I am very pleased to announce that Thistledown Puppets is going to take part in the Second Annual Roanoke Arts Festival this November.  This is where we are going to debut our new live show BULL: A Puppet Musical.  It’s going to be an exciting weekend with an amazing array of performances.  Here is a run-down of the 2008 Festival:

On the heels of last year’s inaugural Roanoke Arts Festival, the second annual Roanoke Arts Festival, re-timed this year to help celebrate the opening of the new Taubman Museum of Art, will be held Nov. 8-9 with free and ticketed performances and visual arts that are sure to appeal to a wide range of regional audiences and visitors alike.

With the Blue Ridge Mountains as a stunning backdrop, the Roanoke Arts Festival will feature more than a dozen events and exhibits at venues across the city. From an evening with Crystal Gayle to a free rock concert, bluegrass workshop, theater performances, culinary arts and puppets and classical music, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

Last night we attended the Kick-off Celebration for the Festival and brought along two of the stars from the show.  The event was hosted by James W. Hyams in his lovely Oriental gardens.  After much meeting and greeting I took the puppets and sang one of the songs from the show called Fewer Fences.  After so much work behind the scenes, it was great to show the work off a bit and let folks get a taste of what this show is all about. 

Tags: Bull: Roanoke, Thistledown Stuff by Philip
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Here are two completed puppets for BULL: A Puppet Musical.  I’m extremely pleased with the way they turned out.  And just in time to perform at an event this evening.  Now only two more puppets to go…

Tags: Bull: Roanoke by Philip
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Here is the completed head for Pig. He is one of the four characters from the new Bull: The Puppet Musical show. He is probably my favorite of the four. All of the characters for the show are essentially fully realized versions of drawings I made over ten years ago. It’s amazing to see them come full circle–first through the comic strip, and then now through this puppet show.  Below is Pig from one of the model sheets for the comic strip.

Tags: Bull: Roanoke by Philip
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Here is the completed head for the star of our upcoming show “BULL” (working title). He is the largest puppet that I’ve built to date and will be a live hands puppet. I love bringing these characters to life because they represent a much simpler, cartoon-like style. They will all have a smooth finish and slightly exaggerated features that hopefully will read well from the stage. Below is a shot of Bull’s mouth.

Tags: Bull: Roanoke by Philip
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A while back, I mentioned that we are working on a new live show based on a comic strip we did several years ago. I thought I’d take a minute to talk a little bit about that strip. It’s called “BULL” and I worked on it with my good friend Alex Lucas. In Alex’s words, this is the concept in a nutshell:

“Imagine a Bull whose one goal in life is to leave the farm and live among the ‘intellectuals’ of the city. Imagine a Pig who is an obsessive neat-freak. Imagine a Rooster who wears a power suit and drinks Starbucks. In this selection of the comic strip entitled BULL, the reader is given a glimpse into a world where the characters don’t belong. It’s a strange view of life on a farm, which consists mainly of a desire to live life OFF the farm. BULL parallels modern life and the way we all wish we were somewhere else. Just like the animals in this comic strip, we all look toward someone or something else and wish we were THAT, when in truth THAT isn’t any better than THIS. In short, these aren’t just farm animals … they’re us.”

Alex did the writing and I did the drawing. We worked for several months to develop about seven or eight weeks worth of material and sent them to all of the major syndicates. It was a leap, but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained. I think we heard back from all but one of them… they declined. Oh well. I still am in love the characters. When you work on something for that long, you really get attached to it. We both felt that there was so much potential for further development, and it seemed like the time was right to bring the characters to three-dimensional life. 

The script is nearly finished and I’ve begun building the puppets.   I’ll post some images once I get the visuals worked out a bit more.  In the meantime, here are the characters in their two-dimensional states:

And just in case anyone is interested, Alex and I published all of the comics into a book called A Bunch of Bull that you can buy here.

Tags: Bull: Roanoke, Projects, Thistledown Stuff by Philip
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Work has begun on a new live show! We are currently in the writing and design phase, but I thought I’d put up a little teaser image.  The show is based on a comic strip that we developed a few years ago and I think it’s going to make a fun puppet show.  We’ll be working on it for a while, but stay tuned for further developments!

Tags: Bull: Roanoke, Projects by Philip
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