Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 17:47:58 -0800
From: "beartown" <beartown-AT-bear-town.com>
Subject: PUPT: More on Puppeteers in Avenue Q


Saw this post from Bobby and Jeff, the creators of "Avenue Q" in the "Q-Community" at www.avenueq.com and thought I would share it, as it addresses the issue of how puppeteers are being selected:

"...According to our puppeteers, as we understand it, there are really only a couple dozen puppeteers working on the mainstream television puppet shows (with this type of hand-rod or live-hand puppet), and they all know each other and work together again and again on the various shows. 

Finding performers who not only puppeteer well but can also sing, act, dance, and have stage presence -- all at the same time -- is no easy task. We were lucky in that when we first met Rick Lyon, he knew everyone in the industry and he knew exactly who to ask to come perform at the very first reading -- those performers included John Tartaglia and Stephanie D'Abruzzo, who are still with us. 

The process for finding understudies (and eventually casts for other productions) now seems to be that we look for actors who can sing, act, and carry the roles -- and then once we have a pool of actors who can carry the show, we give them a puppet and see if they have any natural inclination towards it. We put them through a little "boot camp" coaching with some of our cast, and we basically have our expert puppeteers teach them how to puppeteer. One-on-one training with these guys is more valuable than you can imagine. Some people will never be able to do it -- just like some people will never be able to play the violin no matter how much training they have -- but some people have somewhat of a natural feel for it already and grow quickly and well with coaching. Barrett Foa, our current understudy for Princeton/Rod, is a great example of that. He'd never performed a puppet before onstage, but you wouldn't know it -- he's doing a fabulous job."


*FYI, Bobby and Jeff are taking questions in the Avenue Q Forum from fans of the show from now until March 1st.

--
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