Frog Belly heads to Santa Monica starting Sept 24th!

Coming to Santa Monica at the Morgan Wixson Theatre.

Based on the book written and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering

Adapted for the stage by Emily Coalson with Rogue Artists Ensemble


In Cementland lives a very special Boy with a singular wish to find a treasure.
Amidst heaping piles of greasy toaster ovens, broken TVs, and wet smelly
socks,
he discovers a rusty old box promising wondrous riches, but all he finds inside
the box are tiny grey specks. Thieves come in the night and the Boy builds a
monster called Frog Belly Rat Bone to scare them away. Frog Belly protects
the specks, and in doing so teaches all the friends a very valuable lesson.

Using their signature Hyper-theatrical style combining puppetry, music,
video projections, and innovative prop design, the award-winning Rogue Artists
Ensemble brings this popular book's lovable characters and quirky aesthetic
to life on stage.

September 24, 2011 – October 9, 2011
Saturdays and Sundays at 11am

$10 Adults, $7 Children 12 and under

Home Again

It's amazing how fast two weeks can go by when you are doing what you love. All good things must come to an end, and Frog Belly Rat Bone in Atlanta is no exception. Our last days in the Big Peach were as fun and quirky as any other day on our trip. Here's how it went down.

After our final performance, we presented Stage Manager Extraordinaire Hayley with our second parting gift (she's wearing the first one in the picture below): a genuine Frog Belly Rat Bone kazoo, discretely signed by the entire cast. The look on her face was just fantastic.

Now anytime she needs us, all she has to do is *bzzzz.*

Despite having just laid it all out for two extraordinary final shows, our intrepid cast pulled together to strike our set with gusto. Christina zipped about and snapped some fantastic pictures of the mayhem. Miles and Thu pulled apart Cementland while Amy provided motivation.

Tyler was a palletizing machine, stacking our gear onto wooden platforms that could easily be trucked back across the nation.

Sean put his video designer hat back on to unplug the projector.

I hid out in the booth, wondering how to put everything back together. I'm pretty sure I got it right eventually.

The game of Tetris continued. Thanks to everyone's hard work, the entire set was wrapped and ready to go in no time at all.

Go Team Friendship!

Before we walked out the door for good, we were able to leave our mark on the Center of Puppetry. Can you find it?

How about now?

That night, we hit the town for our last dinner together on tour. We were joined by the wondrous Hayley, as well as Jon and his lovely wife at one of our strangest stops yet: Dante's Down the Hatch. The restaurant features an indoor pirate ship; a live alligator; a Mark Twain mannequin; striped-shirted waiters; a menu that is more idealogical than informative; and a talking, mechanical witch in the ladies room. Also, fondue. Seated at the captain's table while enjoying a live jazz combo, I knew it was a perfect topper to our tour of the madness of Georgian camp.

The next morning, Roy and Liz from the Center got up extra early and shuttled us to ATL. Amid luggage-wrangling and coffee-balancing, we exchanged farewell hugs under the watchful eye of airport security.

Before you knew it, we were up and away.

When we landed at LAX, it felt good to be home where we belong. No city in the world is like Los Angeles. We were all aching to see all our friends and loved ones again. However, there was definitely an air of melancholy as we retrieved our luggage and finally parted ways.

I prefer happy endings, so I'm going to close out this documentation of our tour with a story about one of our new young fans. He saw our show three times in total, including the early show on our last day. At this show, every time Frog Belly addressed the audience, this child was roaring back at the stage as if to challenge him to a Frog Belly roaring contest. I could hear him all the way from the booth. He brought this drawing with him to the show and presented it to the cast:

We were all touched by the gesture. Especially Thu.

Moments like that make me want to do this show forever. Thank you, Center for Puppetry Arts, for taking a chance on our little show and for always being such gracious hosts. Thanks Frog Belly cast, for being the best traveling companions I could ever ask for. So long, Atlanta. I hope we meet again.

Making Friends at the Rogue Workshop

As part of our tour to the Center for Puppetry Arts, we were asked to present a workshop in puppetry craft. The workshop, attended mostly by staff members of the Center, was fully booked. I was pleased to see that such a great variety of people had come to see what we had to offer. Our resident workshop expert Christina led the charge and knocked it out of the park with our tried and true newspaper puppet class.

Newspaper puppets are very useful, especially in a workshop setting. When you have a swiftly approaching deadline and a shoestring budget, why waste precious resources constructing a puppet that may or may not truly serve your story? A newspaper puppet can be built in minutes, costs almost nothing, and is simply captivating when put into action. And if it doesn't work, you can just throw it away.

One such puppet is featured prominently in "Bird and Girl," a short scene that the Rogues created during a workshop with the students of UC Irvine. We still perform this piece on occasion to this day; in fact, the little girl puppet makes a cameo in our Puppet Car Wash fundraising video.

After a demonstration of how a newspaper puppet behaves, we showed the group a video of "Bird and Girl." The video was taken at the HYPERBOLE: gravity/anti-gravity workshop with UCI students. Setting up the projector was my modest contribution to the evening's event.

And so it was time to get started.

Christina guided our workshop attendees step by step, attentively making sure the no one was left behind and no one was stuck waiting, sitting on their hands.

The other Rogues helpfully wandered around with rolls of tape, swooping in and answering questions now and again. Thanks, Amy!

The puppets began to take shape. Even in their early stages, you could see people asserting their creativity on their little, flammable friends.

Miles assisted in displaying effective build mechanics.

Tyler held his puppet up to demonstrate one of the aspects of his favorite method of newspaper puppet construction. Notice that the puppet's arms and legs remain upright due to the particular way that he has jointed the limbs. Of course, there is no single correct way to make a puppet.

Before we knew it, we had a room full of completed puppets. We asked everyone to circle up and introduce their creations. Everybody in the room had given their puppet a name, a unique personality and, in some cases, an elaborate back story. Amazing!

With a little bit of time left, Christina decided that it was time to get these puppets up on their feet. Together, Amy, Miles, and Tyler gave a short tutorial on important Bunraku techniques and principles. I was impressed at how clearly and simply they were able to communicate fantastic tips for a truly complex art form. Of course, they are professionals.

It was great fun to see our workshop attendees implement those techniques with their newly built puppets. In less than two hours, we had a room full of tiny creations wandering about. I saw a newspaper puppet with a cane and a monocle jabbing at some crotchety youngster. So much personality for having only been born minutes ago.

When it was time to go, many attendees hung about to talk puppets a little more. We received a lot of great feedback for our presentation. One attendee remarked that ours was her favorite workshop - and she has been coming to workshops at the Center for Puppetry Arts for the last 8 years. That's quite a feather in our cap.

I know that I am lucky to have such talented friends. And what a great opportunity to be able to share our art with enthusiastic folk from lands far from our own. Christina, Amy, Miles, Thu, and Tyler: way to show Atlanta how it's done!

Adventuring on Our Days Off

Picture Time!

Is this adorable, or what? But more on that later. Tyler, pictured above, rented a van so that we could explore Atlanta on our three days off. That was the best call ever. Let's get started!

Our first destination was Athens. In the spirit adventure, we stopped whenever our curiosity was piqued. On our way up we detoured at an antique shop and we bought some gifts for loved ones back home. Will you be one of the lucky ones to get something from us? Perhaps a comfy new bathtub? Perhaps this giant chair that Tyler found amusing?

In Athens, we sampled pubs, hugged statues, scoped out a local music shop, and generally caused a ruckus.

We also found the second greatest river we would encounter on our trip in a relaxing park. I was able to chill out and listen to the wind and cicadas for a while. Just tops.

Hey, get down from there before you someone gets hurt!

Our next day began fueling up on fresh peaches that Liz from the Center procured for us. Juicy and tasty! Yet another kindness from the wonderful people we have met here. Our first stop was Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA, where Cabbage Patch kids are born. And I mean literally, dramatically born, right before your eyes. Just remembering it is starting to make me dizzy, so just take a look at these pictures instead:

Needless to say, we were all in heaven. Especially Christina.

Next, we visited the fair town of Helen, a former logging town that converted itself into a German village to generate revenue for the city. It was kitschy and beautiful. We window-shopped, we drank delicious German beers, and even got in a round of miniature golf.

Oh, we also found the saddest abandoned haunted house you ever saw. It was so run-down, I'm pretty sure that it was actually haunted. Check it out:

Truly frightening.

Topping off our amazing three days off was a lazy river ride - tubing down the Chattahoochee River. Being a native Angeleno, the concept of floating down the river on a large, rented inner tube was alien to me. For those equally deprived, see the above photo for reference. Luckily for us, the river was not actually that crowded that day. The photo is from the company's website. We'll get to see actual photos from our float when my primordial water-proof disposable camera gets developed.

Amy laid out the spread that we had bought ahead of time at Publix market, and a great chicken lunch was had by all. Shortly after, we were shuttled up the river and deposited into the water for a ride down the Chattahoochee. Unbelievably relaxing. Two miles down the river and four hours later, I didn't want to get leave, even though we had to be constantly vigilant for water bears.

Hey, it's me, Thu, and BBQ!

As amazing as our days off were, I'm very glad to be back into the rhythm of performing our show. Just a couple more performance days left in our tour. It's all been going by so fast!