This past weekend I traveled down South to do some research and obtain more materials for my current thesis work on my mobile shadow puppet theater. I reconnected with my former boss, Lynne from the San Diego Guild of Puppetry, who gave me some helpful insight on my materials search and provided a great number of resources. It was also the same weekend of the city of Carlsbad’s program Family Open Studios, in conjunction with the “World on a String” puppetry exhibition at the Canon Art Gallery located at the Carlsbad Library. Puppeteer Hobey Ford also performed one of his signature shows, Animalia, which proved to be a magical show for the families that attended.
This excursion proved to be a good learning experience, which takes me back to my current status of working-in-progress with my shadow puppet theater. How I plan to take the information I learned with me will unfold into a refined theater piece. This won't take an overnight turnaround, but I will have to undergo a three-fold process of honing and mastering the craft of making shadows, manipulating them so that these images come to life, and creating a theater environment.