At 19:00 hours on Thursday, October 16, three teams will assemble at the Brew House on Pittsburgh’s South Side. The teams will be tasked with creating new puppet shows with materials they’ve never seen, tools they’ve never handled, and people they’ve never met. In 24 hours an audience will arrive expecting to see magic happen, or at least tragedy.
It’s Reality TV! It’s a Puppet Show! It’s a Contest! It’s all of these things.
New media creators were invited to be part of the experience and document what they see and hear over that dramatic 24-hour period. Watch this space as your guide as new entries pop up with insight as to who is building what, who is freaking out, and who will be the winner of… the 24-Hour Puppet Reality Experiment!
Social Media Created at BSPF:
Will Vidler from Wrestling Mayhem Show talks to Mike Cuccaro, Managing Director of the BSPF:
and Will also speaks with puppeteer Dave English who participated in the 24-Hour Puppet Reality Experiment:
Days later The end of the project coincided with a whole lot of activity over the next 48 hours so I couldn’t get back to update but a quick note to say that Team 3 pulled out the victory in the audience election with Team 1 second and Team 2 third. Watch this space for links to more media!
12:18pm Team 1 plugs away while Team 3 still waits for their returning members. Team 2 gets direction from Flora while Carrie catches her first bit of sleep. I’m off to pick up Janaki Ranpura from the airport. Checking back later this afternoon. Be sure to come see the show tonight! Things are looking good.
11:33am Flora Shepherd, world-renowned puppeteer has arrived (after missing 5 of my calls :P) to take over for Dave on Team 2. The missing members of Team 3 are supposedly on the way. Flora also brought me coffee and some puddin’.
Team 1 appears to be way in the lead with several set pieces built but will their lack of sleep be their undoing? We’ve had to deal with some minor injuries with Nikki’s skin coming off with the hot glue, Thiago getting cut with chicken wire, and Jesse having a minor scrape on a paint-covered finger. Everyone is ok though. Danger is merely one of the many appeals of the action sport of speed puppetry! And… puddin’.
10:14am Got some glue and glue sticks! And some more video. This happened about 75 times already this morning…
Here’s a 2.5-hour rock block in only 44 seconds
8:05am Man down! Dave is ill. He has to bail on Team 2. What will happen? Will a substitute be found? Carrie will carry on while Ali and Jolene sleep on.
7:36am Dave is back. He got sick when he got home. Hopefully he will be able to continue the contest. Thiago, Pj, and Nikki have been powering through but Thiago just went to go sleep in the theater, not on the bed that Team 3 constructed, though.
Keith is back from roaming around the small hours on the South Side. He shot some footage of the Walgreen’s loading in and a cricket. He said most people upstairs are still sleeping - sleeping through the ranting upstairs… sleeping through the croquet mallets all falling to the ground… sleeping through a very loud and very annoying ring-tone… Hopefully not sleeping through the rest of the competition!
6:49am Ugh. Wakey wakey. And we’re at the half-way point!
4:43am After some late, late, half-awake conversing with Keith Tassick, the videographer documentarian, and chatting with fellow puppeteer Flora Shepherd via gmail as she builds her own show, I’m thinking about catching 40 winks.
Team 1 has some amazing looking puppets so far and Thiago, Pj, and Nikki are still working while Rachelle has gone down for the night along with the remainder of the college students. Carrie is making a meshy mushy monster as the only awake member of Team 2.
Keith is going to take a stroll outside for a while and the Team 1 crew is getting ready for a break. I’m going to see if I can fall asleep for a bit in this chair. We’ll all try to ignore the disturbing loud arguments/partying going on somewhere on an upper floor.
3:39am Team 3 is out for the night. Danielle and Jess are taking off while Kate and Jesse are taking a nap. When will they return? 5 am? 5 pm? What happens when others need the stage? A cranky wake-up call for Kate and Jesse? Meanwhile Team 2’s Ali has been sacking out in the super comfy chair after pulling an all-nighter LAST NIGHT! Carrie and Jolene work on the storyline.
Meanwhile Team 1 has all four members cranking away, building lots of stuff, sewing, and painting. Though, Nikki needs a mental break.
2:00am Had our first casualty of the evening. Dave English of Team 2, the most raring to go, burned out first after making lots of puppets and props. He headed out to get some sleep in the hopes that the rest will outweigh the loss in time.
Meanwhile, Team 1 plugs away with painting aluminum foil heads and hands and Team 3 unplugs away with the lights in the theater to bring their shadow creations life… LIFE!
1:12am Video/Photo updates:
11:55pm Photo updates:
10:58pm Wow, it’s amazing how much has been built already. Team 3 is hot gluing up a storm with large pieces of styrofoam and fabric and some bright blue shoes. Team 2 has the beginnings of a doll-sized dress and a Beaker-looking fellow. Team 1 is making something large with a mesh plastic fence.
The teams know that there have to be three elements in each show: Character - an invisible person, Object - a bed, Dialogue - “This is exactly what my mother told me never to do.” We’ve been enjoying lots of good coffee and bagels from the Beehive and pita and hummus from Whole Foods. I think I’m the only one who’s sleepy.
9:45pm The teams are together! We had one no-show but our filmmaking friend Jessica Jade Jacob jumped in. At first things were kind of quiet and I was worried people wouldn’t be too into it but they have thrown themselves into the materials and are all working furiously.
Two teams are working in the craft room/mezz, while a third has hucked a bunch of materials down to work in the theater itself.
We are currently hosting some visitors… the guys who run the Wrestling Mayhem Show took a tour around the Brew House and found many strange and creepy things to report on… also, the cast of Something To Be Desired is getting ready to record an episode. As a bonus we got cups for the coffee too! Rock.
