puppetmaker | Shoreleave 2011 An Overview

The trip down wasn’t bad. We hit a little traffic but we still made it in time for Peter to get to his rehearsal for the Bob Greenberger roast.

Friday was mostly about the roast which went off very well. Peter did his version of Carnack the Magnificent which had the audience going. We figured out belatedly that probably half our audience didn’t know about the original Johnny Carson character but the response was still good.

Afterwards Caroline went up to the room with Peter and I went out and caught up with various friends. Got back to the room rather later for me.

Saturday I had a couple of panels on costuming and puppetry and the final prep for the Masquerade. Most of this was the final stitches and tweaks that always need to be done before going on.

This was one of those sketches that really came fully formed once the idea was thought of. George Takei recently did a YouTube video in response to the Tennessee law that teachers can’t use the word gay in the earlier grades. So George invited the teachers to say Takei rather than gay. So you can have a Takei Pride parade.

We then found out that John de Lancie was going to be there. And, among his many roles, was playing Q in Star Trek the Next Generation. So our minds went to Avenue Q and the song “If you were gay” which we replaced with the word “Takei”. I built a Star Trek version (original series) of Rod and Nicky along with a George Takei puppet. I put Nicky in a red shirt and Rob in a blue science shirt. We had a Q costume left over from one of the many Mystery Trekkies we have done. I wore that and made everyone Q hats. I had Ariel and her friend Meg as the other puppeteers.

Peter wrote us a wonderful introduction which set up what we were going to do perfectly. The kids did great and we entertained the audience which, at this point, is our main goal in all this. We walked away with a 2nd place for Science Fiction and the Best Presentation Award. Not a bad nights work.

I plan, with some tweaking, to present it at DragonCon at the puppetry slam but I am going to need two warm bodies to help me operate the puppets. So that would be the chance for anyone who is at DragonCon to see it in person.

Today is pretty much about Mystery Trekkie Theater and then we are driving to my Aunt’s funeral which is on Monday.

I am grateful that the audience appreciated what we were doing.