Grey Seal's Three Ring Circus

Last week found me wearing a lot of different hats and that's one of the reasons I love doing what I do so much. Each day presents a different template and it's fantastic. As puppeteers, we're involved in many different areas. Not only creatively, but in a business sense too. Good business practices have always been important to us and we try to practice them constantly. It's not easy turning a profit as professional artists, but we have been lucky to stay afloat and happy for all these years.

Early on in Grey Seal's history, we decided that several irons in the fire was a smart way to go. Better to have a few different options rather than relying on just one revenue stream. We settled into three areas; on-stage performances, on-camera performances and the custom-design and construction of characters for others. These different areas would serve as safeguards to one another as we rode the ebbs and flows of the financial seas. This early cornerstone philosophy has served us well over the years and each week usually finds me involved in each of the three sectors.

Take last week. Back in the workshop the finishing touches were put on a new mascot character for The University of Virginia. "Sabre the Horse" was packed up and shipped just as a new "CavMan" was being "foamed out" for UVa as well.

Last week also found me performing Salsa Cinderella out and about the Tarheel State. Over the weekend it was a privilege to perform the show at the prestigious Sarah B. Duke Gardens in Durham and then return to Charlotte for a performance of Salsa Cinderella at McAlpine Elementary School. Great fun!

Then it was time to slip on another hat and write some dialogue sequences for a couple of Dalmatians named Alto and Tenor who will be a part of our 26th consecutive year of performing with the Carolina Voices acclaimed Christmas concert called The Singing Christmas Tree. Next up, a meeting with Lucy Hazlehurst from Children's Theatre of Charlotte to plot out our upcoming performances of Tangle of Tales there in January. After that, another quick hat change and some pre-production work on our upcoming shoot at Charlotte's PBS station, WTVI, where we have performed "Seemore Goodstuff" on-camera for the last 10 years.

So it goes at the three-ring circus we call Grey Seal Puppets. Just another week of "pandalerium." Who knows what the next phone call will bring. Stay tuned and we'll keep walking the tight rope.