Puppets and Power Tools
“Crazy is an important attribute to have,” Eisfuchs observed as your correspondent chatted with him, sat on the floor in the Pawpet Show backstage room earlier this week.
Crazy and dedicated would seem equally fitting. As a co-writer of the script and one of the lead puppeteers, Eisfuchs has travelled over 3000km this year just for script writing sessions with Cheetah, his script-writing partner in crime. “We just play off of each other so well,” he said, “going back and forth until an idea really begins to take form.”
The hardest part: cutting out scenes
Planning for this year’s show started back in January, a change to recent years to allow two extra months for initial development and script writing. The run time started out at three hours, and was then whittled down to fit into the two-hour slot for the show. “It’s hard to do that,” said Eisfuchs, “as it feels like throwing creativity away”, but of course it is necessary to make the show feasible to produce.
The creation of backdrops and props was largely done over one long weekend at a factory workshop, with an army of helpers and energy drinks. Various members of the crew built smaller props at home. There were three rehearsals, each spaced a month apart to allow for adjustments, improvements and finally nailing down the script. Pre-recorded audio was produced over time, with five team members having the necessary equipment to produce high quality audio.
Author: Bariki