Saturday, October 1, 2011

Ninja Puppeteers


At Kids On Stage, we would have Puppet Pizzaz Fridays. Mr. Greg, or as most of the teaching staff fondly called him "the creepy puppet man," would come and put on a puppet show. He was a bald white man. He drove a large, unmarked, white van. Made funny voices. And carried trunks that could totally carry children. We had tons of fun listing the ways he was a child predator. It made Fridays awesome! (Plus we got Chinese takeout from down the street for lunch. Score!)
So, I'm not a huge fan of puppets. While I admit they take skill to work, they creep me out. Except for Muppets. Muppets are cool. I don't know why, but they do.
This morning, I had an audition for a puppet troupe. They do puppet ballets to classical music with narration. Recorded tracks, puppets, and dancers. Well, work is work, so when I heard from this company I went.
I get off to meet Edward (our contact and auditor) in the Bronx. I am not happy to be looking for a fifteen passenger van. It brings thoughts of Mr. Greg back. Mr. Greg was not who I wanted to work for. Plus, it just in general creepy. And makes me glad I have mace. Edward gets there, and he is a bald, white guy, along the lines of Mr. Greg. And he refers to us as ninja puppeteers. I got up at 6:30 this morning and traveled over an hour to get here. Shoot.
The audition was a small group of green dancers. I did not feel the greenest person there even though it was very different from what I was used to. We danced a little bit and played with puppets. Edward turned out to be much less crazy than Greg (thank God), and offered me the possibility of work in Feb. As of now, he is going to call me back in to sing in January. If I don't have a theatre gig and he offers it to me, I'll take it. I would be the only non puppet in a dinosaur vaudeville. Sort of a narrator or placard girl. Who gets to sing a cheesy song at the end of the show. We'll see. It's better than nothing. While I don't like not having a concrete offer, at the same time, it leaves free to accept a musical theatre job if one rolls along. Which would be awesome! High hopes and more auditions to come! :) Tom: Guys and Dolls and Rock and Roll at the Palace plus a "cabaret style musical." (Whatever that means)

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