Feb
24th
Wed
24th
Observations from the preschool puppet show
- Not everyday you see a puppeteer who comes across as Vin Diesel’s skinnier, hyperactive younger brother.
- I was initially under impression that the low grade buzz I heard throughout the performance was an attempt to sonically approximate rushing water beneath the Three Billy Goats Gruff bridge. My mistake. It was actually just the cheap portable PA system humming from the ambient energy of excited children, or perhaps just poorly insulated electric wires.
- The robot puppet’s chirps and whirrs were not adequate SFX. Nobody who has ever stood on an automotive factory floor or has had a Roomba underfoot could suspend disbelief.
- Results of polling: 67% of 3 to 6 year-olds will respond as to what kind of animal lives in a jungle with “monkey.” (Granted, small sample size.)
- Interesting dramatic choice to represent the hunter in “The Mouse and the Lion” with such a heavy British accent. The implied criticism of colonial noblesse oblige was an appropriate nod to Said’s theories on Orientalism for those who aren’t ready for kindergarten yet.
- A performer’s joy in crafting his own tools must be sorely challenged when his diminutive audience always wants to put those tools in their sticky, nasty little fingers.
- The “bunny” that looked like the Donnie Darko rabbit was unsettling, to say the least.
