Craig Shemin: Here's a question for you, Stephanie: "Can you talk about how you prepared to take on the role of Prairie Dawn, what questions did you ask Fran Brill?"
Stephanie D'Abruzzo: I think I asked Fran "are you sure? Are you really sure? Are you positive?" When I was in college being a nerdy Muppet fan, my answering machine was (in Prairie's voice) "Oh, you have reached Stephanie's answering machine, I hope that the message you leave will be clean." So you could say I've been preparing for it. But the first time Fran ever heard my Prairie Dawn, it was my second season on the show, we were doing a sketch the fan nerds will know called Fairy Tales Today Striking Food where the food went on strike and I played the infamous Bean Number 3, and Fran had laryngitis, she was on another part of the set, we were on a separate part cause she was the roving reporter cutting to the vegetables. And in the middle of it she was like (makes hacking noises), so someone David, Joey or Peter just started saying "Oh welcome, oh welcome" and then everybody started doing it and then I did it, and I think Peter looked at me and went "Hey."And I don't remember the look that Fran gave me cause I didn't know her well at the time, I think that was the only time I did Prairie in front of her. But eventually if Fran was doing Zoe for a crowd scene I would usually hold up Prairie, so I feel like I had Fran's blessing.
Bill Barretta: It happens that way I think. For some reason I think when people have taken on characters, maybe not with me and Jim cause I didn't work with him but, it feels like people that have been around each other or the other performers, I don't know how that happens but it's a very organic way that people feel comfortable and they're able to find that somehow.
Craig: David Rudman was very close to Richard Hunt, and he ended up taking over Scooter.
Stephanie: Matt was very close to Jerry and Caroll. It is nice cause before Jerry passed, he made a conscious choice to talk to Matt about his characters. Fran made the choice to retire and she was in on the auditions, so she had her say and it was with her blessing. And it's nice when you have that, but it's also nice when you know the person, and that's not always possible, but even with you not having worked with Jim, you knew enough about the world and enough about him and I think there was this automatic respect, I think that's the key, respect for the performer who originated the character and that feeling of it's not about doing an imitation, but making it your own while still respecting the integrity of the performance and what the original performer brought to it.
Bill: I think at least in my situation, it's because there was a kinda trust that was gained among the performers, you're around them enough and they realize where your heart lies and where your sense of integrity is and are you trusted in a sense to kinda do that? And when it comes to doing somebody else's character, it's obviously not yours in any way, shape or form, and you're doing some kinda impersonation of it at first until you start to find the essence of who it is, not so much how it sounds, I feel like I've figured out how to make it feel like the character. Jim's energy is different in Rowlf than it is with the Chef.
Stephanie: It's the cadence, it's the little things and for me knowing Fran, and the things that Fran brought of herself to the character I think helps too. But it's the trust with the other performers that really becomes key, cause it's a 2-3-8-way street where you can't really start working well with inheriting a character unless you've worked with all the other people doing all the other characters who know that your intentions are good and you're not just gonna futz with it.
Bill: There's already been a pre-established relationship between the characters and the people, so you're building a relationship beneath the puppets that's gonna feed that and if that's working down there, then that makes it easier for the others to feel comfortable about doing that.
Stephanie: I feel like that's something that gets missed by people who hear about someone taking over a character and think it just needs to sound as much like the character as possible. If your an outsider looking at the Muppets, you're like "Oh, Kermit doesn't sound like I remember or Ernie doesn't sound like I remember." It's so much more than that because, it's not just a voice and I think those of us who've been doing it a long time realize that.
Bill: And fair enough that there are so many people that have certain expectations about these characters. So what I recognize as Kermit's voice is Jim, but as I became part of the Muppets, Steve became the voice that I heard as Kermit almost overpowering what I remember as Jim. And there's a generation that know's Steve's Kermit, and that's what they know. To hear now Matt do something closer to Jim in a way, people are going "Well, that doesn't sound like it" because they're used to how Steve used to do it. So it's always changing and growing and I think that's a good thing because we don't last forever obviously.
Stephanie: But there's always that question of, and this happens a lot more at Sesame, "Oh wait, do I do Prairie 20 years ago or now? Do I do '70s Prairie where she was different or do I do now?" It's like saying "do I do 1989 Homer Simpson or now Homer Simpson?"
Bill: And that's why I think it's really more about the character and who it is rather than what they sound like, because the character has changed since the '70s and has grown as she grew with Fran, and now she's growing with you. I think that's the key to it, is having a grasp on the character and then just letting the voice that makes people feel comfortable enough to know that that's who it is, but it's gonna be a little different.
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