Time for LILI at last!

It is hard to believe that almost a year has passed since I first began work on LILI, and now it is time to travel to Fort Worth, Texas and the Hip Pocket Theatre and turn my designs into the reality of a full stage production!

LILI opens August 14th for a four weekend run through Sept. 6.

If you are in the Fort Worth area this summer, head on out to the HPT and see the show!

Dog Marionettes completed

 I built the two Dog marionettes back before my surgery, saving the fur coverings for afterward while I was recuperating.
Here they are completed:

 PIERRE the smaller of the two at 18" high with his balancing ball. The ball has a hollow tube running through it. A string runs from nose to a ring worn by the "Trainer" who tosses the ball and raises his hand at the same time so the ball is "caught" by Pierre on the nose. A magnet holds the ball in place so the Trainer can then lower his hand and eventually snatch the ball back from the dog's nose at the end of the act.

 "What You Lookin' At?"
 I found this fleece-like synthetic fur which looked more like actual dog hair than standard faux fur. It is judiciously hot melt glued to the wooden body with some area's left uncovered and painted off white.

 CHLOIE is Pierre's larger sister at 26" tall. Like Pierre she catches and balances a ball on her nose by the same method.

This really simple design has rendered a surprising range of "dog like" movements with just a twist or dip of the controllers. The tails are wooden beads on heavy plastic zip ties and mounted to the rump of each dog. As they walk the tails "wag" .

These were designed just as a 2 minute walk across bit while the Carnival set pieces are moved into place behind, but they turned out so well that I'm afraid they will steal the scene and the audience's hearts as well. So they may have to make another appearance at some point in the play.