The Museum Proper: a public puppet performance
A Theater project in San Jose, CA by bustedpuppet ·
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Update #3: Shopping!
Posted on March 3, 2010
This is a belated thank you to everyone who's helped so far with the project! The fundraiser closed on Sunday night, and, as you can see, the project cleared $2300! Once again, it's such a pleasure to know we're going into this project with so much support. My thanks to all these generous donations, big and small, and to everyone who showed support in other ways!
As for an update: I've spent the beginning of the week doing menial organizing like laying out spreadsheets for budget and materials and setting up a separate bank account, so I apologize that I haven't had anything exciting to post yet ;). This afternoon, however, I took my materials list for the Bandersnatch puppet down to the hardware store, and have come back with treasure! Again, I cannot really express how good it feels to have a real budget to purchase materials, and I thought of all of you while I was picking out the hardware. In addition, we've just signed on puppeteer Susie Danzig to the project, which is incredibly exciting - Susie is a truly gifted puppeteer who has been working, notably, with San Francisco's Lunatique Fantastique forever. Corpus Callosum had our first big meeting about the musical score last night, and everyone is looking forward to working on the piece. I am also starting to discuss logistics with the SubZERO Festival organizers, which means that it is also time for me to draw up the final round of storyboards! Look for those soon on the Museum Proper Flickr stream!
And, of course, now I'm going to send you a whole bunch of stuff :). For those of you who will be receiving Museum Proper Collages, I've already begun a pile of cardboard scraps, which is rapidly growing. I predict it could take a month or so of working on the puppets before I'll have enough scraps from the project to make collages for all 19 of you, so look for those in April! To my great excitement, the Museum Proper sketchbook has been accepted to the KALEID Gallery Sketchbook exhibition this month - the entire sketchbook, along with some other original watercolors, will be on public display through the end of March. For those of you who I am sending sketchbook pages to, you can expect to receive them in early April as well. As stated above, the storyboards are coming up, and will be going out shortly, and I will be sending along the concept art watercolors as soon as I can find suitable packaging! I love giving gifts, especially through the mail, and so it makes me quite happy to be able to send these "rewards" out - almost as much as making the puppets themselves :).
Oh yes, and if you would like to come see the sketchbook in the gallery, the opening is from 5-7PM this Friday at KALEID, 88 S Fourth St, San Jose, CA - the gallery has daytime hours through March 26th. I will be in attendance, if you would like to stop by to say hello! If you end up in San Jose this Friday for that event, too, I have been doing a live-painting for the Cinequest film festival all week, and the still-wet canvas will be on display at Camera 12 on 2nd Street.
Yours,
Dax
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on March 1, 2010.
Pledge $10 or more
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.]
