So, one thing I learned while out on the tour...Im not good at blogging ~ or at least maintaining a blog. I guess I was too caught up in living it, learning it and rehearsing it that I wasn't able to set aside time to blog it.
So let's see how much I can recall....this could take awhile.
I left off at some point while we were in Ft Lauderdale...hmmm AH yes, the Holiday Inn.
My first lesson about life on the road...there's lots of alcohol involved. At every hotel's bar, just after the vans have returned from the venue, you can find various cast and crew members drinking the night away. Im not much of a drinker, but I'd nurse a drink or two to be social ~ which meant that I was drinking more than I have in a very long time.
Ft Lauderdale was also where I started a tradition with some of the other puppeteers. We were going to get a burger from every hotel we stayed at. Believe it or not, the burger from the Holiday Inn was really tasty! Cheap too. hmmm maybe I could start a blog about hotel burgers and do a photos along with it...ok Im getting ahead of myself...but I think it's a good idea!
OK so back to the show...
This was one of the longest rehearsal processes I've ever gone though. One of the strangest as well. I'm used to a more hands on approach but unfortunately we weren't allowed that luxury. Our time to rehearse with the actual dinos themselves was very limited. Partly because it took a large team of people to orchestrate it and also because the dinos can only be used for short periods of time ~ only 30 - 45 min at a time ~ per day! The mechanisms inside are the true divas of this show!! They get over heated when used for too long and of course we have to make sure they're in tip top condition for each performance. That also means that on multiple show days, they're virtually off limits for rehearsing ~ that was usually 2 out of the 5 show days a week. Needless to say, most of our rehearsing was on our own.
The role I learned was Auxiliary Voodoo 1. I am in charge of the mouth, eyes and sounds of the Plateosaurus, Allosaurus, Ornithocherius, and the Ankylosaurus. Since most of our learning was on our own, I spent most of my time watching and listening to a copy of the show on my laptop and listening to the show's score. All of the dinos grunts are roars are ment to happen at very specific moments - timing is key and there's little to no room for improv.
On the other hand, the Lead Voodoos, the ones who control the body movements ~ well, it was a little difficult for them to practice on their own. They also call out cues to the drivers who are actually underneath the dinos and those calls are very specific and also happen at very specific times. So what do you do when you can't have use of the stage and your dino? You play with toys!!
We would go over every scene of the show with these dollar store dinos (no really, we bought them at a dollar store!) and work out timing, lingo, characterization and motivation. The majority of the magic happened on a card table.
