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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Monday Evening Respite Open Thread: Theatre Notes

Monday Evening Respite Open Thread: Theatre Notes

by Anne Laurie|  March 7, 20226:59 pm| 79 Comments

This post is in: KULCHA!, Movies, Nature & Respite

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WATCH: 'CODA,' a coming-of-age drama about the only hearing member of a deaf family, won the Screen Actors Guild's top film award on road to the Oscars https://t.co/ARDx4rVitN pic.twitter.com/OiIBTIMGhm

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 6, 2022

Haven’t seen CODA yet (Gloucester, represent!), but I’m looking forward to doing so. King Richard, also!

Percy the Porcupine, billed as the world's largest puppet, is the brainchild of Muppets creators at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop pic.twitter.com/wV9p9CXWuJ

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 3, 2022


(Srsly, South American prehensile-tailed porcupines really *do* look like Muppets!)

First look: Spirited Away on stage

Adapting the limitless imagination of Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic animation for the stage was both a monumental joy & challenge.

More images in my online gallery: https://t.co/rLGZRBzamN#???????? #SpiritedAway pic.twitter.com/05Dyf3H1Qc

— Toby Olié (@TobyOlie) March 3, 2022


This performance is being staged in Tokyo, so it’s liable to be true to the spirit of the movie…

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Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 7, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    I’m feeling a little unsophisticated because I find Percy to be the most interesting item in the post.

  2. 2.

    MagdaInBlack

    March 7, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    @Baud: We can by unsophisticated together, because: me too.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    Percy is adorable.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    March 7, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    @Baud – @MagdaInBlack

    Triumph of the quill.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    March 7, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    Behind the scenes, the making of Percy:

    This two-story porcupine built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop might be the world’s largest puppet

    Named Percy the Porcupine, the two-story creation is covered in 2,000 foam quills and has an articulated nose the size of a 2-ton Volkswagen. And that’s just the arboreal animal’s head. The five fabricators who spent more than 1,000 hours meticulously constructing the fantastical creature decided to leave the body out of the equation.

    Fabricators, including Tina Roland, labor on Percy’s 2,000 quills, which are hand carved out of pool-noodle-like foam using a variety of sharp knives, box cutters and razors. It will take more than 10 gallons of paint to give all of the quills their signature brown stripes.

    “I did get the process down to a minute-and-a-half for each quill,” says Roland, who uses barge glue (the kind you’d find at a cobbler shop for repairing soles) to attach the quills to Percy’s head. “But that was after a lot of practice, and it doesn’t include painting.”

    Her secret for success when tasked with such repetitive work? “A lot of podcasts,” she says, laughing.

    Percy’s whiskers are made from a thick monofilament, like fishing line, says Brooke. Those are punched into the muzzle and pulled through. The tongue, which fabricators have identified as pink thanks to Boris [the actual porcupine who was the model for the puppet], ends up being made from a piece of foam, as do the two beaver-esque front teeth.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    March 7, 2022 at 7:30 pm

    ‘CODA,’ a coming-of-age drama about the only hearing member of a deaf family, won the Screen Actors Guild’s top film award on road to the Oscars

    I remember as a kid watching the 1957 movie “Man Of A Thousand Faces” on TV. I thought it was about Lon Chaney, Jr, who played the Wolf Man, but it was about his famous father, who I knew nothing about. Good movie, starring James Cagney.

    Lon Chaney was the son of deaf mute parents. He was initially ashamed of them and tried to hide this info from his wife. I thought it very cool that the movie dealt with this.

    First look: Spirited Away on stage

    This might be fun for kids and families, like the stage version of The Lion King.

  7. 7.

    Alison Rose ???

    March 7, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    Forgive me for being a bit shallow and lesbian, but Emilia Jones in that dress, hellooooooo nurse!

    Also too, that’s fucking awesome that the film won!

  8. 8.

    delk

    March 7, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    Finally finished knitting this scarf
    It’s just over 6 feet.

  9. 9.

    MomSense

    March 7, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    I ❤️ Percy.

    We have a family joke about Percy from the days when youngest was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine.  He couldn’t say r in the middle of a word very well when he was little.  The R in Percy sounded like a double S.  His older brothers would hold up the Percy train and get him to say Pussy excitedly.  They didn’t limit this stunt to home only…

  10. 10.

    MomSense

    March 7, 2022 at 7:37 pm

    @delk:

    I love it!! What kind of yarn is it?

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    March 7, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    Spirited Away is the best movie that is also terrifying. It’s brilliant.

  12. 12.

    delk

    March 7, 2022 at 7:39 pm

    @MomSense: you recommended it to me! Wool of the Andes City Tweed.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    March 7, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    @delk:

    Very nice!

  14. 14.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    @Baud: I am scared of Percy.

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    March 7, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @delk:

    OH yay!! Knitpicks is such a great value and the colors are really good!!

  16. 16.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Not. Scary as fuck. That thing is going to be in my nightmares when I sleep.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    March 7, 2022 at 7:43 pm

    @MomSense

    Calls for also mentioning Grave of the Fireflies.

  18. 18.

    Josie

    March 7, 2022 at 7:46 pm

    @MomSense: As a fellow mother of three boys, I totally empathize with this.

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    March 7, 2022 at 7:46 pm

    @MomSense:  Mr. Suzanne is a speech-language pathologist, and he has many stories about kids doing this. Like one kid couldn’t pronounce K sounds at the end of words, so when he said SHARK, it sounded like SHART.

  20. 20.

    zhena gogolia

    March 7, 2022 at 7:49 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, I’m afraid to click on it.

  21. 21.

    call_me_ishmael

    March 7, 2022 at 7:51 pm

    Percy puts me in mind of Dinsdale Piranha’s “Spiny Norman”, and that’s both hilarious and terrifying.

  22. 22.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    Spiny Norman says hi.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    March 7, 2022 at 7:55 pm

    @delk:  I love it.   It’s tempting to take up knitting.

  24. 24.

    BigJimSlade

    March 7, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    I hope Percy has soft quills. I would hate to see it fall on some children and impale 35 of them at once! lol.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    March 7, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    Spirited Away, the movie, was a completely transcendent experience for me.  So a live action play based on it… on the one hand, why mess with perfection? OTOH, there may be more insights and feelings to be had.

    …hmm, checked the website, and the production isn’t scheduled to come to the US.  Pity.

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2022 at 7:58 pm

    @call_me_ishmael: Darn you to heck!

  27. 27.

    Kelly

    March 7, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    I had a beautiful paddle on the N Santiam this afternoon. Blue sky. Clear water. First trip in my new drysuit.

  28. 28.

    Dan B

    March 7, 2022 at 8:03 pm

    @MomSense: A designer who worked for me had worked at a wholesale nursery, C.R. Harnden.  The receptionist couldn’t pronounce r’s mid word, like your son.  My designer guy would crack up at the end result.  All day: C.R. Hardon.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    March 7, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Sorry to hear that.  You may want to avert your eyes from the multistory Baud puppet I just commissioned.

  30. 30.

    Dangerman

    March 7, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    Dropping the THE because … well because … plus I get to see if this puts me in BJ Purgatory.

  31. 31.

    Dan B

    March 7, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    @Kelly: Sounds incredible.  I’ve only been over Santiam Pass once on a gorgeous day.  The variety of lovely scenery, and the lava fields, is a wonder.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    March 7, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    @Dan B

    One of the cast members in an off-Broaday revival of Avenue Q which I attended a couple of years ago is named Imari Hardon.

  33. 33.

    Skepticat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    Jim Henson’s Creature Shop—one of the great business names of all time. I keep seeing little hedgehogs online, and if I hadn’t already been claimed by three born-feral cats, I’d have at least one. Perfect spirit animal for me.

    May we please be able to concentrate on things like this rather than the obscenity that is our current world?

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    March 7, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    Percy is very cute, but I think the largest puppets in the world have to be the giant puppets that have paraded up London and in the River Thames: The Sultan’s Elephant (2006) and Amal the Syrian Refugee Child (2021).

    Now, those two are certainly not hand puppets… but I doubt Percy is, either.

  35. 35.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:17 pm

    Do you guys want to read an extraordinarily stupid take on Ukraine by a blue check from a self help influencer from India? It is so bad that I don’t even know where to begin. And it has thousands of likes.

    Meanwhile, I  been experimenting with watercolor brush pens.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    March 7, 2022 at 8:18 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That’s so nice.

  37. 37.

    UncleEbeneezer

    March 7, 2022 at 8:19 pm

    King Richard was really great!  All the main actors give incredible performances, especially Aunjanue Ellis who plays mother, Oracene.  The tennis is also fairly believable with Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton both doing excellent versions of Venus and Serena’s iconic swing techniques.  One of them had never even picked up a racket.  Anyways, it really is a superb film that highlights the extraordinary story of Venus, Serena and their proud father.  It’s the second best tennis movie, imo, after Battle Of The Sexes (the Billie Jean King film from a couple years ago), which is also very much worth watching.  You don’t have to be a big tennis fan to enjoy either of them.

  38. 38.

    Kelly

    March 7, 2022 at 8:20 pm

    @Dan B: It’s my home water. Mrs Kelly drops me off about 8 miles upriver. I paddle to a spot a few minutes walk from home.

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    @Baud: Thanks.

    Lynching is a federal hate crime now. Anti-lynching bill passes the senate.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    March 7, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    ?

  41. 41.

    Ken

    March 7, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    @Baud: Not so much “multistory puppet” as “giant robot combat vehicle”, but as they say, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

  42. 42.

    japa21

    March 7, 2022 at 8:33 pm

    Apparently the SCOTUS disappointed Republicans in PA and NC by not allowing them to go ahead with their original redistricting maps and having to keep the court drawn ones.  At least for this year.  Maybe someone in those two states can provide an idea what that means on a Congressional and state level.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    March 7, 2022 at 8:33 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    King Richard was really great!  All the main actors give incredible performances, especially Aunjanue Ellis who plays mother, Oracene.  The tennis is also fairly believable with Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton both doing excellent versions of Venus and Serena’s iconic swing techniques.  One of them had never even picked up a racket.  Anyways, it really is a superb film that highlights the extraordinary story of Venus, Serena and their proud father.

    Good review. Reminded me to put it on my “To Watch” list.

    Thanks

  44. 44.

    sab

    March 7, 2022 at 8:36 pm

    My goldfEish pitbull Ponyo feels like a soulmate of Percy.

    ETA Thankfully, Ponyo does not have giant quills.

  45. 45.

    MagdaInBlack

    March 7, 2022 at 8:41 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: That is really lovely. I have some of those watercolor brush pens, I luv them.

  46. 46.

    sab

    March 7, 2022 at 8:42 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Lovely.

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    March 7, 2022 at 8:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Oh, man, I watched a few seconds. It’s fucking terrifying!

  48. 48.

    prostratedragon

    March 7, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    Percy!!

    Second to Man of a Thousand Faces. Interesting story, and excellent Cagney. So sad that we’ve lost much of Lon Chaney’s work, it appears. (But you never know what might turn up in a basement in Buenos Aires.) I see King Richard streams in the usual sort of place, so I will certainly get to it in a few days.

    It’s the birthday of Maurice Ravel. Here’s the DePaul University symphony orchestra:

    “Rhapsodie Espagnole”

  49. 49.

    prostratedragon

    March 7, 2022 at 8:47 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  I like your brush painting!

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That’s a lovely painting.

  51. 51.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: They are awesome. I brought them for brush lettering. First attempt

  52. 52.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Look at the gigantic face and imagine the gigantic teeth, that  was enough to scare me.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 7, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    @Skepticat:

    May we please be able to concentrate on things like this rather than the obscenity that is our current world?

    Yes. A world in which a pleasant thread like this doesn’t need to be labelled “respite,” but is just … a thread.

  54. 54.

    Kalakal

    March 7, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Rats! You both beat me to it!

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 7, 2022 at 8:54 pm

    @prostratedragon: @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks so much.

  56. 56.

    Kalakal

    March 7, 2022 at 8:55 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Very nice indeed

  57. 57.

    raven

    March 7, 2022 at 8:59 pm

    @dmsilev: Funny, I was talking to someone about the Jim Henson’s puppets in “Take Your Mama” by the Scissor Sisters  just this afternoon. The singing watermelons are the bomb.

  58. 58.

    delk

    March 7, 2022 at 9:07 pm

    @JPL: go for it! Lots of YouTube videos will teach you the basics.

  59. 59.

    Kalakal

    March 7, 2022 at 9:07 pm

    La Machine put on 4 day show in Toulouse a few years ago with the most incredible giant robot puppets I’ve ever seen. Steampunk heaven

    https://youtu.be/jLHjz6k66pY

  60. 60.

    columbusqueen

    March 7, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Being a tennis buff, I wish I wanted to see King Richard, but I don’t.  Based on the clips I’ve seen, the film throughly sugarcoats Richard Williams’ sleazy streak, so I’m giving it a hard pass.

  61. 61.

    Cacti

    March 7, 2022 at 9:17 pm

    Live action adaptations of anime, generally speaking, suck a fat one.

  62. 62.

    scav

    March 7, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    @Kalakal: Those are the ones I remember! That crew has done some interesting ones.

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 7, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    It’s political, but hilarious. Feel free to delete if I’m violating the spirit of this post too much.

    My dream car: pic.twitter.com/XsQMdjbNNf— Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) March 7, 2022

  64. 64.

    satby

    March 7, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Think that’s Ozark’s truck.

     

    Folks I know in the deaf community are thrilled with CODA’s win. I hope it gets seen by most people.

  65. 65.

    Kayla Rudbek

    March 7, 2022 at 9:41 pm

    So I’m getting ready to switch jobs (effective next week).  I have to write a bio and provide them with a head shot, which meant that I actually dressed up like an attorney, painted my face, and tried to do something with my hair to make it look professional.  Same overall employer and agency, but 1) they do things way, way differently on the other side of the house and 2) things might have changed since I started over a decade ago what with all the onboarding and training going to virtual instead of in-person.

  66. 66.

    Dan B

    March 7, 2022 at 9:42 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Very nice and the colors are complex and a great mix that are pretty but not too sweet.

  67. 67.

    Liminal Owl

    March 7, 2022 at 9:54 pm

    @delk: Beautiful!

  68. 68.

    Kayla Rudbek

    March 7, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    @JPL: come on over to the warm side…you’ll never run out of things to do again…

  69. 69.

    Miss Bianca

    March 7, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    Oh, theater! Oh, puppets! *swoon*

    Yeah, I like big butts puppets and I cannot lie…so sue me.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    March 7, 2022 at 10:34 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Very nice!

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    March 7, 2022 at 10:34 pm

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    Good luck with the new job. ?

  72. 72.

    CaseyL

    March 7, 2022 at 10:35 pm

    @Kayla Rudbek: Did you change specialties?  Sounds like you work for a pretty big firm!  Best of luck in the new position!

    I could never pull off the “do something with my hair to make it look professional.”  In my entire life, the only times my hair has ever looked remotely professional is for the first 20 minutes after leaving the salon. (And I stopped going to salons 30 years ago!)

  73. 73.

    Yarrow

    March 7, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    Puppets, you say? How about Peter Jackson’s second film, the puppet musical black comedy “Meet the Feebles.” Watch the trailer at your own risk. The film is currently available to watch on Tubi.

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    March 7, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Percy’s adorable!

    Now clowns…a two-story animatronic clown head? *That* would be fucking scary.

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 7, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Don’t even say things like that.  Nightmare fuel.

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    March 7, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Right?? I knew you’d have my back on this one. Just trying to keep things in proper perspective, shall we say.

  77. 77.

    Kalakal

    March 7, 2022 at 10:56 pm

    @Miss Bianca: We’re in danger of straying into Mr Stay Puft territory here

  78. 78.

    Miss Bianca

    March 7, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    @Kalakal: *snerk*.

  79. 79.

    Kayla Rudbek

    March 7, 2022 at 11:51 pm

    @CaseyL: I am changing specialties and going from being part of a group of thousands overall to being part of a group of about 600 or so. So I can definitely understand that there’s a more personal aspect to a smaller part of the agency. It’s a bit scary as I haven’t dealt with this specialty in a while, but I was so burned out even before the pandemic that it’s going to be a relief to go do something else. And maybe I will have a chance to finally have a life again; I have been running the science career obstacle course since my freshman year in college and I am tired of it.

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