The Roanoke Times featured Thistledown Puppets in two articles today.  You can find the first article with a behind the scenes video here.  The second article is about the success of Bull: A Puppet Musical and can be found here. Thanks so much to Kevin Kittredge and Eric Brady at the Times.

Tiny theatergoers excited: No ‘Bull’

Thistledown Puppets’ ‘Bull: A Puppet Musical’ wowed the young set at the Dumas Center as part of the Roanoke City Arts Festival.

“Mom, Mom, can we get front-row seats?” asked the tiny brunette in the gray-and-black striped shirt as her even tinier brother (the one wearing the excited grins nearly too big for his body) ran ahead, clutching his ticket in his left hand.

Luckily for those two little theatergoers, the seats were not assigned at Sunday’s performance of “Bull: A Puppet Musical” at the Dumas Center for Artistic & Cultural Development in Roanoke. There were front-row seats available– but not for long.

As showtime edged closer, the 180-seat auditorium at the Dumas Center was getting crowded. From infants in strollers to grandparents in wheelchairs, there were more than 100 excited people watching.

The one-hour show was performed both Saturday and Sunday by Thistledown Puppets, a *Salem-based puppet company that was performing as part of the Roanoke Arts Festival.

The wonderfully crafted puppets were maneuvered by four puppeteers dressed in black from head to toe in a method called overt puppetry. The actors were not hidden behind a stage; they were right there in plain sight for all to see, a la “Avenue Q,” a popular Broadway puppet show for grown-ups.

The play centered around Bull, Lucky Clucky the Rooster, Ewe and Pig. Bull wanted nothing more than to be free of the farm and out in the city — a place he’d visited once as a calf.

The puppets were entertaining, but some of the younger members of the audience lost interest after the first 30 minutes or so — with intermittent bursts of laughter breaking the quiet chatter.

That being said, when the audience was invited to the stage to meet the puppets, nary a child declined the chance to shake Pig’s hand.

For more information, go to thistledownpuppets.com.

– Jennie Tal

*(The only mistake in the article is that we are a Roanoke based company, not Salem.  Otherwise, great review.  Thanks Jennie!)

Many, many thanks to everyone who came out to see our show at this weekend’s Roanoke Arts Festival!  Both crowds were amazing.  We’ve worked so hard for so long on this show that I must admit I had some doubts rolling into this weekend.  But the show was so well received and we all just had a blast.   Many thanks as well to Rick Salzberg, William Penn, Mark Ware, and everyone else who helped make this weekend a reality.  Please stay tuned to see what we’ll be up to next!

It’s finally here! Tomorrow at one o’clock is the first performance of Bull: A Puppet Musical. If you don’t have a ticket already, go to the Roanoke Arts Festival website, or call (540) 853-5483. They are $10 for adults, and $5 for children under twelve.  And for those of you who just aren’t sure of your schedule, tickets will be available at the door of the Dumas Center.  The second performance will be on Sunday at four o’clock. 

 So much work has gone into this show, and we’ve had a ton of fun putting it all together.  It’s sure to be a treat for the whole family!

Yesterday morning, we had the opportunity to be on WDBJ7, the local CBS affiliate.  We performed a song from Bull: A Puppet Musical as a teaser for the Roanoke Arts Festival.  Here are a couple shots of Alex and Bull as he was getting ready.

And here’s me with Pig hamming it up.

We had a bit of a wait before we went on air.

So we goofed off and took some pictures. The VIDEO is now up on our Live Shows page, so go check it out!

Many thanks to my friend Derek for assisting in the creation of this flyer.  They’re going up all over town, so hopefully we’ll have a good crowd for the festival.  If you’re just tuning in, HERE is a brief synopsis of the show and how it came about.

Here is the finished fence set piece for Bull: A Puppet Musical.

I simply painted the carved EPS foam with a couple coats of brown latex paint…

…and then added some fake grass embellishments at the bottom of each post.  (Unfortunately, because I need to mow my yard, the fake grass isn’t much taller than the real grass!!)