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photos from our first workshop performances.

if you’re new here, this is our work-in-progress blog. it is where I’ve documented the design and creation of the Creature puppet (affectionately referred to by me as Boo and generally as Creach), the Victor mask, the 5 secondary puppet characters, the sets, costumes, and general project development. 

what you see above are stills by Kriech-Higdon Photography.

lead puppeteer (in Boo): Zach Bramel. he is also our show developer, adapted the script, and is the spark (and subsequent heartbeat) behind the entire project.

director: Steven Rahe

puppeteers: Amy Davis, Betsy Huggins, Megan Adair, and Shawn Franklin

projection design & tech: Tim Furnish

lighting design & tech: Jesse AlFord

musical composition: Axel Cooper

The Wretched (the band!): Axel Cooper, Tim Barnes, Shutaro Noguchi, Josh Johnson. 

I’m Deva North. I designed and built Boo and all the other puppets. it’s my rambling and wip photos/info you’ll find on this blog. 

If you have any questions, or want any additional/further information about who we are and what we are doing, you can find us on Facebook as Mary Shelley Electric Co. or by contacting Zach at foolzach@hotmail.com or me at wretchedcreaturepuppet@gmail.com. 

And yeah, we are BONKERS EXCITED to have received a workshop grant from The Jim Henson Foundation. So much puppet love!!!!!

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Victor’s journal.

Besides the Cottage, this is the object I have been most excited to make. This one is special. Like V’s journal, this is a living document. A history. This will be filled with OUR birth story. The story of our creation. Our failures and break-throughs and struggles and intellectual attempts.

I am in nerd girl heaven.

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today i saw the cottage main frame that Zach built. it’s perfect. like a snapshot directly from my brain. i have been daydreaming about dressing this cottage for over a year. i am so giddy i might explode. there is so much work to do. it takes so many people making so many types of things. there are a thousand things i ought to be making, i ought to be making instead. but i’ve coveted this. i’ve known that this -- this tiny little slice of a house in the woods -- is really -- deep down at the heart of the entire show -- my true compensation. my own reward. my sweet, armenian forest enclave. 

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Another year working on CREATURE. Another batch of walnut dye.

This show has taken so much out of us. So many tears, actual blood, friendships, hours and hours and hours otherwise spent with family, precious fat quarters purchased years ago from a quilt shop in Michigan and tucked away carefully. 

We are at the point in this show where those last, cherished reserves are coming out. Where what we have left to give are those things most dear to us, most personal. 

I’ve written and rewritten this post. Not sure what to say, not sure what I have left to give, not sure what I have the strength to tell. (to the internet? does that even count?)

None of the puppets are done. Rehearsals have started and none of the puppets are fucking done. We need to order merch, make sets, purchase lumber, build props, design costumes, confirm show dates and artist bios and budgets. And the puppets are still not done. My sewing room is a mess. I’m not eating. I am honestly and openly talking about my art out loud to people other than myself for the first time in my life and I am scared. Of rejection? Of negative response? Of failure? No. I know what I’ve made is beautiful and exciting and works well. I give the art I make freely. I give myself to very few. I am an extremely private person. I value my anonymity. I enjoy my invisibility. I don’t want my picture taken. 

I want to sit in my basement, embrace the quiet and stillness, and make art. That’s it. That’s all. And all these other things -- the emails and meetings and run-throughs and spreadsheets -- how do I find the time and the headspace and quiet and stillness and sift thru the mess I’ve made of my sewing room and my life and just fucking make art?

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Costuming Agatha. . There are so many deep, earthy tones and moody grays in Creach and our set design that the cottage and Cottagers really give us our chance to add some color to the show.

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Testing possible cottage wall interiors...

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Monster and Torso! Yes indeed, folks! We are on Instagram!!!

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moving into shadows. playing with light. paying attention to what is around me. 

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first pass at the felix and agatha shadow puppets. try, test, rework. try, test, rework... back to the literal drawing board. it is all worth it. it is all worth trying, testing, and reworking. and frankly, i am happy to do it.

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Victor in progress. Completed an entire head. Sewed so so much hair. Gesso’d, sanded, gesso’d, sanded, gesso’d, sanded. Next week I turn him into a mask. Or, in other words, I cut him in half, scoop out the inside, reinforce the face, and retrofit the entire thing. Or, in other other words, GAH!!!!!!!! This is what it means to have a director. This is what it means to have a director that you trust. You allow the vision to expand, you have faith in the bigger picture, you make informed, intentional decisions for the greater good of the show, not for the ease of the moment. Trust. Faith. A really sharp x-acto knife.

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Reworking Victor. 

I totally want him to look like a young Vincent Price. 

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Old Man hands. 

I’ve never made this type of puppet before. I love it. I love that this show is allowing me to really stretch and try new things -- to move way, way out of my comfort zone. I’ve done so much, in the past few days alone, that I never would have thought I could... I am constantly amazed I’ve found the confidence to create any of this. But I am doing this. I did this. And just with shit I had stuffed in junk drawers and piled in recycling bins. And just squeezed in during nap times and after bedtime and in stolen 15 minute increments. 

We can do this. We can actually fucking do this. We can be parents and partners and employees and citizens and neighbors and friends and still make art. We can make art. 

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Old Man. WIP.

At one point, my husband stuck his head into my sewing room to check on my progress and exclaimed, “Hey, wow! That looks just like MY blue cardigan!” Um...because it WAS your blue cardigan! Heh. 

It was wild how happy stitching a tiny grandpa sweater made me. I wish my phone took better pictures because his baggy old corduroy breeches turned out really well. Posable digits so he can feel his way thru the cottage and play the fiddle. He can stand and sit/slouch. I’ve hidden the grip on his back behind his sweater. The spring-neck tension is subtle and the rod placement in the back of his head means he has full head mobility and pretty sweet sympathetic movement when he rocks in the rocking chair. I sculpted the head out of foam, and covered it in fabric. The hands and face will be painted. I’ve got to make his glasses and add his hair. 

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the forest. 

probably one of the more daunting pieces of set/backdrop for the whole play. it has to be vibrant and deep and a seven foot tall, four foot wide monster needs to have grand and intimate moments within it. it needs to allow room for extreme violence and small majesty. it has to feel alive. it has to teach and shelter and provide. it also has to be a damn set. 

i spent some time out at Bernheim, walking, looking, touching. feeding the turtles (!!!!!!). trying to gather shapes. trying to gather textures. trying to see color palettes. 

this is all new to me. i usually go to Bernheim and try to immerse myself, try and feel the dimension and bigness and beauty of nature (also, turtles!). so this time, going and looking to flatten it, fold it up and take it home with me...this was new. not BAD new, just new new. art, for me, is often about response, not reproduction. how it made me feel, not how it makes me feel. the afterward, not the present. so how do you make something feel present?

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genius is for jerks. i’ll take ingenuity any day.

began working on the set design and logistics. how do you make a lab backdrop that looks dark and solid, but is filled with lanterns and glass beakers and jars of flesh? well, it turns out we found a way! front lit and back lit at the same time too!

MMMUUUUWWWWAHAHAHAHAHAAH

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monster manicure in progress