Happy Holidays

I finished up my last performance of 2008 on Saturday. It wasn't a big tadoo. Just a small, quiet holiday party at a swim club of all places. I did a production of ours called Christmas Cabaret. It's a show I've done for years and years. It's no great theatrical feat to be sure. Just a collection of light vignettes with an underlying theme of slowing down enough to really enjoy the holidays. There's some predictable characters: a harried monologue from Santa's head elf, two reindeer with head colds, a couple of babies singing a duet and a puppy pops out of a brightly-wrapped box.

But a couple of the segments try to strike a more serious tone. No easy task in the venues that this poor little production finds itself; shopping malls, corporate celebrations and the occasional library still secure enough to present something with the word "Christmas" in the title.

In one of these heavier segments, a talking present laments that after Christmas morning you won't even recognize him. He'll be a crumpled mess, scattered all over the place. A regular fire hazard. His shiny paper and curly ribbons will all be forgotten once you open him up. He says it's a rough life being a Christmas present. So, he asks the audience to take a moment to enjoy the simple beauty of all the presents under the Tree.

In another of the vignettes, a sort of "off-duty" Santa Claus tells the audience that he was in the neighborhood and thought he would stop in and see if they all had been good this year. He implores the audience not to forget the true meaning of Christmas and the warmth that comes from loving, caring and sharing.

I tell you all this because on Saturday, there in the chilly rain, as I wrapped another year of performances, I felt that these two pieces worked. There's been plenty of times that perhaps they were not given the attention they deserved. But on this day, a hush came over the audience while a talking present and gentle old St. Nick had their say. I like to think that maybe, just maybe, some sugar-high child that was at this show might slow down for a moment on Christmas Eve to just stare at the beautiful presents under their tree. They might even hold a parent tight for an instant.

As I packed up the show, a little girl in a very fancy dress came for a peek backstage. She looked at Nick and the talking present, hanging side by side on the stage frame hooks. "Are they real?" she asked. I answered her without thinking. "Today," I said, "they were real enough."

A Singing Christmas Tree Weekend

We just came off a great weekend of performances with Carolina Voices and their annual production of The Singing Christmas Tree!

Fellow puppeteer Christy Pleasant and I had a blast performing with a slew of other guest artists in this Charlotte Christmas choral tradition! We joined dancers from Charlotte Youth Ballet, Inspire The Fire and Moravian Peace Choirs, percussion guru Jim Brock, Chris Thompson and the Cultural Ensemble, Native American song and dance artist Little Big Eagle, the ultra- cool siblings band called The Whippersnappers and more and more and more! Hundreds of guest artists crammed the wings for what truly was a spectacle! It was a real honor to be a part of this amazing weekend of song, dance and puppetry.

I performed an illusion puppet named "Mountain Dan." The team here at Grey Seal designed and created him and the puppet worked just great. Since the theme of the performance was a Carolinas' Christmas, Mountain Dan served as a narrator; helping the audience navigate the history of the holidays in our area. Mountain Dan was a like-able old coot and it was fun getting to know him as the performances progressed. I'm a big fan of illusion puppets like this.





Christy performed with Little Big Eagle in a piece called Cherokee Morning Song. While Little Big Eagle chanted and played the flute and the Carolina Voices chanted away nicely, Christy sat cross-legged on the stage floor and created a beautiful moment with a simple, abstract Cherokee woman character. It was really nice. Jeff Hawley, who works here with us in our studio, did the costume for this puppet and it was just perfect.


The nicest thing I take away from such a collaborative effort like this are the friendships forged over such a short run. Everyone was so great to work with and Christy and I left with a warm feeling of camaraderie towards our fellow performers. Many thanks to director/conductor David Tang for bringing us all together!

A little Jimmy B, Macy's and Father Time!

The weather took a downturn here in the Carolinas last week; a rare stretch of cold, rainy days. A rough patch like that always reminds me of a song by Jimmy Buffett called "Savannah Fare You Well." There's a lyric in the song that says:

There's something in the wind tonight,
Some kind of change in the weather.
Somewhere some devil's mixin'
Fire and ice together.

Is that an awesome image or what? Not to worry though, things have cleared up and the sun's shining brightly on a Carolina blue sky.

We're too busy around here at Grey Seal to worry about the weather anyway. We finished up a cool project for Charlotte Center City Partners last week, just in time for the Thanksgiving break. We designed and constructed a 14' tall pageant puppet of Father Time to help promote Charlotte's resurgent "First Night" event coming up this New Year's Eve. Father Time debuted in the Carolinas' Thanksgiving Day Parade and was a big hit. Cheralyn Lambeth puppeteered Father Time and was a stoic trooper, shouldering the mighty load for the entire parade!


We were also really jazzed to see the puppets we made for Cartoon Network were once again on their Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Float! We had a blast making these puppets of characters from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It's super cool seeing those puppets in the parade. But then the showstopper! The Foster's Float got Rick-rolled right there in the middle of the parade. It was HILARIOUS! Here it is again, if you missed it (courtesy of YouTube):