2010 EXPO

It was yesterday and it was so much fun!!!!!

Here you see some of my children setting up the sign and my mother in law taking pictures of them.

Gabby and Josh were trying out the stage...

Terrible shot, sorry... here you can see the front of the theatre all set up ...

My only picture was front my back .... the children and I took a walk between performances...

My wonderful mother in law, Judy, came from Miami to go along with us....

The girls were amazed by all the wonderful dolls and doll makers... hey, I was too!!!*grin*

Paullete Goodreau from , Goodreau Dolls , had invited me to bring my patitadolls to her booth but I was compromised with the theatre way before and to be honest , I would not had trade because my time with the kids was truly priceless.

EXPO is just around the corner!!!!

I can hardly believe that we will be at the EXPO in 2 weeks!!! If you are planning to attend, please come say *hi* and watch our show too!*grin*
I received my "Dolls" Magazine today and saw the advertise on page 12. I am having so much fun.... can you tell?

It is official! The MMT is coming to EXPO!

Oh WOW!!! I can hardly believe this! Our theatre is going to travel! Yes, the children and I will pack up our Theatre and travel to Winston-Salem , NC and take part at the This year EXPO!*grin*
This will be amazing for us , but specially my children. Take a look at The Doll & Teddy bear EXPO to read more about it.
Our information is not updated in their site yet because I am still writing about it, but I will soon.
Meanwhile, if you are planning to attend this year , know that we will be doing 2 performances On Saturday , Oct 2nd.
Can't wait!*smiles*

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD and EXPO news!!!

I now it took me forever to get it ready but is finally here. *grin*

The DVDs were professionally recorded and I am the one making the copies . I was a little slow in getting the cover printed but now I have listed on my etsy store.

I also listed our Cinderella DVD. This was our first show and recording.

Now, I must tell you that for Snow White DVD , you will have a choice of the DVD with the performance or a second one in which one can see at the end of the performance a Q&A, meet the puppeteers and ....me!*grin*

This option has the performance however the company the did our recording set up 2 cameras so the backstage was also recorder *during* our show . keep in mind that this option does not show the complete performance because it goes back and forth.

I also have a great news!!!!! WE WERE INVITED TO PERFORM AT THE EXPO!!!! I am not sure yet if we will be able to do this but boy, my children can not wait... and I too, I am very excited with this possibility.

I will keep you posted..... the expo is in October!

Behind the scenes

Wow!!!!!!!!!!
We had fantastic shows!!!!!!!!!Here some pictures behind the scenes.....



This is the *mirror* I realized that I never posted about him ....

Larry Coleman is the theatre director for the Wingate University.... he is here posing with one of the dwarfs..... he is the voice behind *Z*.

I love these characters.... the audiences were so excited about them!!!!!!!!

First Show is TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!

I always get a little nervous before our first show. We set up yesterday and we did a practice .It was very smooth. I was nervous about the dry ice and afraid to burn my hands but I used gloves and was able to slide the cauldron without problems..... if you look at this scene you can see the *smoke* effect.... It is so cool!

Coming up next week....

Press Release -

Snow White performance at Wingate University
www.wingate.edu/culture

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Gaskins
Director of Marketing & Communications
jgaskins@wingate.edu 704-233-8117

Wingate, NC. -- The classic children’s fairytale about a princess who is poisoned by her wicked stepmother, the Queen, but is saved by Prince Charming is coming to the stage with the Magical Marionette Theatre in the Recital Hall at Wingate University’s George A. Batte, Jr. Fine Arts Center.

“Snow White” will be performed at 7 p.m. Fri., March 26 and 3 p.m. Sat., March 27 as part of Wingate University’s Family Feature Series.

“Snow White” was originally written by the Brothers Grimm in 1937. The play tells the tale of a beautiful princess named Snow White who is befriended by seven dwarfs and hidden from her stepmother who is jealous of Snow White’s beauty. The play follows Snow White’s life in the woods through her final confrontation with her wicked stepmother.


Tickets for children 12 and under are free with the purchase of a $5 adult ticket. To purchase tickets, please call 704-233-8316. Visit the University’s website www.wingate/edu/culture for more information about this and other performances.


Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.

Wingate offers more than 34 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past three years.
-www.wingate.edu

Cinderella DVD available now

Hello everyone~

We are just around the corner to have our premier for Snow White. We are SO excited!!!!*grin*

I have a good news... for those of you that would not be able to attend at the Univesity , I wantto tell you that we will be professionally recording the play -Live!

For those that have not bought our previous DVD - Cinderella - I want to make available right now. The DVD is $9.99 plus $2 shipping to all US. Internationally is a flat $4. If you like one please send me a note at sevenkidsfarm@msn.com and I will send you a paypal request or you can mail me a payment via snail mail.

Snow White ....coming up soon!*smiles*

Below is information 2008.

I am proud to present a DVD recording of the premier performance of The Magical Marionette Theatre’s production of Cinderella!

We are a family theatre, and almost everything in our production was hand-made. From our beautifully hand-crafted stage that was built with 100 year old barn wood, to the marionettes, each handsculpted and uniquely designed from wood and clay. Our back drops were all hand-painted with oils, and most of our props were hand made as well.

The play itself is our own rendition of the beloved classic, Cinderella, which takes place in 19th century Spain. It was written by Patricia and Kate Cabrera.

The music was also entirely composed by Kate Cabrera, between the ages of thirteen and fifteen.There are five puppeteers, a curtain master, and a lighting/stage operator.

They are all my children, their names and ages as follows:

Kate (15)

Kevin (14) stage/lighting

Gabriela (12)

Joshua (10)

Rebecca (9)

Benjamin (6) curtain master

I am also a puppeteer.*grin*

The hands are finally ready!!!!!

Last year I sculpted a set of hands for the marionettes. I made a silicone mold at that time but it was not until last week that I was able to get the hands poured. I used fiberglass as my medium because is super strong and cheap.
Below you see them already washed . I drilled a hole in each wrist and will insert a wood dial and I will do the same on the marionette arms.

I started painting yesterday and even with my shop warm up the painting was not settling well... I will be working on that today ... I hope the paint has dried.

If you look on my past posts you will see the one were I made this mold.

Husband and son as marionette dancers...

I couldn't resist when my children told me that they had a surprise show for us. ....I was not able to place the video as a post so I added above and later on I will move it to the side bar.... it is hilarious!!!!!!!!
These were just improvised movements...

The Prince

Oh my , I can hardly believe that we finally started our rehearsal this past week. I worked intensively with the dolls and they are *ALL* strung and with the exception of some of their hands and feet - we are almost all ready! We basically worked on the music and placing the characters on the scene.
You see , Kate and I wrote the play but because of our lack of experience it is difficult to envision the marionettes adapting to the play when we were writing. I was very surprised to find out that We did WAY better than our first play * Cinderella* .
Our voices and music were already recorded at the university with the students and faculties but I received all in 10 tracks and it is my job to do all the editing. The first time I did this , it was awful, I had to learn the software language that unable be to do all the mixing... it is called Wave Master. Well that was 3 years ago, when I first worked with this program , it took me almost 8 weeks to get it right the entire editing...... it took me 5 days this time.... and probably a total of 8 hours to get our entire play done.Phew!*grin*
Now that the recording is done , we are practicing. I am always amazed how well the children do with the dolls... they are so much better than me... I thing is the spontaneous and child like attitude that makes them such good puppeteers . ...grin.

Here is the Prince.... he is not handsome as I wish.... I am not good sculpting males... but he is dressed fine and good for me that children don't care!* big smiles*

Snow White

Hi~
I am hoping to finish stringing the marionettes by tomorrow. Here a close up of few of them and Snow white.... I will then start molding for the hands and feet!

Wicked Queen

*** If you click on the picture you will see a much bigger*** The wicked queen is almost ready.... I will be working on the hands and feet after all the marionettes are dressed and strung.For her costume , I choose to make a simple black dress -yet elegant.
Today we also rang up all the backdrops behind the theatre to see how they look. The one behind the queen is her own chamber . I still have to add some canvas and paint to make it larger but that will have to wait.
I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now because I need to get the children practicing soon and when I look at the unfinished marionettes it makes me feel rush and I don't like that. Although this is our family theatre, and I do this so my children can enjoy and learn art , I still like to do the best of me. I am working on the dwarfs right now... today , for the past 8 hours I have sew 7 pants and now my daughters are helping me with the details.Next week I will post the Prince... he is a gem!*grin*