Vegan Puppeteers Take Over Beulahland

Thank you, Noel Sylvester, for capturing this fun shot!

On Friday, July 13th, I performed my first puppet show since I started Data Geek to Puppeteer. My friends Amelia, Noel, and Jennifer graciously invited friends and artists out to their art farm (Beulahland) to create, engage, and celebrate all forms of creativity (and Jennifer's 61st birthday) to their seemingly annual mini festival. This year it was known as 61 Hours of Art, the second mini-festival that followed the ever so awesome 60 Hour of Art.

I worked for weeks to create and perform a very simple plot, that probably took way more than 61 hours. It was all worth it for the three (yes, that's 3) minutes of pure delight I experienced performing it. Here's an overview of the piece, How to Make Vegan Cupcakes.

Original Draft of Jennifer F.

• The Plot: Entranced by a vision of a yummy vegan cupcake, a young girl sets out on a pursuit to make vegan cupcakes for her friend's birthday. In this short, three minute vignette, the ingredients, utensils, and appliances illustrate a whimsical life of their own. At the end of the show, we wished, Jennifer Fais (and Jeff K) a happy birthday and gave her a papercutting portrait I created.
• Medium: Shadow Puppetry, with some fancy papercutting action.
• The Music: About a week before the show, The Winner Is by Danna/Devotchka from the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack showed up on my Pandora station at work. Wow. I paid and downloaded the whole soundtrack that night. The music is not only beautiful, but timed out my show in a more eloquent way than I could have. I had struggled with the fact that I wanted the show to be silent or with minimal speaking parts. Problem solved.
• The Puppeteers: I was so thankful for the playful and creative friends I have, Bridget BVO and Jennifer B. who volunteered their time over two rehearsals to learn puppetry (and I think they fell in love with it too!). Given the name of the blog, I'll admit and say I'm the only vegan puppeteer but one of them is vegetarian and another is inspirationally stoked about vegetables and local farming. 
• The Inspiration: I came up with this idea driving back from Toronto after attending Fresh Ideas in Puppetry. I was inspired by some performances and presentations highlighting Shadow Puppetry. When I drove back I watched shadow figures walk through the screen of my mind and I knew I wanted to start out my puppetry endeavors with shadow puppets and papercutting. How to Make Vegan Cupcakes seemed like the simplest and most playful plot to start with.
• Why Vegan Cupcakes?: I had never really been a baker or very interested in desserts until I became vegan, and I became vegan as a personal health experiment that grew into a life habit I'm committed to.Then, in attempt to bring "vegan" food to parties that might open up people's perception of vegan food, I started making vegan cupcakes. Of course, I'm aware I took the path of least resistance, "vegan junk food." BUT, learning the art of vegan baking from my mentor's in their book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was definitely part of my return as an artist. I did even use the ingredients from their Basic Chocolate Cupcake Recipe. In fact, for 60 Hours of Art, I had created 60 Hours of Vegan Cupcakes in which I learned and made five different cupcake recipes from the book. So for 61 Hours, why not create a puppet show about making vegan cupcakes?
• Props (in the slang sense): With some research and scavenging, I figured out how to make a cheap stage. I'm giving out props to my friend John VO and partner Jeff K for their assistance and support constructing it with me. 
• The Response: From the feedback I received, it was the playful and enchanting (and maybe emotional) experience I intended the audience to engage in. I may have even made one shed a tear. If any has seen it, I welcome the constructive feedback.

Let's just say the whole process was delightful. I learned so much, experienced a minor case of nerves but that was totally trumped my determination to make the process a joyful learning experience. I thought I'd have more to say about the array of emotions about creating this, but really, I kept my focus and decided to not misuse my imagination and energy on worry. That's the soundest piece of advice I can give anyone who is "going for it."

Thank you Maxwell Harvey-Sampson for this photo.

 

p.s. For those wondering...yes, it was taped but I haven't seen it yet. I'll work on that. However, I have some wonderful photos (as shown) that some great and talented friends/photographers took that evening. 

p.s.s. Ironically I made the ever so yummy green tea cupcakes again for Jeff's birthday the day after the show. As I was taking the cupcakes out of the oven, The Winner Is song came on my Pandora station. Oh, how sweet life is!

The Green Tea Cupcakes I made the day after my show for Jeff's birthday.