Broomstick Pony Workshop

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Preparations are underway at Urban ReThink for Orlando’s first ever Broomstick Pony Derby. Megan Boye, from Ibex Puppetry, brought along a wide assortment of materials for people to use to create their own broomstick pony. I was most impressed when she lugged in a huge military knapsack that was bulging at the seams. It turned out that the knapsack was full of fluff which would be used to stuff each horse head.

I followed a mom and daughter team as they created their red striped pony. In the conference room all the supplies were spread out on a long table and people were free to pick anything they wanted for their creations.  The room was a constant flurry of activity as head patterns were cut, hot glued and sewn. Every horse head was unique.

Orlando used to host fun quirky events like the Cumquat Parade. The Broomstick Pony Derby is  attempting to bring back that fun, civic minded, artistic sense of community. Folks of all ages will create and race handmade broomstick ponies, zebras, ostriches, aliens, you name it. Spectators will enjoy light-hearted races with whimsical outcomes. The Derby celebrate community and creativity and will raise funds, friends, and awareness for enhancing Urban ReThink’s operations and programming.There is one more pony making workshop on August 16th at 6:25PM to 9PM. There is a Broomstick Pony Showing, TONIGHT from 6:25PM to 9PM. The Derby will take place on Saturday, September 22, 9:00 to 11:00 am on Central Boulevard outside of Urban ReThink. May the best horse win. Broomstick pony galloping to local businesses will continue after the big race!

Macabre Vignettes

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At the historic Cameo Theater at 1013 East Colonial Drive, Tamara Marke–Lares set up an astounding, mysterious and strange collection of life sized Marionettes. I went to see Macabre Vignettes on Halloween day to see the “Lights Up” family friendly version of the show. Playful kid friendly puppet shows were going on all day while the sinister large marionettes watched and waited. One puppet show was about trying to find a Pumpkin. It is fun to watch the kids who are totally engrossed in the performances. When the kids realized that the puppet wasn’t holding a pumpkin but instead had an orange they stood up and shouted waving their hands. The puppet would insist it looked like a pumpkin but the kids would shout “No. No! That’s an Orange!” When the puppet asked for the orange back, a boy hurled it back hitting the puppet. All the kids laughed with delight.
I sat in the evil animatronics lab doing this sketch. One woman walked up to me and said “Oh, I thought you were part of the display.” Periodically a puppeteer would go up to one of the giant marionettes and start manipulating the strings. Children were invited to try working the puppets. The walls were covered with dark sinister paintings and scattered about were strange and unexpected sculptures. I suspect this cheerful environment must become a very scary place once the lights go down. This is without a doubt the most creative and exciting Halloween display in town.

No Strings Attached

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The Gallery at Avalon Island hosted an opening reception for No Strings Attached. This show which kicks off the 2009 Orlando Puppet Festival, features work from puppetry artists from around the nation. I particularly like the work of Tamara Marke – Lares. Her work used found objects which were elegantly incorporated into puppets. For instance a crab claw suddenly became a puppets head. Bones, wood, wire and a wide assortment of materials became a character walking across dead leaves. Expect the whimsical and unexpected when you go to see this show. Many of the works have a European maturity about them. These are not the generic puppets I grew up watching.
As I stood in the corner of the gallery sketching, a group of school children gathered at the store front window I was standing near. They were hopping up and down trying to see what I was working on. They started tapping on the glass and I decided to show then the unfinished sketch. Jeff Wirth walked up to me and before I recognized him he said, “I am sorry sir, we are going to have to ask you to leave, there is no sketching in this gallery.” My stomach tightened before I realized it was Jeff and then I started to laugh. Later as I was finishing the sketch I bumped into costume designer Kelly – Ann Salazar who told me I had to check out the puppet show going on upstairs. I am glad she did because the shadow puppet show was delightful to watch and I got to sit right next to the puppeteers as they worked. I had to run off to another event so unfortunately I didn’t get a sketch, but I might return.
With my sketchbooks tucked away, I finally decided to get some cheese and crackers which was to be my dinner for the night. Here I ran into Heather Henson who had just returned from months of wandering the country going from one puppet festival to another. She told me about the Burning Man event held in the Black Rock Desert 120 miles north of Reno Nevada. It is hard to describe burning man but it is the ultimate in large scale creative expression. Going to this event is one of the things on my list of places I must go to before I die.
The Avalon Gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 11AM to 4PM. There are also some very cool shows coming up like Macabre Vignettes and “The Bride of Wildenstein” the musical on October 29th-31st ,10:30pm at the Cameo Theater, 1013 East Colonial Drive. Tickets are $10.

Heather Henson at the History Center

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Heather Henson the daughter of Jim Henson, of Muppets fame, gave a at a lunchtime bag lunch talk about her fathers work at the History Center. She began the talk by showing early black and white television commercials her dad was doing at the beginning of his career. This early advertising work was surprisingly violent and over the top. The dead pan expressions on the Muppets made the zany skits all the more funny.
There was some trouble with the audio so she began talking over the muffled soundtrack. She explained that Kermit the Frog had originally been made from parts of one of her mother’s coats. In the early days her mom had been much more involved in the day to day production work.
Answering a question from the audience, Heather explained that holidays in the Henson home involved creating everything from scratch. Christmas ornaments would be simple Styrofoam which was then hand decorated by the children.
Heather has formed her own puppet company here in town called Ibex Puppetry and I follow their work as often as I can.

Panther and the Crane Rehearsals

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Rehearsals for Panther and the Crane went on all day long. It was rather windy at first which caused some problems with the screen that was tied up between some trees. A hard gust caused the screen to collapse and it had to be re-tied up. You can still see the ladder leaning up against the tree. Besides the inflatable gator there were also several bronze gators and a statue of a gator wrestler which are permanent fixtures in the park. By the time I sketched this the puppeteers had already run through the performance at least twice and they were getting ready to get some supper. This sketch gives a good overall view of the staging area they had to work with.
Heather Henson introduced herself to me while I was sketching. Actually she didn’t mention her name at first and was just talking about my blog. She was wearing shorts and a blue tee shirt, she had bright green tape hanging off her shorts for some reason and I assumed at first that she must be a stage hand running around taping together anything that needed taping. She was unassuming in every way. When she did mention her name I did double take but was very pleased to finally meet her. She once again stressed that I could sketch at will and I couldn’t have been happier. I knew this was a very busy day for her so I got to work and let her run.
For the performance that night, I put my sketchbook down and just watched the show for the first time. It was a beautiful performance. At one point I spotted the mother crane sitting on the nest I had seen Tamara fixing that morning. Two puppeteers were needed to perform her graceful motions. I then saw the egg she was sitting on and I was shocked to tears when it cracked open and she lovingly preened the chick. There is magic in puppetry.

Gator Devours IBEX Rehearsal

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As I approached Orlando Regional History Center, I heard music which I assumed to be for the rehearsal and then I was surprised to see his huge inflatable gator throwing his head back like Godzilla on a rampage. This is not a regular feature in downtown Orlando and was in place just for tonight’s performance of Panther and the Crane. You can see several members of the IBEX Puppetry cast in the small outdoor amphitheater behind the Gator. I noticed one woman manipulating a catfish puppet, she and the other performers I noticed moved with the grace of dancers. It was fairly windy and several times I feared that the gator might get blown on top of the cast. He held his ground however while constantly threatening to move. Tourists leaving the History Center were surprised to see the huge gator, so I assume he was inflated while they were inside. While doing this sketch I probably got to see half of the performance being rehearsed. There was a constant crowd of people watching the rehearsals so I felt I should be able to blend in. I wanted to move in closer…

Tamara Marke – Lares

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After pouring herself a cup of coffee, Tamara got started on all the last minute fixes that were needed for tonight’s performance of Panther and the Crane. While she replaced some Velcro on several costumes I started laying in the sketch for the room. Quite honestly I was a bit overwhelmed, every square inch of space was crammed full of interesting visual details. I took a deep breath and got started. I had to assume she would later be working on the contraption sitting on the high stool.
The device she was working on was to be worn over the shoulders by a puppeteer sort of like a base drum in a marching band. Tamara started hot gun gluing leaves to the shoulder supports. She burnt her fingers a couple of times and said ” This is why I usually don’t use a hot gun.” I couldn’t really tell what it was I was sketching, but she explained that it was a nest and sticking out of the nest was a shell with a young chick inside. In the sketch you can only see the chicks wing and a small stick which I presume controls the chicks head movements. Tamara actually took a moment out of her hectic day to show me some of her own sketches. They were amazing! The sketches had twisted organic ink line work and vibrant color, they had a touch of the macabre and yet were very playful. After everything was glued and set, Craig came back with the car from an errand and it was time for them to load the repaired items back into the car and head down to the History Center where rehearsals were going on all day right up until moments before the show at 7:30PM…

Henson Studio

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While sketching at the Florida Film Festival wrap party, Margaret Nolan introduced herself to me. This was the first time I had met her in person. I requested to become a facebook friend with her when I saw that she had tagged some colorful photos of a production of Panther and the Cane. Margaret’s tag lead me to research the Ibex Puppetry Company and I discovered a whole series of wonderful development drawings produced by Heather Henson, for the show. I immediately e-mailed Heather and asked if I could tag along for rehearsals and any last minute creative work being done. I was thrilled when she e-mailed me back. She explained that she had obsessively kept sketch journals at different periods of her life and so she fully understood my mission.
Heather suggested I go to the Henson studio and watch Tamara Marke Lares who is an amazing artist, working on the costumes for the show. The studio is located in this colorful old building downtown. I knocked on the door but there was no answer. I looked in the doors glass panes through some light lace curtains and saw a fantastic explosion of shapes and colors. Blue gossamer birds hung from the ceiling, a mannequin head was on the mantle piece with pins sticking out of its head and assorted bits and pieces of colorful fabric were everywhere. There was no chance I could walk away from that door. I assumed Tamara wasn’t in yet so I did what any artist-journalist would do, I camped out in front of the house and began to sketch. Before the sketch was complete Tamara and Craig, her husband drove up. Since we had met previously, the introductions were short and sweet and Tamara quickly got to work…