Forging ahead, Marc, Dale, Carol Lee, and Laura in attendance.

Carol Lee has finished two sunflowers:

They are quite magnificent. We began to see a lot of possibilities now for choreography. Dale suggested that we keep in mind the Silly Symphony cartoons, with their simple and repetitive patterns. They’re a lot of fun to play with, and very easy to make into characters.

Dale reported on his adventures in Hedgehog Land: he worked with Sherry Lambert’s kindergarteners again on the MMH Arrives sequence, and they’re getting quite good at it. He then tested them on some ideas he had for the Marmalade Man Makes a Dance to Mend Us, where he asked them to strike hedgehog poses on the beat. Then they played follow-the-leader, taking a step and striking a pose on the beat. It worked, so we’ll actually be able to stage both MMH pieces! He also sent letters home to the parents so they could decide whether their hedgehog would be able to participate in the May 3 performance.

Then we forced ourselves to get to work on visuals for Sun & Moon Circus [SMC].

Marc continued his study of the circular bed, the Gang in pyjamas, King of Cats as ringmaster:

That’s a magic lantern the Tiger is holding, projecting moons/stars/suns onto the circus action around them.

Carol Lee grumbled about being a three-dimensional artist (i.e., hot glue) being forced to work in a two-dimensional framework, but she approximated successively nonetheless:

Here she has the sunflowers listening to the Moon’s lounge act. Looking at this idea, it occurs to Dale that we can actually write in a vocal part for the Moon in the circus sequence, sort of a Cirque du Soleil descant thingie.

A simple image, for creatures clapping. We probably could come up with a few more, paws and fangs, to add to the mix.

After working with paint last week, Dale went digital this week, using a program called ArtRage. It’s very gorgeous, and it comes in a free version for both Mac and that other platform, from Ambient Design. There’s also a $19.95 version that has layers, worth it if you can afford it.

Here the tiger is awakened by fitful, flashing light, streaming through his window. He has managed to get his paws on a bit of it.

We do not have workshop next week, April 3, because it’s spring break and Dale and Marc and Carol Lee will be in New York City. In fact, by this time next week, we will already have had lunch with Nancy Willard!

Another productive evening: Marc, Dale, Carol Lee, Laura, and Melissa in attendance.

Carol Lee brought in the latest approximation of the sunflower (no picture yet). More leaves, longer stem. Very nice. Much discussion of how to dye the elastic. Later, Carol Lee had several brain attacks on how to solve the whole stem/leaves/elastic situation. She left early to put those into practice.

Laura had her approximation of the hedgehog costume. We coerced a young dancer into trying it on.

Laura worked on improving the headpiece into a hood. The texture of the eggshell foam is perfect.

We then worked on visual images, and here are the results:

First, a visual of Marc’s periaktos on steroids:

You’ll notice the extra flaps on every side.

If you calculate carefully, you’ll see that each unit can give us nine different settings, i.e., closed position 1, open position, closed position 2, all times three.

Dale discussed going simpler for the May 3 performance, using single panels, painted on either side, used as puppet-walls. Lots of interesting choreography possibilities with the character/puppeteers manipulating the walls in space as the MMH “bustles through all the rooms.”

For Sun & Moon Circus, we had some beautiful images.

Marc continues his motif of bedtime attire.

Marc’s entrance of the Moon: a giant swing-thing, ridden by an angel.

Dale’s rather frightening Rabbit, peering through the window and reassuring whichever character. This painting is unfinished, so perhaps Dale can cuten up the bunny a bit.

Dale has the clowns as Pierrot, silver-faced and silver-gloved, playing with the planets, while above an angel walks a tightrope. (Her umbrella is out of the frame, of course.) This clown is turning back to look at us in a bit of choreography Dale says is inspired by the orchestration of the new circus music.

Marc’s idea (from comments on the Lacuna blog) about putting the Tiger, King of Cats, etc., on a circular bed in the middle of the circus gathered steam. They would be projecting sun/moon images from their magic lantern while the circus careened around them. The Rabbit could rotate the bed as ringmaster.

Moving on the Man in the Marmalade Hat, we got a couple of Toastheads:

Marc’s Toastheads, bearing banners and marching forth.

Melissa’s Toasthead, all starched flat and bearing a banner. It’s interesting that both Marc and Melissa have given them ties.

Dale had brought in some trash from Multec, foam of varying dimensions and densities. We considered that if we were able to get some whole pieces of the thinner foam, we might build the Toastheads’ costumes out of that: flat but flexible. Are their movements starched as well?

Next week: more painting/drawing/sketching. Let’s focus on Sun & Moon Circus, since that’s one we need a fairly complete storyboard projection.