! AHHHH so much work at the end of the year!!!! But I have to say... I really
RESPECT
THE
PUPPET...
and everything that goes into their shows. Puppets. :: I mean come on what in the our collective consciousness could ever be cooler?::
... (penguins don't count)
Puppets remind me that art should make people smile. Smiling is good... and so few people genuinely do it today. Smiling is just as important as gravity.

hey, just wanted to let you know again that I won't be able to meet today til around 5 or 6 pm but i can stay as long as needed so i can pick up where you guys leave off.

Above: Finished at last!

Below: We have a lot of work to do in little time. Lets put in some hard time and hopefully everyone can contribute in their own way. Mapped out below is what we talked about doing to the set in class today. So lets all get into the studio at some time (whether on our own or in a group) and get this stuff done.