What was your hardest puppet to make?

[Swedish_Cheff]

I never made puppets before, but question is to you: what was the hardest time you had building a puppet, and wich one?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

The most difficult puppet I've ever had to attempt was probably the largest Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors" - the first time I built I did it without the benefit of Marty Robinson's "How To Audrey II" and it didn't work out well.

 

[Super Scooter]

The one I'm working on now. Female puppets (in particular, cute, animal, female puppets) are near impossible for me. hehe

 

[Jinx]

A Tough Puppet!

I would have to concur with Buck that the #4 Audrey II is the most difficult puppet project I've embarked upon, even with Mr. Robinson's helpful manuscripts. Although the second time you build one is much easier than the first!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Female puppets are always hard to do well for some reason.

 

[BorkBork]

My first attempts of building puppets was the hardest form me

 

[Super Scooter]

Female puppets are always hard to do well for some reason.

Well, she looks pretty good so far. She's just much larger than I had hoped. I made her a bit smaller, but, she's still too big.

That's another problem of mine: Size. Size may not matter, but when it's too big, it tends to be annoying for me.

I just finished my largest puppet creation (purposefully large). Comparible to a Muppet monster. Basically a pile of orange and green fur. If I decided to re-work him a bit, he could technically take on the full-body puppet form. Yow-zah!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The most difficult puppet I've ever had to attempt was probably the largest Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors" - the first time I built I did it without the benefit of Marty Robinson's "How To Audrey II" and it didn't work out well.

What's this book by Marty you mention?

I'm trying to think of the hardest puppet I ever made, and I suppose it's just anytime that I've had to carve foam. The Audrey II I just made took about 3 weeks (cause I'm busy with every thing else in my life) with a different color of paint applied each night. Other than that, I'm just not really totally sure.

 

[Jinx]

What's this book by Marty you mention?

Martin P. "Marty" Robinson is the original creator/puppeteer of the Audrey II's in the original 1982 production of LSOH. he is also puppeteering in the current Broadway production.

Back when I first performed the show, it was licensed through Samuel French, Inc. and if you were licensed to perform the show you could get his "How To Audrey II" manuscripts for the creation of the puppets. In fact, when the show was first licensed (the first ever amateur production was in Helena Montana!) it was required that you build to these specifications.

You could also get a set of "rib" patterns for the #4 puppet, as well as a set of photographs of the puppets.

Now the show is licensed through Music Theatre International (www.mtishows.com) and I would imagine that these resources are still available through them. They are an excellent company, dedicated to making every production the license successful. I do believe that you do have to have a performance licence to obtain them, however.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

That's right, you do have to have a performance license to get them and even then I believe you don't get to actually keep the book. My company was contracted to build the entire set of Audreys in three weeks for a production in the US.

I wasn't familiar with the show the first time I was involved with building them and the production they were built for "forgot" to mention Marty's booklet existed. When they arrived (and weren't exactly what they were expecting) someone ran up to me - waving "How To Audrey II" - and said "why didn't you build them like THIS?! It explains how everything is supposed to work!"

They had forgotten to tell us about the book or show us Marty's diagrams.

If he hadn't been holding my cheque I would have strangled the director.