Kangaroo Jumps for Monkeys

Here is a demo pair of the Kangaroo Jumps that we may want to use on a couple of the lesser flying monkey's. They are really fun!

Makeup

As you can tell by the number of posts recently that we are ramping up very quickly for OZ!

We are approximately 1 month from the beginning of rehearsals. Yesterday we had the great opportunity to start demo'ing some of the makeup and applique' techniques that we will be using in our production.

We had the chance to work on the Poppies design. In the pictures you will see that we are creating flower petal applique's that will surround the actors eyes. The idea is that the Poppies are actual plants that seduce the Lion and friends to put them to sleep. So we have been looking for an exotic look to the makeup and costume.

It was very important to me that the petals around the eyes look like the are growing out of the skin of the actor. Along with the make up the costume pieces will look similar, where there are flower petal and vines that are growing out the actors skin. The inspiration for this design came from the character of Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman in Batman. Attached are some of the pictures of the process and the design plate.

As you can see in the original design we have changed the idea of the flower petal head piece which in my opinion was more child like. We wanted to lean more realistic and sensual in the expression of the character.

Check back soon for out posting on casting updates...including our 35 kids and teenagers that have been cast in this production making it the largest in Carousel's 35 year history!

Costumes and Puppets Designs

Dorothy

Scarecrow
Lion
Tinman

Securing The Path

Well the last month has been very challenging (to say the least.) So here are the updates:

Casting: Casting is almost complete. Casting has almost been complete for over a month, however we keep losing cast members to National Tours and Broadway. Such is the price for brining in highly talented artists. We just had one cast member leave our production becuase they have been cast as an immediate replacement in the National Tour of Wicked. To date we are missing 3 cast members. The current cast list is as follows:

Dorothy : Kelsey Crouch Pinter

Scarecrow: Ben Franklin (Ben perviously worked on our acclaimed production of CATS in 2004)

Tin Man: Chad Coudriet (A graduate of the Musical Theatre program at Baldwin Wallace College

Lion: Michael Daly (Michael was seen previously in our production of Singin' In the Rain 2006)

Witch: TBA

Glinda: Mallorie Fletcher

Aunt Em: Jessica Kadamenos (Seen in Singin in the Rain 2006)

Uncle Henry/Wizard: Michael Ianucci (Seen in CATS 2004)

Ensemble: Chip Abbot, Joey Abramowitcz, Paul Aguirre, Michael Dale, Lani Corson, Amber Mack, Katrina Newman and others

We are currently casting 10 Teenage cast members and 30 children for this enourmous production.

The Set: Has been Designed and is currently in the construction phase at our scene shop. I am attaching a picture of Robert Kovach's design (see above)

The Costumes: Wohoah...the costumes. Dale DiBernardo has taken on a huge project. Also attached are some of the prelim designs for the show. We are so excited about the production values of the show.

The Puppets: Robin Van Lear and Ian Petroni are designing and executing some really amazing and fantastic pieces for this production. In the next few days we will post images of the costumes and puppets as designed by Dale, Robin and Ian.

Sean