Their theme for 2006 was “Christmas Trees”. We immediately thought of the Hans Christian Anderson story of the “Littlest Christmas Tree”. Upon reading it, however, we realized we didn’t like the ending. So Debbie ended up writing a script, incorporating several different folk tales, that told our own version of “The Littlest Christmas Tree”. This version included Mother Nature and various forest animals. Father Christmas even made an appearance.
 We needed forest animals for "The Littlest Christmas Tree". Peter started building the puppets by making paper mache heads. |
 Here, “The Squirrel” has acquired his cardboard body. He is studying his design sketch to see what he will grow up to be! |
“Father Christmas” has had his paper mache head and boots painted. He hasn’t grown his beard yet.  The eyes have sequins in the centers to give some “life” to the puppet. |
 At least 5 coats of paper mache have made “Mother Nature” very sturdy. Notice the mouth of the plastic bottle that provided the base for her head. She has been painted. Sequins liven up her eyes. Plastic ferns adorn her head. |
 The first day in “our” gallery where we will perform our show. All the boxes have arrived. Hooray! |
 “Some Assembly Required” By the end of Day 2, everything is unpacked and starting to go together. |
Six days later, our first audience arrives for the first performance. There are seven performances every day. School children arrive for a tour of the art galleries and then come into our gallery for the puppet show.
The show is built as a one-person show, with Peter and Debbie taking turns performing. One day, Peter does seven shows. The next day, he takes a break and Debbie does seven shows. This gives us a chance to rest our voices. We perform the shows “live” (no tape-recorded voices) and seven performances a day of talking and singing can really wear out the vocal cords!
 Our show opens in the “laundry room”. The puppeteer (Peter) tells his audience that he is wrapping all the gifts he has bought to get ready for Christmas. |
 Peter and Debbie take turns performing this show. Here, the puppeteer (Debbie) checks all the gifts off of her Christmas list. |
 Suddenly, the puppeteer has to leave for one last shopping trip to the mall. When she returns, her 12 gift bags contain “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. The audience sings along as the “three french hens” and everything else are pulled out of the bags and animated. |
 Segue to the next story! Here, the puppeteer (Peter) remembers a “quieter” Christmas time when his family cut down their own Christmas tree and decorated it with homemade ornaments. |
For most of the year, our performances are “on the road”. We travel to schools, libraries and theatres. Our shows have to be portable with minimal lighting and special effects.
So we tend to get carried away when we have the opportunity of performing this many times at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in one theatre space. We can play with different lighting effects and colors.
Our “laundry room” set is transformed through light and shadows into a
forest for the story of “The Littlest Christmas Tree”.
Compare how different our rod puppet “forest animals” look when seen in “ordinary” light and with the “performance” lighting of shadow trees. Our plan was for the puppeteer to “disappear from view” with
the help of special lights.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
bring the tree and all of the forest animals “the Best Christmas Ever”.
We hope you all had a good Christmas as well.
Home / Available Shows / 2007 Schedule / 2007 Summer Library Show / Custom Built Shows