Labyrinth Interactive Viewing

[CanaceErinn]

Hi everyone! Long-time lurker, just recently rediscovered my password and the like.

Anyhow! This coming Friday, the Mississippi Museum of Art will be hosting an interactive viewing of Labyrinth. The description of the event is as follows according to the museum's facebook posting:

Get lost in the world of The Labyrinth. Sing out loud with David Bowie in this Jim Henson fantasy romp. Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson, provides all the goodies that you need to become a goblin inside the Labyrinth. Blow bubbles, dodge Ludo's rocks, throw heads with the Fire Gang. So join Heather and company in this live costumed performance with dimensional environmental elements on this journey through the labyrinth.Audience members are encouraged to attend in costume and to participate in singing, tossing and shouting. Come early and get your food and beverages in The Palette Cafe by Viking.

This event is geared more towards adults -- children will be allowed and should also enjoy it, but it is more for adults."

Now, I am a huge fan of Labyrinth (I even wrote a research paper about the film for my Intro to Philosophy class), but I have never attended an interactive showing of the movie. The closest I have come to anything of this nature is a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (and we all know how THOSE are) at my college, but I'm pretty sure Labyrinth is going to be a bit different. My question is, has anyone ever attended an interactive showing before, and if so, what was it like?

 

[RedPiggy]

GAH! Why must I miss all the AWESOME stuff?

Sarah: IT'S NOT FAIR!

Me: Exactly!

 

[Super Scooter]

Wow! That's amazing! I want to go!

Oh, Heather Henson, please bring this to my local community. Please?

 

[Laszlo]

Wow, I wonder if they will have original props and costumes there?

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Whoa! Awesome! Who wouldn't want to traipse through the Labyrinth? That is so cool!

 

[The Narrator]

That seems like a lot of fun. That's an event that needs to catch on in museums across the globe!

 

[Dearth]

Thank You, Heather Henson!

I didn't find out about this until the next morning, or I would have loved to have attended it. She'd also done a lecture on her father's legacy the night before.

AND, the next day, Saturday, she did a Rocky-Horror-esque sing-along viewing of the Muppet Movie at 2pm.

I discovered this on the MMA website at about 9am that same morning, and it's a five-and-a-half-hour drive from where I live. There was no way to see the sing-along, but if I pushed it, I might could meet her afterward.

I had been debating attending the museum's "Jim Henson's Fantastic World" exhibit anyway, but with the distance and costs involved, I was really straddling the fence. In fact, this Sunday is the last day for the exhibition, and I had logged on to their site to look into admission prices and times with the thought of attending it on the last day.

Not only was Saturday the third and final event that Heather would be doing, but it was also the museum's Spring Family Day, and the exhibit was free. (For that matter, we were never charged admission to the museum either.)

Snap decision time. We really threw a trip together at the last second, giving the kids a rushed bath, covering my shift at work, etc...

Several times on the long drive, I had my doubts, but I just kept pushing forward.

We arrived at the MMA at 4pm, and it was going to close at 5pm. I spotted Heather Henson within seconds of entering, and we got in the tail end of the line of folks wanting autographs.

I had her sign my DVD of Little Shop of Horrors, the movie which made me become an actor. She said no one had ever asked her to sign that before, and wrote "From the bit part girl."

She chatted with my sons, asked if they'd enjoyed the sing-along, and we said we had literally just gotten there. She felt bad that we had missed everything, and wanted to do something nice for them. She asked her crew if they had any of the goody-bags of props left, but they'd all been handed out.

She signed for some other folks and left, so we went and toured the exhibit. The big disappointment was that we couldn't photograph or videotape anything. Had I not just achieved my other goal of meeting Heather, I would have been very let down by that.

Just as we were about to leave, though... and this is the part that still floors me... Heather Henson comes into the exhibit in her street clothes, specifically looking for us.

She and her crew, including one guy whom I believe was named Curtis and another whose name I did not get, had scrounged together a partial 'goody bag' for my boys, and she explained to them what to use each prop for when viewing the Muppet Movie: put on the tiara when Miss Piggy wins her crown, flash the badge when Kermit says "motorcycle cop", wave the American flag when Fozzie sings America the Beautiful, etc.

Not only that, they presented the boys with the giant bouquet of helium balloons which had been part of their tabletop entrance display (clutched by a Master Replicas Gonzo).

Curtis had weighted the knotted cords with a stack of their sing-along lyric pamphlets, making the balloons neutrally buoyant, hovering just above head height. He even told the boys how to rub a balloon to their hair and have it follow them around with static electricity.

Heather stayed and chatted with us for several more minutes. Inspired by seeing all of the familiar artwork on the walls, I ran out to the car and got my copy of Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles, and asked her if she would add her autograph to the three which were unexpectedly on it when I bought it from eBay: author Alison Inches, Dave Goelz, and the late Jerry Juhl.

She said she would be honored, and since it's a book of doodles, she even drew her own self-portrait. I may have inherited the other autographs, but Heather's makes the book mine for real.

All told, she probably spent half an hour making us feel like old friends. I remember at one point when she was doting on the kids, she strongly reminded me of a specific friend of my mother's, and then I saw my wife's look of wondrous astonishment, and my conscious mind realized, "That's Jim Henson's daughter!"

You should have seen us trying to fit those balloons into the trunk of our car. I just managed to get the lid to shut without popping any, but there was NO space left. Even one more balloon and it could not have been done.

I halfway expected the rear tires to lift off the ground. I was so giddy about how great the day had turned out, I remember laughing hysterically at the physical comedy of trying to shove those balloons in, and one would always pop back out.

Anyway, as if it isn't obvious, I cannot stress enough my debt of gratitude to Heather Henson, and her crew, for their generosity of time and attention.

She asked if I was on Muppet Central, so, Heather, if you're reading this, I just wanted to say thanks again!

Dearth

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Wow- that was great, Dearth. Glad you and your family got to go.

 

[The Narrator]

Wow, very nice Dearth! Sounds like the trip time was worth it, then?

 

[Dearth]

Yes, definitely worth it. I am still stoked by that trip eight days later.

Even though I was upset at not being able to take photos or video, I have found images of most of what I saw online. I also downloaded the complete podcast from the Smithsonian website and I'm looking at the videos now.

One thing that is eluding my pictorial re-creation, though, is a photo of Jim Henson demonstrating how the Big Boss Man puppet works, taken outside in a daylit alley.

The closest I've come was this photo of the Mahna Mahna and Snowths display:
http://threads.rebelscum.com/imagep...hp?file=146088&imagewidth=614&imageheight=345

From which I've blown up a very pixelated detail of the Jim photo and a sketch below it:
http://threads.rebelscum.com/imagep...hp?file=146087&imagewidth=222&imageheight=543

Now, the sketch can be found in the Designs and Doodles book, if memory serves, but I remember being mesmerized by that photo of Jim with Big Boss Man, the magician showing me his tricks, as it were.

If anyone knows a book where I could find that pic, or has seen a photo taken from the exhibit which is posted online, please let me know!

Dearth