Myself, Po, and Siu-see Hung in rehearsal. We Flew Big
This summer I accomplished one of my bucket list items: being in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was amazing.
The show? "Something There That's Missing" with the international theatre company We Flew Big. STTM is a fantastical coming-of-age story surrounding Joy, who moves to London to write her first play, and adventure-seeking Mei Li who enters the supernatural Chinese Metaforest. There, she meets an eccentric orange hippo called Po and together they must battle a ferocious monster guarding a secret that could change everything.
I played Po. It was the first time I had done puppetry, and I was brought onto the project with two weeks to rehearse before we previewed in London at Theatre 503. I decided to move my focus away from the panic of whether I could pull this off (Po-pun intended) and focused on the rehearsals. Rehearsals with Anh Chu (the playwright as well as the actress playing Joy) and Siu-see Hung (fellow actress of multiple parts in the play, including the sweet Mei Li and comical Mom) began in earnest. Rehearsals were fun, energetic and extremely creative, due in no small part to Lydia Parker as director.
This summer I accomplished one of my bucket list items: being in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was amazing.
The show? "Something There That's Missing" with the international theatre company We Flew Big. STTM is a fantastical coming-of-age story surrounding Joy, who moves to London to write her first play, and adventure-seeking Mei Li who enters the supernatural Chinese Metaforest. There, she meets an eccentric orange hippo called Po and together they must battle a ferocious monster guarding a secret that could change everything.
I played Po. It was the first time I had done puppetry, and I was brought onto the project with two weeks to rehearse before we previewed in London at Theatre 503. I decided to move my focus away from the panic of whether I could pull this off (Po-pun intended) and focused on the rehearsals. Rehearsals with Anh Chu (the playwright as well as the actress playing Joy) and Siu-see Hung (fellow actress of multiple parts in the play, including the sweet Mei Li and comical Mom) began in earnest. Rehearsals were fun, energetic and extremely creative, due in no small part to Lydia Parker as director.
Anh Chu, myself, Siu-see Hung and Gemma Chan! On Puppetry
What can I say? Puppetry is amazing. I've always been astounded by how a puppet can come to life, and I remember being moved to tears from the opening sequence of The Lion King and being in fits of laughter from Avenue Q's colourful cast. I wanted to make Po, a medium-sized plushie converted into a makeshift puppet with a whole in the head through which I would operate his mouth, as lifelike as possible. During the first rehearsal we used an older version of Po (STTM has had a number of earlier versions and a previous Po was a very small puppet with moveable arms and head) and poor Po flopped around like an eel on drugs. However, it turns out that all it takes is some puppetry know-how (I received a "Puppetry 101" training session from the incredibly talented and original Po puppeteer Anna Marshall) and some bonding time with Po. As well as the all-important lip-synching, there are three areas you need to be aware of as a puppeteer: focus, gravity and breathing. To bring life to Po, he needs to "see" properly, he must have weight and move accordingly, and, essentially, he must breathe. Po and I began to bond, he developed his own character, and then he became a full-on cast member.
On the sixth day of my puppetry journey, I had Po at home to play and bond with and I recorded our session. I decided to edit this into a film last night (because I miss that big-bellied orange fella!) and here it is for your viewing pleasure. Please be forgiving, though, as it's the first time I've ever edited a film, I don't have any kind of professional editing software (Windows Movie Maker is all I used) and, of course, the lip-synching can be tricky! (I think my fingers are pretty strong and dextrous now, though!)
View Po-Reel here!
Preview at Theatre 503
I was super excited to perform at Theatre 503 (another bucket list item ticked off!), a great venue in Battersea Park, and we were delighted to be sold out. Some people were even turned away. We Flew Big even made a bit of profit which, as most people know, is quite an achievement in the theatre world.
We had good feedback from the audience, who complimented the story, the characterisation, and the clever use of multimedia. The play is an ambitious project that uses video clips of Skype conversations and some wonderful music and sound from the sound designer Fisayo Karunwi. The video clips were initially projected onto a screen but at Edinburgh we decided that it was too temperamental and simply turning the laptop around for said Skype conversation worked much more efficiently in our venue.
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013
Edinburgh was an amazing experience - it was everything I'd anticipated and more. The atmosphere was buzzing with creativity, energy and the warm knowledge that everyone was living the Edinburgh experience in full support of each other. Our venue was one of the SpaceUK venues, and ours was the small, intimate, space at Jury's Inn. We loved our techie Ross whose sweetness and hard-working ethic we are sure will be his key to resounding success one day soon. Because of the sheer number of shows on offer at the Fringe and the slightly tucked-away location of our venue, it was important that we put in some intense flyering work every morning before the show. We found a panda suit helped draw in the crowds... as well being voted one of six "Must See" shows by the Fringe Review. We were overjoyed at the show we performed for the Scotsman, and on our last day we even had the lovely Gemma Chan come to watch. Here's a photo on the right: can you see the sheer overwhelming (and potentially crazy) delight in our eyes?
So, thank you to We Flew Big for the experience of a lifetime and thank you to Edinburgh for continuing to provide us with such wonderful institutions as the Fringe, haggis, and deep-fried Mars Bars (yes, I tried them - delicious!). Oh and also to James Wallace and Siu-see Hung for preventing me from falling down Arthur's Seat in the middle of the night, right at the beginning of the run, when Anh would have been really angry as we still had three weeks to go....
Interview with The Fringe Review
Listen to our interview with Dan Lentell from The Fringe Review here.
Reviews:
The Fringe Review: "Squirming with delight whenever Mr Po makes and entrance"
The Scotsman: "Lovely little gem of a piece"
Audience Reviews: "A magical experience"
What can I say? Puppetry is amazing. I've always been astounded by how a puppet can come to life, and I remember being moved to tears from the opening sequence of The Lion King and being in fits of laughter from Avenue Q's colourful cast. I wanted to make Po, a medium-sized plushie converted into a makeshift puppet with a whole in the head through which I would operate his mouth, as lifelike as possible. During the first rehearsal we used an older version of Po (STTM has had a number of earlier versions and a previous Po was a very small puppet with moveable arms and head) and poor Po flopped around like an eel on drugs. However, it turns out that all it takes is some puppetry know-how (I received a "Puppetry 101" training session from the incredibly talented and original Po puppeteer Anna Marshall) and some bonding time with Po. As well as the all-important lip-synching, there are three areas you need to be aware of as a puppeteer: focus, gravity and breathing. To bring life to Po, he needs to "see" properly, he must have weight and move accordingly, and, essentially, he must breathe. Po and I began to bond, he developed his own character, and then he became a full-on cast member.
On the sixth day of my puppetry journey, I had Po at home to play and bond with and I recorded our session. I decided to edit this into a film last night (because I miss that big-bellied orange fella!) and here it is for your viewing pleasure. Please be forgiving, though, as it's the first time I've ever edited a film, I don't have any kind of professional editing software (Windows Movie Maker is all I used) and, of course, the lip-synching can be tricky! (I think my fingers are pretty strong and dextrous now, though!)
View Po-Reel here!
Preview at Theatre 503
I was super excited to perform at Theatre 503 (another bucket list item ticked off!), a great venue in Battersea Park, and we were delighted to be sold out. Some people were even turned away. We Flew Big even made a bit of profit which, as most people know, is quite an achievement in the theatre world.
We had good feedback from the audience, who complimented the story, the characterisation, and the clever use of multimedia. The play is an ambitious project that uses video clips of Skype conversations and some wonderful music and sound from the sound designer Fisayo Karunwi. The video clips were initially projected onto a screen but at Edinburgh we decided that it was too temperamental and simply turning the laptop around for said Skype conversation worked much more efficiently in our venue.
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013
Edinburgh was an amazing experience - it was everything I'd anticipated and more. The atmosphere was buzzing with creativity, energy and the warm knowledge that everyone was living the Edinburgh experience in full support of each other. Our venue was one of the SpaceUK venues, and ours was the small, intimate, space at Jury's Inn. We loved our techie Ross whose sweetness and hard-working ethic we are sure will be his key to resounding success one day soon. Because of the sheer number of shows on offer at the Fringe and the slightly tucked-away location of our venue, it was important that we put in some intense flyering work every morning before the show. We found a panda suit helped draw in the crowds... as well being voted one of six "Must See" shows by the Fringe Review. We were overjoyed at the show we performed for the Scotsman, and on our last day we even had the lovely Gemma Chan come to watch. Here's a photo on the right: can you see the sheer overwhelming (and potentially crazy) delight in our eyes?
So, thank you to We Flew Big for the experience of a lifetime and thank you to Edinburgh for continuing to provide us with such wonderful institutions as the Fringe, haggis, and deep-fried Mars Bars (yes, I tried them - delicious!). Oh and also to James Wallace and Siu-see Hung for preventing me from falling down Arthur's Seat in the middle of the night, right at the beginning of the run, when Anh would have been really angry as we still had three weeks to go....
Interview with The Fringe Review
Listen to our interview with Dan Lentell from The Fringe Review here.
Reviews:
The Fringe Review: "Squirming with delight whenever Mr Po makes and entrance"
The Scotsman: "Lovely little gem of a piece"
Audience Reviews: "A magical experience"
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