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*

The wicth is ready

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*grin*

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am back!!*smiles*

We had a wonderful Christmas and I am still enjoying the company of my sis and her children however , my hands can never stay still. I confess I have been working more than any other time.

I don't even know if *work* is the right word.... I love to make *things* so very much is hard to feel that what I do is called work.*grin*

I am in the midst of marionettes making, miniature work, and FINALLY I have a wood stove installed on my main shop so the final molds for Patitadolls can be made.( that will be coming up next)

I plan to weekly post my progress.Although I have few other characters ready , I choose the witch to do my first post because she is one of my favorites.*grin*

Costuming is a lot a fun but sometimes stressful because I not always have the right vision.

When I was thinking of the witch , I want to create something different than the black-dark-moody costume seen at most plays.

I figured , if the witch is approaching snow white she should have a combination of a poor woody lady and somehow a fear looking as well.

I think this is it. I am always afraid how the young children will react too but I think she will be fine.

I will finish all the costuming before I start the stringing each marionette. I already know that when i string the witch I will let her have a permanent curved back.I think that will give her a nice characteristic, don't you agree?

Rehearsal starts soon....

Today, we cleaned up our living room and made space to set half of the theatre . We set up only what is necessary because the theatre is quite large when we add all the curtains.

My children were eager to get the sitting in. I am working on the outfits and I can gladly tell you that I have completed 5 of 14. I plan to work as many hours as possible this week to get ALL the costumes done.

Jackie , our tea cup chiauchiau has no glue what is going on...grin...I am getting anxious to get started but I confess to you that I still have much to do before that.

*The marionettes that you see on the farm back are not Snow white*

Snow white costume

I am currently working on all the marionettes outfits. Prince is ready and Snow white is almost done. I plan to show one at a time , once a week , starting in January. I still need to make the hands and feet and that will be the next thing after they are dressed.
After Christmas we will be setting up the theatre and I our living room will be transformed into a *real* theatre.... pictures will follow. This is very special for our family as we all work together. I hope you stay around and check out our updates!
Merry Christmas!

Bodies are ready~

Just a quick post after so loooooooong to show you that the marionettes bodies are now waiting their heads , hands and feet. Then next ,will come the costume. I have been divided with so many things ... mold making ... miniature work..... and I had *plans* to have all the cast done before the end of the year but it will not be possible. We are schedule to perform on end of march so our rehearsal MUST start sometime on January. I will have all done by then - I promise!*grin*