Scamp Adventures!

March 2^nd and a Monday morning, and I figured out what the heck I am going to do today. It is a drippy day having rained last night, but not enough to wet the inside of the trailer. I missed my sunny day opportunity to caulk the trailer leaky spots. I have been marking the leaks with blue pencil arrows, and will draw my caulk gun next sunny day comes in’ta town. I need a ladder to get on top! Strange, I brought everything else! Well, I could use a drill too! I have a great idea to create a drawing table that folds out in my trailer right under the window which I have opened for the first time with the socket wrench set that Peter saw fit to include. It happens to be my only screened window! So now I need a couple of hinges and a small table top, and a couple of pieces of wood to prop it up, then I have my studio! Yes!

Meanwhile…..what am I doing today? I am going to start making my shadow show, which, this very morning, I decided will be the show idea that started this whole adventure about 14 years ago. I made a rod puppet version of Jack the Dog at a puppet residency in Kookooching County. I was making a demo celluclay puppet head for the students, and I refined it after class to be just as crazy alive as our real Jack Russell dog at home. That is the head of my current Jack puppet. After I painted it, and saw the life in the puppet, I started melding the character of Jack with the idea of getting a Scamp Trailer (the headquarters of Scamp happens to be on the road up to Koochiching County) and touring a show called “Scamp Adventures.” I even wrote a letter to the Scamp Company suggesting that I would like them to make a customized puppet trailer for me and in exchange, I would tour the country advertizing Scamps for them for one year, ending with a stint at their booth at the MN State Fair. They shot back a letter to me saying, “we would not be interested in that questionable kind of advertising.” I guess itinerant puppeteers still have a bad reputation held over from the middle ages! Performing without a license!!!

Now there are guys working near me on a structure, and they have a ladder…and a drill which they are willing to loan. Oh oh, my plans are veering away from creation to the mundane. That happens a lot! I promise to take at least 2 hours on creation today. I will report!