South Bend Civic Theatre Spring Break Camp: The Queen of Flowers

Click through the galleries below to see the amazing work our students at the South Bend Civic Theatre put together for our spring break production camp! All puppets we’re crafted by students with our assistance.

Learning How to Build a Shadow Puppet! (Among Other Things)

They made these tissue paper flowers, following our instructions, they were then affixed to headbands and worn in the show!
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Our final building challenge was for a large scale puppet to be used in the show, and we had various different assignments. I assisted a student in designing an articulating tulip puppet! This is the first draft!
Here are the references used for the first draft, after making that draft we went to the director of that scene to receive notes!
Here is the final design following our notes, with the primary note being the desire for larger petals!
And here is the near finished project, the only thing left to be added was our dowel rods to allow movement!
Here the students can be seen watching a professional shadow puppet show, that like ours used both human bodies and shadow puppets. Great inspiration!
Every day of camp started with a building challenge, making something that would actually be used in the show! Challenge for day one was making shadow puppets and backdrop pieces for our recorded opening sequence!

Rehearsing in Front of and Behind the Screen!

Here several of our students can be seen in our first dress rehearsal, trying on some of our more unique costume pieces!
Our Butterfly with wings designed by Julia Nurenberg!
Here three of our puppeteers can be seen rehearsing their butterfly scene!
And a look at what it looks like from the stage!
A look at our fairy queen puppet, which uses both a shadow puppet and a human arm!
Here Amelia Claeys can be seen directing students as we rehearse for our opening sequence, with all of us giving tips on how to use the puppets!

Mixture of Live and Recorded Performance!

Here you can watch two versions of our recorded opening sequence! The first you can hear the coaching from SBCT Director of Outreach Amelia Claeys as well as myself giving the students tips. I can also be seen feeding our moving backdrop! In the second you see the version used in our final edited opening sequence!

Performing as an Ensemble!

The Queen of Flowers and two of her attendants hear what one of her subjects has to say!
The butterfly tells her story! With two actors on stage, an 5 behind the shadow screen!
The Bee is crowned belle of the ball, and recognized for their hard work in the garden!
Our closing sequence, the bee from the beginning returns healthy again to partake in the flowers nectar!
Our students pose for photos for their families following our first performance at the South Bend Civic Theatre black box.
Their bows for the final show at the St. Joseph County Public Library Main Branch auditorium!
Here students can be seen during one of our dress rehearsals watching our recorded opening sequence, waiting for their cue!