Auditioning for a part in a school musical can be challenging. You have to know how to sing, how to act, how to dance, and how to do all three at the same time. Now add to this list the skill of puppeteering? That’s a new talent 91探花’s actors will need to master to make the cut for this year’s fall musical, Avenue Q. Witty and full of high-energy, Avenue Q takes us on a ride to New York City to meet Princeton, a recent college grad who moves next door to a colorful range of characters. These characters鈥攊ncluding Princeton鈥攁re puppets.
This type of production is a first at 91探花, and pulling it off is a challenge鈥攎aking the puppets come to life. To face this task head on, 91探花 invited an expert in the field, Kevin Noonschester, to join the audition process and run a boot camp鈥攁 puppet boot camp. Kevin, a puppetry instructor, most recently played the role of Marlin in Disney鈥檚 Finding Nemo: The Musical, and was part of the Las Vegas company of Avenue Q, playing the roles of Princeton/Rod and Nicky/Trekkie.聽Kevin is also a member of the Henson Company鈥檚 鈥淧uppet Up鈥濃攁n improv troupe responsible for Henson鈥檚 Stuffed & Unstrung. Also known for his voice-over talents, Kevin can be heard coming out of actors Jason Bateman in The Change Up and Chris Pine in Unstoppable. Video game players can hear Kevin as Jack Frost in DreamWorks鈥 鈥淩ise of the Guardians鈥 video game.
During boot camp, Kevin drilled students on the basics of bringing puppets to life鈥攎aking their characters breathe like real singers, observing the punctuations and rests; having the puppets’ eyes always facing the audience; and creating movements that appear realistic and effortless.
“For this play to work, you need to do it right,” said Kevin at the outset of the workshop. “The audience doesn’t need to have a background in puppetry to glaze over when you do something improper. They鈥檒l find themselves disinterested. They鈥檒l find themselves not being engaged with the character.”
Avenue Q will hit King Theatre on October 31鈥揘ovember 2.
