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| Excerpt from "12 Degrees of Justin Bieber -The Puppet Show" |
Nope. I'm not pregnant if that's what you thought when you read the title. I've been "birthing" a new puppet show with some friends, and promise to introduce this bundle of joy to the world on Friday, December 14th. Stay tuned.
The idea was "conceived" in August, with some development and rehearsals in October, and last night we filmed it!
Perhaps you've heard the stories or seen the strange images posted on my Facebook wall. You might be asking, "Why is Monica so obsessed with Justin Bieber these days? What is this all about?" So here's the context you need.
Well, shortly after my stint at Bread and Puppet I was given an interesting proposition by my friend Jen. Jen fell in love with Shadow Puppets over the summer when she volunteered to work on my first vignette, “How to Make Vegan Cupcakes.” Her enthusiasm arrived in a conversation with an old friend from high school, Raghav. Last year, Raghav got a divorce and started agreeing to support and participate in a variety of projects. Among his funded projects is 12 Degrees of Justin Bieber (12DoJB).
Essentially, Raghav is supporting an impressive young writer named Alex. Although I have never personally met him (or Raghav for that matter), Alex is clearly an experimenter in all things that are awesome. In 12DoJB, Alex is testing the flexibility of Pandora. He has 160 hours get Pandora to play a Justin Bieber tune from both a Slipknot station and a Peruvian Pan Flute station. Sounds ridiculous and brilliant right? Believe me, I’ve done the research and this task is no small feat. This is only for professionals who are dedicated to listening to the good, bad, and the ugly. His entertaining and educational blog,
http://12degreesofjustinbieber.tumblr.com/ is a source of inspiration for this show.
So Jen asked Raghav if he would support us in doing another puppet show. He asked us to make him an offer. Jen described Alex’s project to me one evening. The next day I spent all morning reading his blog, laughing out loud and entertained by the images running through my mind. Halfway through the blog I called Jen. Inspired by Alex’s blog and the impressive scope of the project we set out to create a small puppet show (less than 10 minutes long) based on this project. Naturally our fellow puppeteers, Bridget and Levi couldn’t resist the opportunity to collaborate on another brilliant yet brief puppet show.
So that’s all I’m telling you right now about the show. We “conceived” the idea in August, did some initial storyboarding in September, rehearsed and made an amateur film in October (best birthday weekend ever!), and filmed it last night. Our friends, Lee and Michelle are now in the editing stages. (Thank you, Lee and Michelle for rocking this out!)
This vignette will make you fall in love with shadow puppetry. You’ll laugh. You’ll possibly shed a tear. You’ll be confused (especially if you watch it with no context), and it’s very possible you’ll realize how weird we all are!
You’re dying to see it aren’t you! Be on the lookout for a post Friday, December 14th in the evening. That is the first time we’ll watch it as a puppet troupe. Why December 14th? Duh! The 12DoJB holiday party in Portland, OR is that night! Our friends, Raghav and Alex and anyone else at the 12DoJB Holiday Party will toast to it's ridiculousness! Unfortunately no, I’m not performing it in Portland or going to that party. I’m sure I’ll meet Raghav and Alex someday though!
p.s. THANKS again to Alex and Raghav for inspiring this. Thank you to Bridget, Jen, and Levi for birthing this with me. You are the best people in the world, and so fun to work with. Thank you to John and Bridget for opening your home as the official headquarters. Thank you to Don for lending us the video camera initially. Thank you Lee and Michelle for being superb additions to the group last night and for filming and editing the show!
