The Tinderbox at Talespinner Children's Theatre

Right now, Talespinner Children's Theatre is mounting its own adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Tinderbox. I had the glorious privilege of serving as the Witch Designer and Crafts Artisan on this production. I can't express enough how much I love the creative freedom that I am afforded at Talespinner. It is a true joy and delight to be able to create work there.

The show is done in a steampunk-meets-circus style, and it was really a fun aesthetic to work in. I won't get too specific about the design aspects of the show just yet, so as not to spoil anyone's experience, but I hope you will go and see not only my work, but amazing costumes, set design, and performances, which are as follows:

April 12th through April 28th, 2013
Fridays 1PM & 7PM; Saturdays 2PM & 7PM; Sundays 2PM
Pay What You Can performances Sunday, April 7th & Friday, April 12th (7PM only)

For more information and reservations, please go to The Tinderboxwebsite at Talespinner's page.

Art For Talespinner Children's Theatre

This is my last post for 2012, and I wanted to write about another incredible opportunity that I had this year. I was asked to help out in making three-dimensional artwork for the two shows of 2012 for Talespinner Children's Theatre.

In June, I was called in to help add on details to some of the puppets that were constructed for the show, "The Tale of the Name of the Tree." They needed someone who could handle very detail-oriented and time-consuming work of gluing dried grass from grass skirts as hair on some of the puppets. Detail-oriented and time-intensive; naturally, they thought of me. I worked on a baboon puppet, and giraffe puppet, and a huge lion puppet.

In November, I got the call again from Talespinner's Artistic Director, Alison Garrigan, to work on chandeliers for their adaptation of the opera, "The Magic Flute." I was provided with most of the materials and the umbrella "skeletons" that were going to serve as the base of the chandeliers and told one was for The Queen of the Night, and the other was for Sarastro, who was like The King of the Day. In addition, the umbrella "skeletons" needed to be able to transition between the closed and open positions, as they would be brought out onstage "closed" and then opened and suspended in the closed position. I was given complete creative freedom and confidence, which is everything that an artist like me could wish for. Using the materials I was given, and some of my own, including spray painting one of the umbrella "skeletons" gold, I threw myself into making sparkling chandeliers that would hopefully dazzle the young audiences who would be witness to the magic onstage.

There's something very rewarding for me about creating work that will be seen by children and helping to transport them into another world fueled by their imaginations. I was very happy with how the chandeliers turned out, and they were even mentioned in a review of the show on Cool Cleveland.com as part of the set:

"...clever and visually stunning (old umbrellas with glittering streamers where hung up as chandeliers in the palace)."

Images ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012