Open Forum

Linden Hall is the oldest, continuously operating girls school in the United States.  We are currently celebrating our 270th Anniversary.  While we have a thriving theater department, our stage is relatively small, and we often have to reach outside our community when casting male roles.  When we produced ANNIE we opted to design our stage based on the original comic strip. Large white panels covered in giant newsprint from the 30's served as our basic backdrop.  We added moveable life-sized characters and furniture pieces cut from foamcore and painted in black and white to add to the comic strip feel.  Sandy was literally a cartoon dog modeled after the original cartoon character.  By adding wheels and a hidden fishing line, we could roll him on and off quite simply.  I've been directing high school theater programs for 35 years, and this is my favorite set design by far.  (And I didn't have to work with a real dog!)

I just closed Wizard of Oz this past weekend at The Carnegie in Covington, Kentucky. We had Toto be a puppet and he was operated by an 11 year old girl! It was very cute and the audience loved it! We actually were able to find a dog push toy and added an extendable rod, like the kind you would find on an old tv or radio, that could be pushed in and down so it wouldn't poke Dorothy when she put it in her basket or picked him up. Our toto was a little small but he had to fit into several baskets, he was visible from stage but if I had to go back and do it again I'd make sure we got a slightly bigger dog. 

I've attached pics! 

Hi!  Feel free to connect with me off the forum at arettabaumgartner@puppet.org--I'm happy to share some resources and information about puppet possibilities!

-Aretta