{"content":[{"text":"FROM THE SKETCHBOOK \n December’s collaboration with Holy Trin- \n ity on the Christmas Pageant has been incu- \n bating since Aaron played the goat in last Puppet and \n spring’s Oh Lovely Glowworm at Persever- costume designs, \n ance Theatre. Puppets seemed a perfect way from lower left \n to unite all of the Christmas story’s elements to upper right: a \n (angels, animals, people) as well as keeping shepherd; the wise \n the mystery of this very familiar story fresh. man, Balthazar; \n Doing something slightly spectacular also Mary; and the \n seemed a great way to bring people together angel Gabriel. \n in the new building. \n This was a giant undertaking, requiring a \n dozen people-puppet heads and twenty-four \n people-puppet hands, seven large animals, \n six wings, plus clothes and skins for all. The \n only way to build all this was to engage a \n large and continuously changing group of \n volunteers. This meant the puppets had \n to be made from materials that could be \n worked easily and quickly by unskilled \n hands. Paper maché and hand sewing were \n used wherever possible. \n All the adult people puppets are built on \n an armature that was designed by Aaron \n and manufactured, largely by Phil Shempf, \n out of red cedar and cardboard. Coat hang- \n er wire, rubber bands and fish weights make \n up further core components. Phil also engi- \n neered the shoulder joints for the angels so \n that their arms, though unmoving, could be \n positioned just so.","bbox":{"left":0.044118,"top":0.020758,"width":0.588926,"height":0.5490900000000001}},{"text":"For the angels, also, weight was a constant \n concern, so their tunics were made from \n custom pleated 5mm china silk trimmed \n with wire edged ribbon. This gives them a \n sense of volume and movement, even when \n they are still. The wings are double thick \n cardboard, but the centers are cut out and \n they are skinned in paper so we could save a \n few more ounces. \n The large animals, like the elephant, also \n needed to be light but strong. Peter Freer \n scored a cache of 1” thick cardboard which, \n once the edges were reinforced, worked very \n well for animal parts. \n Understandably, some people have asked \n why the puppet’s eyes are empty. Some find \n them a bit creepy. Words like “Roswell” \n come up. To these people, we ask they bear \n in mind that puppets are miniature, semi- \n living creatures that are often a bit creepy, \n with or without eyes. We tried a number of \n solutions. All of them made the problem \n worse. We decided, “No eyes.”","bbox":{"left":0.671569,"top":0.617322,"width":0.284362,"height":0.3484729999999999}},{"text":"2","bbox":{"left":0.036029,"top":0.963395,"width":0.008087999999999998,"height":0.015139000000000014}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}