The Museum Proper: a public puppet performance
A Theater project in San Jose, CA by bustedpuppet ·
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Update #2: Prototyping!
Posted on February 18, 2010
So the project has just cleared $2000, which is wonderful and amazing. I am so glad that funds can be raised in such a way in this day and age, and am feeling quite lucky to be able to go ahead with such an adventurous project.
There will be 10 more days to make donations, so please keep passing the video around. If we can get to $2500, I can ensure that all the puppeteers get a reasonable stipend for all their work.
Also, I've finished the first prototype, which is a 1:10 cardboard model of the Bandersnatch (the big puppet)! I was trying to figure out how to make an apparatus for the enormous head that would give it the most amount of life. I spent a lot of time pouring over Handspring's War Horse videos on youtube, frame by frame, hoping that they would have some genius I could steal - but ended up figuring that I would need a fairly different approach from theirs. The problems were solved pretty easily once I got to building, and it looks like I'll only need two ball-joints, supplemented by a few bungee cords (I love when things are simple...). I'm probably going to get a little more adventurous and build the final head 50% larger than it is on the model. While I was at the workbench, I went ahead and finished the entire model, just to make sure that my thoughts for the legs and tail were reasonable - which it looks like they are. I've shot a short video of the model, if you'd like to see how the thing will move!
I can't wait for March when I can go out and get materials for the full-size puppet!
From the Workshop Proper,
Dax
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on March 1, 2010.
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22 Backers
MUSEUM DONOR: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart, which is wheeled around the festival grounds by the protagonist for the entire length of the performance - this will be a permanent addition to the prop, and so your name will be presented as such in future performances.
Pledge $30 or more
19 Backers
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Limited Reward
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HONORED DONOR: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart. Dax will also collect some choice scraps of leftover puppet material from the workshop floor (cardboard with drops of paint on it, torn cloth, bent wire, stripped screws), and make a one-of-a-kind commemorative 6x9 collage, mailed to you, signed by the artist, and labeled "from the Museum Proper." (International donors, consider donating with shipping costs in mind).
Pledge $70 or more
5 Backers
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Limited Reward
(15 of 20 remaining)
MUSEUM BENEFACTOR: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart. We will also tear a page from the Museum Proper pre-production sketchbook (concept doodles, prototype sketches, mechanism diagrams), and mail this one-of-a-kind piece of puppetry history directly to you (note: there will be a drawing on both sides of the paper!). Drawings by Dax.
Pledge $150 or more
1 Backer
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Limited Reward
(9 of 10 remaining)
MUSEUM SPONSOR: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart, in large type. We will also send you one of the original inked panels from the Museum Proper storyboards (not pictured on Kickstarter), signed by Dax.
Pledge $500 or more
1 Backer
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Limited Reward
(2 of 3 remaining)
DIRECTOR'S CIRCLE: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart, in especially large type. We will also mail you one of the ORIGINAL full-page Museum Proper watercolored concept illustrations (the Bandersnatch, the Creatures, or the Festival Scene). Paintings by Dax.
Pledge $1,000 or more
0 Backers
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Limited Reward
(2 of 2 remaining)
PATRON: Your name will be listed on the back of the Museum Proper cart. Dax will provide you with your choice of one ORIGINAL watercolor painting from his most recent series - see examples at http://dax.imagekind.com/paintings (the artist retains the right to run open-ended editions of giclée prints of the image).
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"As with his songs, there is no showmanship, legerdemain, pretense or fanfare in the presentation of this non-traditional puppetry. On stage, Dax has a deceptively casual manner - meanwhile, glowing stars pop out of suitcases of their own accord, and apparitions rise out of heaps of cardboard and collapse just as quickly. Nothing is hidden in the straight-forward construction of the puppets and apparatuses, and yet each piece unfolds a moment of magic that is as moving as it was direct. These shows cleverly present the fascination that has been lost to us since childhood, though you wouldn't imagine how simply it was achieved."
Blair Thomas - Artistic Director of Blair Thomas & Co. Chamber Puppet Theater, founder of Redmoon Theater, Chicago, IL.
In July of 2007 I ran across puppeteer Blair Thomas at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Without warning or apology, puppets immediately took over my artistic practice. I apprenticed with the Blair Thomas & Co. from 2007-2008, building and performing in many grand projects that presented at venues from the Storefront Theater to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and even the Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park. At the end of the 2008, I left my position as Shop Foreman with Blair to begin my own puppetry career. My deepest thanks to everyone in the Chicago puppetry community who has helped me find this medium. I hope to do you all proud some day.
In the Autumn of 2009, I conducted my first national solo tour to present three of these shows in their completed form, alongside original songs performed with accordions and wine glasses. Returning to my home town in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, I am founding my very own puppet company, who's first full-scale production is the Kickstarter project, "The Museum Proper."
[Dax holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of Arts and Crafts, and an MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.]
