The private life of puppets
Uncle Scrooge has changed his ways, the curtain has fallen and the audience has gone home to dream of sugarplum ferries. The puppet stars of Theatre in the Rough's production of "A Christmas Carol" should be back in their boxes, awaiting their next stint under the lights.
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Instead, they're on the stage again, a digital videocamera pointed at their faces.
"I have always been an actress," said Anne Page, the puppet who plays the role of Scrooge's niece in the play.
Doniece Falcon, the actress who gives movement and a voice to Annie, improvised her way through the interview last week.
"What do you do in your spare time?" asked interviewer Pat Race from behind the camera.
"I spend a lot of time in a box, actually," Page/Falcon replied.
Jason Alexander, who plays the role of Bob Cratchit in the play, dreamed up the idea of doing a short documentary-style film with the puppets for the Juneau Underground Motion Picture (J.U.M.P.) Society festival.
"During the play practice and everything, all of the different actors would goof off with the puppets," Alexander said.
Actors would ask for tips on stage through their puppets, or steer their puppets through an impersonation of famous movie stars.
"That just gave me the idea that it would be fun to do a little documentary from the puppets' perspectives," he said.
Alexander and Race developed some questions for the interviews, and made others up more as they went along. Most of the footage was focused solely on the puppets and not on the actors who bring them to life.
"What I really wanted to do is just treat them as if they were real actors," Race said. "To expand on their background, their personal interests."
He will interview more of the puppets after this weekend's shows.
"I don't think I got to know them well enough last weekend," Race said. "It takes a while to talk to people and get them to open up to you."
The short film will be a part of the fourth J.U.M.P. Society festival in Juneau, which will take place in February. Twice a year, amateur film makers in Juneau show their work at the free festival.
For more on the J.U.M.P. festival, contact Pat Race at pat@lrcd.com.