where the wild things are: giant costume heads and puppets

Every year, the parents of Eugene's Parent-Child Preschool put on a theater production to entertain and educate the kids, and help raise funds for the school. This year's production was Where the Wild Things Are. It was an ambitious production, but we made lots of cool stuff! For more info about the school and to look at a gallery of past production posters, you can visit the school's site at www.eugenepreschool.org.

Max's crown; felt + furry felt.

Goat-head wild thing puppet; felt, cardboard, masking tape, hot glue, thread. This is my second-ever performance ready puppet. This is the first: http://nightgardendesign.blogspot.com/2014/03/happy-birthday-dr-seuss.html

Bull-head wild thing head mask, in progress.

Long-haired wild thing head mask, in progress (group project).

This wild thing mask is the one I made for the Mr. for Halloween a couple of years ago. http://nightgardendesign.blogspot.com/2011/11/pinterest-challenge.html. Claire made the bird-head wild thing puppet masterfully (first time!)

Dress rehearsal! The sets were created by Anneka, Lisel, and crew, mostly of recycled cardboard boxes and latex paint.

Finished goat-head puppet, and bull-head wild thing head mask.

Long-haired wild thing head mask and Carole's gorgeous orange-nosed wild thing puppet.

I was lucky to recruit two amazing seamstresses (Claire and Carole) who are also very adept at learning to construct puppets and costume heads from cardboard, felt, and hot glue. Amazing work.

Max's costume, and more amazing backdrops.

Wonderland, part 1

Wonderland is coming this summer, and I've got the bebe to think about, but I'm still doing the production design for this one. And I have a budget of $300. That's community theater, folks!

Anyone have any spare:

*fabric (felt, fleece, fake fur, calico, muslin) in 1/4 yard or larger pieces (fake fur can be smaller)

*clothing (black shoes, suit jackets, ties, vests, shirts, long skirts, anything that can look or be altered to look turn-of-the-century)

*large pieces of masonite, cardboard, or foam core board (3x3 up to 4x8) for set pieces and props

*time to spare crafting all of this stuff between now and August?

I can even get you a tax receipt. That's how I roll.

Neverland

A few shots of one of the major projects I worked on for our recent production of Peter Pan as well as one of me, in my Nana disguise (I made the velvet helmet with ears {a recycled faux fur collar from a Goodwill} and ribbon ties; Rosalie G. beautifully executed a tiny mob cap for the top using leftover recycled-bedskirt-fabric from her handmade Liza apron. GORGEOUS).

This Neverland Map was created over the course of several weeks. Shawn and I built six 5' x 2' canvases out of scrap wood from an old pallet, and one large painters' dropcloth from the hardware store. The canvas was stapled in place, and then I painted this original map of Neverland using acrylic paints and brushes of various sizes. I researched place names mentioned in Barrie's original book, as well as the sequel, but because Neverland is always moving things around (perhaps some inspiration for the Hogwarts staircases?), I was pretty free to interpret the shape of the island and the lay of the land.

To finish, some mesh (recycled from an old mattress) was stapled over the back of each frame, and hinges attached the panels into two 3-panel screens. These were used in the parks as a backdrop and as an exit point for cast members.

On windy days, we tried many methods of keeping the screens upright, especially at our grassy venues. In the end, the father of two of our cast members ended up holding them upright from behind. Someday, I hope to invent a fool-proof method of keeping such things upright in outdoor theatre.

Clickable photos reveal larger versions.