They also toured full stage productions utilizing 36" tall hand and rod puppets. They were doing a musical version of HANSEL & GRETEL designed by RAY MOORE of Atlanta when I joined the company and they wanted a second show to tour seasonally. After several pitches were rejected, my idea for JACK & THE BEANSTALK was accepted, mainly because I had figured out a way to incorporate a human-sized GIANT into the show and because I promised to bring the production in well under the cost of HANSEL & GRETEL.
I delivered on that promise by writing the show myself, book, music and lyrics...and designing modular rod puppets and scenery which could be shipped in a 15 foot U Haul truck, instead of the 30 foot rig needed for HANSEL & GRETEL and SANTA'S MAGIC CIRCUS. Just in case you're interested, the difference in cost per production was about $50K for HANSEL & GRETEL to around $10K for JACK. Even in 1977 that was a big number to recoup.
Above is a publicity picture of BOB and DAVE TROTTER with the GIANT character costume and some of the puppets from JACK & THE BEANSTALK, and a pic of me and the JACK puppet taken for a newspaper article profiling the making of the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment