Puppets, Puppeteers and the "Golden child"

First off, I have to admit that I really don't like puppet shows. There is just something about them that's strange and disturbing. Disney, seems to love puppet things. Working at shows like Bear and the Big Blue House (which later became Playhouse Disney) and Voyage of the Little Mermaid, I did manage to learn a few things about the craft along the way. First of all, if you are comfortable while you're working the puppet, you are probably doing it wrong. Most puppeteers have to be a bit of a contortionist to get the puppet seen by the audience while they are not seen.
At Playhouse Disney, the puppeteers are all scrunged up under the stage and spend a good chunk of thier time on thier knees. They slide from one side of the stage to the other on hard shell knee pads and old gerry-rigged office chairs. Bear and the Big Blue House was an eight week experiment that lasted several years. Story has it, that the Disney powers that be saw bear during a mall tour and wanted him at Disney. The Playhouse stage used to be the Soundstage Restaurant. Our very first breakroom was the old stainless steel serving station counters from the restaurant. We eventually found some blankets to sit on. Above the stage was the old Catwalk Bar. Decked out with odds and ends furniture and a big screen TV, we often invaded the space during our lunch breaks. In fact, for a while, the Bear and the Big Blue House television show came on a few minutes after our first ended, so we'd book it upstairs to the bar and watch the show. To recap, a cast of puppeteers were sitting at a bar watching a show for preschoolers. . . Only At Disney :)

Playhouse also had a host in front of the stage to engage the kids. Thier job was to get the kids up and dancing at the right time, settle them back down at the right time and to keep the little rug rats off the stage all the time. This job they have done quite well over the years. However, as with all best laid plans, there is the occasional slip up, or as we call them "The Golden Child". The Golden Child is the one individual who has made it passed all of the obstacles and managed to run up on stage. This is bad for several reasons. Bear can't see very well. There are numerous trap doors through which a child can fall through. And finally, but not the least of which, the show had large moving set pieces that can squish a child like a bug. On at least one occasion, a puppeteer opend the trap door and had a child fall into his lap. The performer then quickly shoves the child back up on stage and quickly locks the trap door. I can't help but wonder if, in that child's later years of life, he would have some vague frightening memory of seeing the dark underbelly of Walt Disney World. Who knows, maybe he now has a fear of creatures under the bed. I was walking back stage one day and a toddler's shoe came flying out from under the stage. I asked the stage manager if Bear had started eating the children and spitting out thier shoes.

To call Voyage of the Little Mermaid (VOLM) a puppet show would do it a great dis-service. it has one black light puppet number and Ursala. There are several puppeteers on stage during the "Under the Sea" number and it can be quiet amusing when the performers train wreck and you see all of the neon puppet fish pile up on each other. When the show first started, a dresser would walk out on stage during Ariel's transformation into a human and take her sea shell bra. (the curtain was down). I was always afraid of falling off the stage or getting ran over by Ursala, so I'd find Prince Eric and stick close to him as several of us would go out on stage. Why Prince Eric ? Because I could see him. He wears a white shirt that glows in the black light. On one occasion (this happened to another dresser), Ariel's hair got tangled up in the bra strap. The curtain was about to back up, in a panic, the dresser shoves the shell bra in the back of Ariel's dress and runs off stage. Ariel finishes the show looking like Quasimodo.

VOLM incorporates lasers, black lights and numerous other special effects. Not the least of which is a water curtain to symbolize going under water. Once, when one of the dressers was leaving the show, the cast wanted to tell her good bye, so the darlings taped her to a chair, set it under the water curtian and left her there. When others leave shows there are similar going away surprises as well, like being thrown in the mote when you leave Fantasmic or being covered in baby powder when you move from an area.

On that note, I'll sign off until next.

p.s. don't for get to keep checking back for new stories to come.