I really have nothing important to say

Usually when I post to this here bloggity blog, I have some kind of idea I wish to express. Not this time, friend. This time the only idea I have in my brain is "wow, has it really been a whole month since I've posted? What the shibbidiboo have I been doing???"

Oh...right. In-school residency to 4th graders. wow. yeah. Privileged 4th graders at that....150 privileged 4th graders. Save us all.

It made me really appreciate my 1st graders. That's not to say that 4th graders are horrible...their puppets turned out beautifully--and one-on-one, I fully enjoy the conversations I have with 4th graders. Even in small groups....but you get 150 of them and all bets are off. Even in groups of 30. This is why I didn't become a teacher.

there were 5 groups of 30 kids...each did a different type of puppetry (Shadow, Overhead projector, hand, rod, & marionettes). Thankfully I didn't head this thing up. I'd have made them all draw faces on their fingers with a sharpie and called it temporary finger puppetry. "The good news, kids, is that you get to take your finger puppets home with you!--provided you don't wash your hands"

That went on for 3 weeks. At the end of the 3 weeks I was physically and emotionally spent. Teaching is tiring! Teaching 150 4th graders AND our 28 first graders all in the same day? WOW. Yeah, tiring.

I was--and still am--however, thankful for the job and the experience. It was neat to watch it somehow get pulled off. And in the end, the kids did a good job on their puppets and on their performances.

So...I guess that's where I've been...kinda. I also attended the Phoenix Improv Festival & did the National Day of Puppetry (how did I not post that?!) But I suppose I'll talk about that another time? (I probably won't really...) I mean...yes, I'll most certainly talk about that another time!

Smoothing out.

Rav4, Blue, 3 rows of seats, fits my show, completely AWESOME. And it drives like a car. AND it has tinted windows (a must in AZ) AND its awesome AND that has nothing to do with puppetry...except that I did my first four shows monday and yesterday. let's just say the 2nd one went better than the first one....a lot better. Let's also say that I don't like hooded shows due to bad lighting and not being able to find my foot-switch for music cues. Let's also say that I almost fell on my face due to poor balance.

2nd day went well, though. like..I'm really pretty darn amazing kind of well. which means today i fail! I'll go do show #5 in a bit here.

Vote because you love me

Ok, apparently it's not obvious to everyone reading the blog that I have a poll. That you can vote on. Unless its the same 14 people coming back to visit the blog to find out if there's a new poll...I'm just sayin'. You can also choose more than one option when you vote. its amazing.

So I'm starting to pick the show up little-by-little. Very little. Every time I pick up a puppet to perform for an audience of nobody I transform into a human ball of nervous energy that can't settle. And then heaven forbid I need to do the show for the director--or anyone else in the theater! So they sit there & it's just some puppets, a solitary folding chair and me...ready to rap my little heart out.

It was brought up to me that as long as the music isn't going that I can rap okay, but if you add a beat then I'm lost. This I knew. Need not point out--thanks. So then I was advised to tap my foot to the beat. Its helping a little, but let's think about this....when you hear ragtime, or polkas, or some big band you have a tendency to want to tap your feet....but rap? Do you tap your feet to rap? Not so much--so it's either sound like a fool or look like a fool. Which I should be used to already. I am somewhat of a dingus. (Somehow the word dingus is in my web-browser's dictionary--that makes me happy.)

Ok so this is where I make excuses for my bad puppetry skills:
I'm using a style of puppet that I've never performed with before(which is neat!). They're mostly table-top rod puppets. They're controlled by a rod going through the back of their head or body with a string and elastic for the mouth control (all but one anyway). So first off, I need to keep my derned feet on the playboard. Not something I've ever had to worry about before. Second, I'm so used to moving a puppet's mouth with syllables in a word that I am moving my puppet's body with every syllable which is terribly distracting and uncool. I'm also doing 4 characters in one show..not something I've ever done. I'm usually only one or two characters in a show and they're very seldomly on stage together, so I've never had to worry about vocal distinction in characters. I also work with a male puppeteer most of the time, so I'm never really doing any boy-parts. So in this show 3 of the characters are boys. OY VEY!

My first two shows are Monday, back0-to-back. So today is Wednesday. I have--not that long. Keep your fingers crossed, people. Otherwise some first graders at an elementary school in Chandler are going to be very disappointed.

So I'm thinking about the next puppet fest & what kinds of workshops I'm going to sign up for. I'm thinking a manipulation workshop for sure, and probably a vocal one as well.

Growing in your artform is sometimes a very difficult thing.
(Also, I wish people wouldn't smoke in the basement--just sayin')