Wot? Culture clash in the California southern badlands. My infected thumb and I hop a late-running bus off of Powell St. to find out that the company will drop us off mid-way to load in on a van. Off season they say. Still winter in April so small van to LA. At the switch, I use my honed travel skills to save a seat with a bag as soon as the van arrives. Glad I did, because one poor beaten soul (seriously, he looked recently beaten) had to sit on the floor for the next three hours. I soaked the podcasts and made a big dent in the Day of the Triffids as the dessert stretched on beyond all the fruit and nut plantations. Drought? Your water feeds the USA….. LA LA, not quite hot today but haul luggage from Union Station to catch the MetroLink north along the Antelope Line towards Newhall and CalArts. No problems. How to get to CALArts? Umm…. Oh, look. A bus driver arrives just when I need to ask. “Just take the 4 or 14. Over there,” he tells me. My train ticket gives me a free transfer. Some 20 minutes later the bus arrives and I know to look for McBean Parkway. Hey, there’s the CalArts sign. The driver just drops me off there (there IS public transportation in LA) and I haul my huge, heavy bag up into CalArts and ask a few students where to find the fourth floor theater where Christine’s show is. Find it no problem! She’s surprised to see me there. My honed travel skills prevail for the day. My thumb and Peter’s Shadow celebrate.
Continue reading “Shadows and Lots Cast”
Christine Marie: Peter’s Shadow (So Cal)
The story of a man who sells his shadow. Musical composition by Gerard Schultz. Dance Choreography by Christie Nelson-Sala. Featuring live music, dance and 3D shadows!
Tues., April 28 at 8pm to Sat., May 2 at 8pm
California Institute of the Arts Ensemble Theater E400
24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA
get tickets at
www.calarts.edu/events
Starring
- Steven Wendt
- Andre Thompson Sinclair
- Ajayla Bendele
- Alexandra Kustin
- Kimberley Guevara
- Edward Rowley
- Jared Janush
- Jessica Hemmingway
- Chase Woolner
Featuring the artistry of:
- Kit Stolen
- Lianne Arnold
- Daniel Barsky
- Lexi
- Bryan Yu
Pulling Strings in NYC with Kevin White
I first met Kevin White about 12 years ago in Atlanta, GA. At the time, Kevin toured the Southeast performing marionette shows with his brother Brian. They worked for a company named Vagabond and had a boss that mismanaged the business. I moved away from Atlanta a few years after meeting them and they had both quit working for that company due to the fact that their boss didn’t run things too well.
Kevin White behind the wheel of Puppet in the Park’s Puppet Mobile, NYC.
I lost touch with Kevin and found my own path to puppetry after moving to San Francisco in 1997. As I became an active member of the CELLspace Puppet Cluster (David Morely, Jonathan Youtt, and Joelle LaPlume were the main members, with Whitney Combs, Sam Bower, myself, and others as supporting cast) in 1999, I thought of Kevin often and wondered why I never felt drawn to puppetry in Atlanta.
Continue reading “Pulling Strings in NYC with Kevin White”
Make a Shoebox Crankie
Step 1: Gather Shoeboxes
Once you have an idea to create as a crankie/cranky (you’re on your own for that), go to your local shoe store, ask for thrown-away shoeboxes, take home, and decorate them. I spray painted these Sketchers boxes and then covered them with stencils.
A History of the Crankie
Before the invention of the modern cranky, the Japanese used scroll paintings that were influenced by Chinese scroll paintings. There was also an older form called a cantastorie. This device had images painted on fabric, telling stories in sequential order much like graphic novels of today.
The SF Weekly describes a cranky as a “primitive, miniature theater in a box: a roll of paper painted with pictures that tell a story, cranked by hand past an open frame. (The person doing the cranking often narrates and provides sound effects too…).” Though the parts can change, canvas instead of paper for example, this is an apt description.