Puppet Stage 4.0

The new stage was different from any other because of the trunks. I worked with a representative from Encore Cases to design trunks based on our specific needs. I measured the inside of my car, and the dimensions of our previous stage to determine the size of the trunks. We came up with a design that called for one wheeled trunk and one non-wheeled trunk. For easy load in, the non-wheeled trunk would sit on the wheeled trunk.

The new trunks had two holes in the lid, and corresponding couplings inside. The fiberglass poles could slip into the holes and rest snugly in the coupling. The stage would be built from this sturdy vertical support. As in the previous stage the front and back were made from wooden curtain rods joined with PVC. The top sides were made from PVC which was lighter than the electrical conduit. The curtain was attached with velcro and then wrapped around the poles.

As an added benefit, these new trunks and painter poles gave us such a stable base that we used this design principle to make a larger school stage, and a smaller one trunk stage.

While we are still looking for ways to improv our set up, This new stage currently meets all of our requirements: It’s light weight, easy to unload, quick to set up, sturdy, and versatile.

Puppet Show Trunks 2.0

After years of experience we knew we needed a stage that was light weight, easy to unload, quick to set up, and trunks that were large and professional. We talked to different puppeteers, and got their recommendation - something I really appreciate about the puppet community is it’s willingness to share. Puppeteer Scott Land gave us two suggestions that led to our current stage. He recommend using fiberglass painter poles for the vertical support, and Encore Cases for custom trunks.

Puppet Show Trunks

How the you transport a puppet show is almost as important as the stage itself. The trunks you use give the client and the audience an impression of your skill and professionalism. When we first started out, we to packed our puppets in a card board box. When that broke we upgraded to plastic wheeled tubs.

The wheeled plastic tubs worked well enough, but they didn’t look professional, and they were too small to hold everything. At each show we would unload the trunks from the car, strap the stages pieces to the top of one trunk, strap the sound equipment to the top of the other trunk, and roll into the venue like The Grapes of Wrath. On various occasions the trunk wheels would break, or get caught on a door jam, and the stage would slip off. We needed a solution that would solve our trunk and stage problem.

Puppet Stage 3.0

We tried a PVC stage and a wood frame stage but we needed something better. As we designed our next stage, we addressed the short comings of our previous stages. The new stage would have to be sturdy, light weight, easy to set up, and take up less space.

The stage that came next was pretty good, and it lasted a long time. The whole thing was built on a hinged 2X4 frame that sat on the ground. The vertical poles were made from PVC (keeping in mind our first PVC stage, these poles were connected together with a bungy cord, like a tent pole). The play board and back support were made from wooden curtain rods, so they wouldn’t sag like PVC. The rods were connected with a PVC joint. The sides were made from metal electrical conduit - sturdy, but heavy.

This stage worked nicely, but after a couple of years, it began to break down. The real weakness was the wooden base. Eventually, the large wooden pegs that secured the vertical PVC poles began to break, the hinges on the wooden base came unscrewed, and the front and side 2X4s were no longer sitting squarely on the ground. The stage became very wobbly, and unstable.

The final blow for one stage came during our extended run at the Los Angles Zoo. Anita and a member of the zoo staff attempted to move the stage for a special event, and the whole base twisted and broke. We managed to tape it up for the rest of the run, but it forever lilted to one side. It was time for another puppet stage.

Swazzle Tour Ending

After nearly 150 puppet shows, the 2008 Swazzle summer tour is drawing to a close. We are entering into our final two weeks, and this may be your last chance to see Space Bugs Alpha and Zeta, The Magical Misadventures of Walnut the Wizard, and Bugsy Brown Private Fly. If you still haven't seen our new productions, please visit our online schedule to find a show near you.

Frame Puppet Stage

After using PVC pipe to make a puppet stage, we wanted to something sturdier, and easier to set up. A couple of puppeteers in the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild were using frame stages, so we gave it a try.

The frame stage was made from redwood panels that hinged and latched together. It was easy to set up, stable, and worked great for a while. With repeated use however some of the corners came undone, and we had to re-wood glue and staple them. Eventually, we added plywood corners to the frames, which made them stronger and heaver. The major drawback was this stage was its substantial foot print when it wasn’t set up - it took up a lot of space. On top of that, the hinged together wooden frames were cumbersome and brittle, and if we dropped the stack accidentally they would break.

Towards the end, the hinges came apart, the latches broke, and the screws were loose - the only thing holding it together was the curtain. Once we stared brining wood glue, staples and screws to each show, we new it was time for a new stage.

Space Bugs now Playing

Space Bugs Alpha and Zeta are now touring Southern California. This is a rehearsal photo of Bobby Drone and Professor Mantis in the cockpit of Bobby Drone's space ship. If you are in Southern California, check out our tour schedule to see when Swazzle's Space Bugs is coming to your area.

Swazzle Seeking Intern

Tour with Swazzle! Get valuable behind the scenes experience in Live Puppetry!

This individual would be needed for each scheduled performance in the Bay Area from June to August. The complete schedule is available at swazzle.com

A small stipend is included. For more information, please contact anita@swazzle.com

Magma Worm

I just finished this puppet for Space Bugs Zeta. The Magma Worm was sculpted from a block of soft foam and covered with dyed miliskin. His eye balls are clear acrylic half spheres painted in the inside.

Starfly

This is Starfly built by Patrick Johnson for the Swazzle puppet show Space Bugs Alpha. He is a delivery fly that awakes after oversleeping in hyper-sleep to discover that he is carrying some very important cargo.

Bobby Drone

This is Bobby Drone built by Patrick Johnson. He is a hand and rod puppet. In Space Bugs Zeta, Bobby Drone is sent on an important mission by the Queen Bee.

Space Bugs

We are making progress on our Space Bugs puppet shows. This is Busby (his name may change) the scientist. He is a hand puppet - the puppeteers fingers go into each arm and the neck. His hands and and antennas are attached with springs so he has lots of secondary movement.

Robo-Locusts

I used the foam mock up to create all of the patterns needed for the Robo-Locust puppets. The head and body shapes are made from L-200. The L-200 is light weight and sturdy and it will give the puppets an armored look. The eyes will be made from acrylic half spheres.

Space Bugs

Here at Swazzle we are hard at work building two new summer puppet shows: Space Bugs Alpha and Zeta. The scripts are being written by Dylan Campbell, and are nearly complete. Both shows take place in the distant future. Devestating Robo-Locusts have swept through the Universe devouring everything in their site.

This is a mock up of the Robo-Locust's head. The final puppet will be a rod puppet built in L-200.

Puppet Arms

This past week Patrick and I have been busy building puppets for our new school assembly puppet show - The Swazzle Workshop Live. We will be presenting a seven minute sample of the show at this year's Orange County Performing Arts Center Performer's Showcase. The Swazzle Workshop Live is a live show based on Swazzle's popular web series The Swazzle Workshop. During the show students will learn team work and cooperation through the art of puppetry. The Swazzle Workshop Live was created with a grant from The Puppeteers of America in partnership with The Orange County Performing Arts Center's Arts Teach Program.

Big Update

I realize that I have been neglecting my blog for a while. Thank you all for your pacitence I wanted to give you all an update on some of the projects I've been working on.

Right now Swazzle is booking summer puppet shows at libraries all over California. Down in Southern California we have over 130 bookings - it's going to be a busy three months. This summer the theme is bugs so we'll be touring Bugys Brown Private Fly in Northern California and Space Bugs: Alpha and Zeta down south. We're working out the scripts now, we should start designing and building the puppets very soon. Along with the bug shows, we are also writing a puppet show for L.A. City Libraries called The Magical Misadventures of Walnut the Wizard.

Swazzle has also been working on the creation of a new school show called, The Swazzle Workshop Live. This new show will be showcased in May, and it will make it's debut this coming school year. The Swazzle Workshop Live was created in partnership with The Orange County Performing Arts Center with a grant from The Puppeteers of America.

Swazzle's new preschool puppet show Forest Fables debuted a while back, and it has been very well received. This show also doubles as a birthday party puppet show - a new market for us.

Our Spanish puppet show Aventuras Saludables continues to play at large events all over Southern California.

Aside from Swazzle news, I've been keeping busy with many exciting puppet projects. Patrick and I just built a series of puppets for Sprout (PBS's network for preschoolers). I'm not sure when they'll be making their debut - so keep an eye out. Patrick and I also did more Sendables for Jib Jab. The Valentine's Day one has already debuted - more are coming soon. The film I puppeteered on, Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes out soon. This was my first film role, and I was working with Jim Henson's Creature Shop - a dream come true (the movie is rated R so leave the kids at home). Fianly, I continue to be involved with the Henson Company's puppet improv show Puppet Up. For the last couple of months Patrick and I have been teaching puppet technique at the Jim Henson Company - another dream come true.

That's it for the update - thank you for letting me share. Keep tuned in to Puppet 101 because I have some excited posts planned. First up, I'll be sharing information about puppet stages. Over our years of live performance, we have been through every type of stage: PVC, wood frame etc. Finally, I feel like we have hit on a stage that is study, flexible, quick to assemble, and portable.

I hope you all tune in for that.

Thank you to all of my readers. I hope you find this blog helpful and inspirational. If you have any questions about puppet building please drop me an email - sean@swazzle.com and I'll try my best to answer them.

See Swazzle in Dr. Floyd Live!

Swazzle will be presenting the Grasshopper and the Ants, from their new school assembly puppet show, The Swazzle Workshop Live. Join the cast of The Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd as they put on a live recording of their show! Combining wacky, off the wall humor, celebrities and audience participation, it's no wonder the show sells out so quickly!

Get your tickets NOW to be part of the fun! Click here for tickets and more information!

Swazzle Workshop Episode 7

Episode 7 of the Swazzle Workshop is now online. In this episode Mayor Mole stops by to show Tiger and Mousedeer how to make a Garbage Monster puppet. Please enjoy and pass it on to your friends.

Summer Wrap-Up

Summer is our busy season, and this summer was no exception. Since May I have been working nonstop on some very cool puppet projects. Along with performing over 60 solo puppet shows all over Southern California for Swazzle, I also puppeteered on a new children's video series for Disney; worked on a feature film with Jim Henson's Creature Shop; helped create and build an entire puppet show for Blue Cross; built three puppets for the Chiodo Brothers; and attended weekly Puppet Up! puppet improv classes at the Jim Henson Company. It's been a crazy couple of months, but I feel so fortunate to be able to make my living doing what I love.

Right now, I'm already hard at work on some other very exciting puppet projects. I'll keep you posted.

Puppet Wikia

For the past couple of weeks I have been contributing information and pictures to the new Puppet Wikia. It was created on December 24, 2006 and as of this posting it is 99 pages strong. Since this is a Wikia that anyone can edit, I'm calling on you to help grow the site. There is plenty to write about: puppetry guilds, puppet theaters, puppet companies, puppetry organizations, puppet shows, puppet websites, puppet characters and more. Given enough time and contributors, this could become a vital a recourse for puppeteers all over the world.

Happy New Year!

From all of us at Swazzle, Happy New Year! I hope 2007 is fun, productive, and prosperous for all of you.

As a special New Years treat, please enjoy this bonus episode of Frosty's 12 Days of Christmas Podcast.

Swazzle on The 9

Swazzle was mentioned on Yahoo's online show The 9 on Tuesday December 5. The Swazzle Workshop came in at number 5 in their countdown. Click here to watch, then select Puppet Masters, number 5. You can also vote for us as the favorite in The 9 poll at the bottom of the page.

Swazzle Workshop Photo Album

I've just added a bunch of new photos to my Swazzle Workshop photo album in Flickr. Check it out to see images from previous and upcoming episodes.

Puppet Week

This has been a busy puppet filled week for Swazzle. We shot five short puppet videos at the Chiodo Brothers Studio. The first was a special Summer Reading Program pitch featuring the stars of the Swazzle puppet show Rex and Boots Super Sleuths. The other four were new Swazzle Workshop videos which premier the first of every month. Along with the puppet video shoot, we also had some evening puppets shows at two Southern California venues, and today we performed two shows at the No Ho Arts Center.

Next week editing will begin on the video work, and on November 1 the third episode of The Swazzle Workshop will make it's debut. Tune in to see how to make a B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog puppet out of toilet paper tubes.

Swazzle Workshop Shoot 1

Today we shot at the Chiodo Brothers Studio for the second day. We completed most of two new episodes of our Swazzle web series, the Swazzle Workshop. In one episode Mayor Mole stops by to make a garbage monster rod puppet, and in the other Mama Dragon drops in to make a dragon sock puppet.

In this photo, I'm performing Tiger, Tim is performing Mayor Mole, Victoria is performing Mousedeer, and Anita is assisting with arm rods.

New Swazzle Workshop episodes premier the first of every month.

Rex and Boots Shoot 2

Today we shot a short video with Rex and Boots pitching the library summer reading program theme of "Get a Clue". I performed Rex and Anita performed Boots. Tim assisted with arm rods, and Patrick directed.

After a long day of shooting, the set was struck and the Swazzle Workshop set was put up. Tomorrow we are shooting two of four new web episodes.

Rex and Boots Shoot

Today we prepped the set for a Rex and Boots promotional video. The video will be shown at this year's California Library Association Conference in Sacramento. Rex and Boots will be pitching next year's Summer Reading Program theme, "Get A Clue."

Rex is on a stand for lighting purposes, and the set is elevated so that the puppeteers can move freely underneath.

New Swazzle Puppet Videos

This past Friday we shot a couple new puppet videos for our web site at the Chiodo Brothers Studio. The first will be premiering on our site at the end of this month, so stay tuned.

New Swazzle Mugs!

Hey everyone! Check out these new Swazzle mugs. The travel mug features B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog against a slick metal background. The other mug features over fifty characters from our puppet shows.

If you visit our Swazzle Store be sure to leave a comment on the comment wall!

2006 Tour Begins

Our 2006 Summer Tour has just begun. Last week we premiered our two new puppet shows, B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog, and Rex and Boots Super Sleuths. Check out our schedule to see when we are coming to your town.

B.A.R.K. Update

It's funny what can happen during the development of a puppet show. As we were revising, the script for B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog we decided that since the pets belonged to an inventor, the names should reflect that - so we've changed Muffin's name to Ratchet. Stay tuned for more puppet show updates.

Puppet Show Posters

Check out the posters for our two new summer puppet shows, B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog, and Rex and Boots, Super Sleuths.

Friday Fun: Swazzle's Puppet Greetings Shoot

Today we shot our Hazel and the Dragon Valentine's Day Puppet Greeting at the Chiodo Brothers Studio in Burbank CA. In this photo Anita performs Hazel, Patrick performs Filbert, (behind a pile of gifts) and Victoria assists.