Dying for It
Sam Houston State University
If you wanna do a puppet play...
you gotta have some puppets.
Bodies
Our original plan was to make paper and tape puppets like those used by Trouble Puppet in Austin. When Kris Hanssen volunteered to have her costume construction class make the puppets' costumes, we shifted to a "soft marionette" approach, so her class could drape and cut the garments as they would for regular sizes.
Costumes
Working from Jess Ontiveros' designs, THEA 3335 (Costume Construction) built the puppets' costumes as their final course project. Working on such a small scale proved challenging for the students, but at least the puppets were never late for their fittings.
Heads & Feet
Early in the process, four students asked to help design and build puppets as portfolio projects. They were given responsibility for heads, hands, and feet—the body parts you can see. Liz Freese supervised this meticulous team.
Getting Our Sea Legs
Our loose "sausage" limbs proved unwieldy, so we experimented with better ways of connecting and manipulating them. Tanner and Peter worked and reworked arms and hands; I wrestled with the legs and feet.