FREAKS HPT 1986

Not content just to have mounted the first stage productions of WAR OF THE WORLDS and KING KONG, we embarked on the most ambitious adaptation of all when HIP POCKET THEATRE staged FREAKS Upstairs at the White Elephant in the spring of 1986.

I had pushed for this production and planned it for the outdoor space at OAK ACRES since it required a rather large cast of both actors and puppeteers. But the timing was right for the indoor venue.

Here pictured for publicity are JEFF FARRELL as Johnny Eck, the Half-Boy and ADRIAN MARTINEZ & DENA BRINKLEY as Hercules and Cleopatra, with the Puppet of Hans, the Midget.

( I stayed up All Night to finish constructing and costuming the Hans & Frieda midget puppets so that they would be ready for the publicity picture call the next day...a good two months prior to the show's opening! More about them later...)

Johnny Eck was based on an old world concept called a "Humanette": Head and Hands are human with a Puppet's Body. Here you can see that both the truncated body and arms are a costumed puppet with Jeff's lower body in black to mask it, and his own hands attached to the dummy cuffs. This created an even more frightening effect than I had originally intended as Jeff proved so adept at "slithering" across the stage propelled only by his hands that it actually appeared as if he had no lower body at all!