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.

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

Or as we call it EPIC. The oldest show at the Studios, it opened shortly after the park opened. I can best describe Epic as working in a 'Boy's Club'. A good chunk of the cast has Peter Pan syndrome. . . they refuse to grow up. You never knew what was going to happen next. It took a certian personality to be able to work at Epic: not easily offended, ability to go with the flow and most importantly 'Shy People Need Not Apply'. Not to say that my cast of 'Lost Boys' was difficult to work with, but on more than one of occasion we had costuming dressers get trained at Epic and never come back.

With a cast of close to twenty guys and three girls per day, testosterone and bravado filled the room. And "oh the things you learn about guys when you're the only female in the room." I'll never forget, we were on a long break between shows and only a handful of people stuck around the green room. One of the cast, who grew up in Alaska, started talking about peeing into the wind and watching it freeze. I was eating lunch. All I could say was "Thanks for THAT visual." Working with a bunch of half dressed men, we had a lot of visuals. One of the guys, who had been there since day one, walked into wardrobe with only a towel wrapped around his waist. That's it. Nothing else. We said, "We're putting a load of towels in the washer, we need that one too." He dropped it and kept on walking. Now THAT WAS A VISUAL.

A costuming job at Epic was mostly presetting clothes, replacing worn out costumes, sorting laundry and dressing the guests which were picked out of the audience to be in the show. Sounds pretty easy. . .right. Wrong. Getting the 'boys' to give up a worn out costume was like getting Linus to give up his blanket. The conversations usally went something like this. "You need to try this on." "Later." "You need to try this on." "Why? I have one already." "It's falling apart. You need a new one." "I like my old one." " You look like you were on the losing end of a dog fight." "No I don't." Basically, you had to wear them down. . . in a nice, big sisterly way. One of the worst was Tumbler "P". I called him the brother i never wanted. He harrassed me. I harrassed him. One sure fire way to teach new cast members to put up thier shoes, hats, ect, was to put them in the freezer. The next day he had to wear frozen shoes, but he never forgot to them away again. Everyone expected the clothes to be ripped to shreds, the shoes to fall apart and the hats to eventually disintegrate. It was the unexpected wardrobe malfunction that kept life interesting. Indy has a monlogue where he explains the difference between a stunt double and stunt actor. Indy 'E' happened to be wearing a pair of button fly pants that wouldn't stay buttoned. He did his whole speach not only with his fly open, but his shirt sticking out. Dark brown pants. Light tan shirt tail poking out. Enough said.

I often thought I had the wierdest job in the world. I helped people change clothes during shows. Then, during the show, I'd see the six tumblers walking towards me taking thier shirts off for thier costume change, and think "I like my job." One day, a group of girls (guests) discovered they could stand on the handicap ramp and see the guys as well and started whistling. Amazingly, the guys turned shy all of a sudden. Thier one costume change was by no means a quick change. In fact, they had time to get into water fights, feed the begging squirrels, torment the new dressers and throw each others costumes in to the Mayan cart. (Scene one is a Mayan Temple scene, afterwards the set separates into three sections and rolls off to the side.)

Thier shenanigans didn't stop there. In the green room, if you heard the phrase, "Hanger in flight", you learned to steer clear of the costume rack. They loved to throw the heavy costume hangers at the rack and see if they could make them stay on the rail. They rarely made it. For several years they had a ping pong table and, for a while, full contact ping pong games dominated the greenroom. They'd hit the ball so hard, it'd ricochceted off the walls. Then there was Mote Ball. I am not sure where the name came from, but it's hybrid of a shortened tennis court, using racquetball racquet with elements of jai lai thrown in for good measure. The techs and certian cast members had mini-tournements between shows. The court was actualy a driveway leading to the the stage. The backstop on one side was the high stage wall/gate. The back stop on the other side was what ever car happened to be driving past. The sides were marked out by the Tech break trailer to one side and the tent storing the extra rolling boulders to the other.

The most awesome thing about working the show for the number of years that I did, was I saw kids with little to no experience come in and learn how to be a stunt performer. Now, I can't watch a movie with out sitting throught the credits to see if I know any of them. I'll always remember a kid from south Florida. He was a high school football star. The first time he sauntered into the trailer, he wore a big cowboy hat and had his shirt halfway unbuttoned. Well, let's just say, boot camp had begun. That training session there were six new tumblers, (I think), one or two new Marions and a couple new Indy's. Thier trainer was Tumbler "O", or as I called him Sargent "O". He ran that bunch of new hires ragged. During training they ran circuits, which consists of climbing the buildings of the market place (scene two sets), running across the tops of the buildings to the Indy high fall, do the high fall and run back to the begining. Between shows they'd learn about throwing punches, the slide for life and three-man pyramids. At one point in time when the Indy high fall wasn't high enough, they went all the way to the roof of the stage and jumped out of the rafters. Absolutely, utterly insane. One day, in the greenroom, they were watching a home video of someone on fire. Only at EPIC does that not seem wierd. That week end one of stunt captians had an unofficial training session at his home on how to do fire stunts.

By the way, the high school football star stuck around for a three four years, then moved to L.A. and became Toby Maguier's stunt double in Spiderman. Not bad, eh. I found an interview with him on You Yube http://www.anthonyplascencia.com/video/stuntman.html Another rags to riches story has to do with a guy who started in costuming. He went to the casting center and told them he wanted to be in costuming at Epic. They tried to taking him out of it. He insisted. His goal was to see what it took to get cast in the show from the inside out. He auditioned, but didn't make it. He auditioned again. He still didn't make it. In between auditions the Indy's would work with him on what he needed to improve for the next time. I believe it took four or five times before he got cast. Once he broke through, he was contracted as a primary Indy stunt double for a while, then he moved to L.A. Long story short, he landed work on a Tim Allen movie as his stunt double. Now, he's Mr. Allen's primary stunt double.

The tell tale signs of an Indy in training: knee pads, elbow pads, butt pads, brand new timberline boots all while wearing eye protection and the leather jacket in 90 degree Florida summers, just so you can learn that dam whip routine. Oh, yeah, throw in a few character performers running for thier lives because they're afraid of being accidently hit by the thing on thier way to the parade trailer.

There are plenty of more EPIC stories to come, so come back and check it out.

Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure !

Way back when each new movie was welcomed by fan fare and a new show or parade being added to the park, there was a show based on Disney's bastardized version of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame Classic. The animated film was 'ehh' and was kind of out of step with most of Disney's animated movies. The show however took on a life of it's own as a thirty minute retelling of the film and had a huge fan base.

Located in the back of the park, it seemed to always be under threat of closing. We were amazed when we lasted one year, much less seven. This show was and always will be one of my favorites. It was a show about outcasts, and being an entertainer you never quiet fit the social norms of society, anyway. We had a little bit of everything in that show: seven Equity performers (anyone who has special skills, talks or sings is Equity), nine character performers (pupeteers who in another life worked with Mickey, Pluto, Chip, Dale etc.), pyro techs (they burnt down Paris five times a day), six costuming dressers (who were always ducking out of the way of props, and dodging cast members who were late for enterances), two cosmetologists (it is amazing all the uses there are for doublesided hair and makeup tape) and one preshow juggler act (who had his own fan club following after a while).

It's petty sad when you'd rather be at Work on a holiday that with your family, but the cast and crew at Hunchback was my family. . . sort of. On our first Easter sunday, we turned the court yard between the stage and the greenroom into a little outdoor French Bistro. The techs had two hot plates in the back corner making omletes. We had electric skillets and waffle irons with pitchers of batter to make pancakes and waffles. Breads and pasteries of every size and discription was on another table. You name it we had it. Costuming put together an Easter Egg hunt. I found the quickest way to turn grown adults into children again is to hide something and tell them to go find it.

Costumes were alway an issue at that show. One of our gypsies (characters) hated his hat. He called it the "Herbie the Misfit Elf" hat. In one show it fell off, as it usually did, but this time he never got it back because his precious cast members kept kicking it around the stage like a hacky-sack. After that the stage managers made the hat go away. Costuming's claim to fame was a seven second complete Esmeralda costume change. It didn't have to be seven seconds, but we wanted to prove we could do it. Esmerelda would sneeze on stage and disappear behind a curtian and a poof of smoke. One of us would unzip her red dress, drop it to the floor. The second dresser would drop the blue dress over her head. The first dresser would zip it while the second dresser would snap the sash into place. Meanwhile, cosmetology straightened her hair and she was off.

The characters took being a gypsy to heart and were the mischievous bunch of people I have ever worked with. They had themed shows like the 'Riverdance Show' where everyone moved around on stage like they were in Riverdance. In one scene the gypsies where thrown in jail. The top of the jail was a stair way where the Gargoyles stood. We had certian gypsies that loved to torment the Gargoyles by untying thier shoe laces or pulling on thier tights.

As with most theater shows, Broadway and other wise, we had understudies. Everyone knows that. One particular day, we ran out of Quasimodos and the managers had to call in the under study. . . We'll call Quasi J. The only problem was, Quasi J, being his day off, was at the Epcot WINE and Food festival. (note the emphasis on Wine) Quasi J told them he was at the WINE and Food festival, but Stage Managers said "We'll deal with that when you get here, just come in and save the shows." I happened to be dressing that track that day and had to deal with the tipsy Quasi. . . lucky me. Quasi T wanted the lead in the show so bad, but there was one minor issue, a rope swing stunt from one side of the stage to the other that he was petrified of. He almost never landed right, in fact we refered to his rope swing as 'Bowling for Guards' since he usually took out several guards each show.

Props were a big part of that show. Let me emphasize BIG. We had a life size horse puppet we lovingly refered to as Snowball. Frollo would ride out on this thing being pushed by a puppeteer. I was always amazed the Frollo never took a header off the front of the stage. After his scene, we used Snowball to preset costumes on. His right ear became The Official Spot for the stiltwalking gypsy's dew rag. Since the show went away five, six years ago, Snowball turned into a convention prop. Just the other day I actually ran into him at some holiday promotion thing. I ignored the people working the event and told Snowball how much I missed him. The people thought I was nuts.

Back stage at Hunchback was 'all about no where to stand'. In our seven year run, we only had one costuming manager who wasn't afraid to be back stage during a show. In fact we had one manager (blonde . . .enough said) that came to see us right before the show. The music started. People started running. This manager was like a deer in headlights. When the 'burning buildings' were rolled back stage (real flames), she was gone and never came back to the show again. Between flaming set pieces, Snowball the life size horse, a Madonna and child statue, various size puppet racks, stiltwalkers and just the general wierd costume/props, we were always moving out of the way of something, not the least of which was running cast members.

Disney shows are live microphoned singers, so let me end with our blooper reel and Hunchback had some real doosy's.

One of the gargoyle parishoners was supposed to "ask for fame."
Instead he asked for "pain" one day.

In a touching scene, Quasi is supposed to tell Esmerelda that "I don't think I'm your type." Esmerelda replys "Nonsense, your sweet, intellegent (yada yada yada)"
However, Quasi T said one day "I don't think you're my type." Esmerelda had no response for him. Although it was interesting to watch her dig herself out of the hole.

Clopin in the opening of the show was supposed to say something about Paris "...and the cities awake."
What he said was yada yada Paris. ". . . and the titis awake." Hmmm wander who he was looking at in the audience.

Clopin in the Feast of Fools scene, he was supposed to say, "Tospy Turvy is when you shock the Prig and mock the Priest."
One day he said, no lie, "Tospy turvy is when you shock to prig and f##k the priest."

And the stories continue, but at another time.
I found a pretty good version of the old show on youtube. check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZrYogrA2Ao

....above all else remember it was all started by a Mouse - Walt Disney

At any book store you can fine literally hundreds of tour books about how to get from point "A" to point "B" at Disney's Magic Kingdom (or as we say 'Tragic Kingdom'), but there are very few places that will tell you what it's like to be trapped in a fireworks fall out zone. Seeing large balls of fire bouncing off the roofs of back stage trailers at the Studios is an experience you don't soon forget.

After many, many years of working for The Mouse, I've seen a lot of truly unique stories and I've worked a lot of exciting events. The opening of Animal Kingdom will always be one of my fondest memories. As the blog moves forward, I have no intentions of devulging deep dark secrets. . . like Walt is frozen in a cryogentics chamber in the Magic Kingdom castle (by the way, he's not) nor am I going to be just another travel log spouting 'warm fuzzy thoughts about the company'. Believe me, there is so much sugary fluff written about this company, you could choke a horse.

My goal is to relate the stories that you would only experience if you were on the inside. Stories like 'what's it's like to work backstage at Beauty and the Beast show', or the about the guest ' got drunk and passed out in thier hotel room with the water running in the tub."

So welcome, feel free to ask questions, make comments (keep it clean and tasteful)


Deydreem