Piggy puppet play creates challenge for actors

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

BullDog must keep the contrasting personalities of his swine sidekicks straight as well as keep them moving independently as he operates the puppets for HTY's "Cry of the Baby Crocodile." Brad Goda 'Pacific Tales for Young People' A Honolulu Theatre for Youth production 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Saturday, repeating April 24 and May 1 and 8 (11:30 a.m. May 1 show will be signed for the deaf) McCoy Pavilion, Ala Moana Park $12 general, $6 youths 18 and younger 839-9885, www.htyweb.org Also featured at McCoy: "The Little, Little Red Riding Hood Show" Note: "Pacific Tales" will tour all 49 public libraries free in an effort to build literacy skills for toddlers 3-5 and older: O'ahu, now through June 12; Maui County, April 22-23; Kaua'i, May 17-19; the Big Island, May 24-28.

Add a preschool tour, too.

"It's great fun — I'm kind of relishing the schizophrenia in this," he said of the two contrasting pigs he gives voice to, Cheerful Piggy and Selfish Piggy, puppet incarnations created by David Minkoff.

"Sometimes I'm operating the two puppets at once," BullDog said of the frenetic nature of the work at hand. "And narrating in-between.

"It gets slightly confusing, since I have to do the left-hand thing or the right-hand thing, switching back and forth, trying to remember which is Cheerful and which is Selfish."

It's a one-man show, this vignette dubbed "Cry of the Baby Crocodile."

"Crocodile" is a tale from the Philippines in which Cheerful watches a baby croc with devotion and concern, earning baskets of fish from the grateful mommy croc, while Selfish, the jealous brother pig, is mean to the baby croc and winds up with spiders and rats and uncheerful stuff.

"Because this is a puppet show, I hardly use my body," said BullDog, a member of the HTY acting company.

"But my face has a workout, especially when I'm animating the good piggy. Cheerful is very fun-loving, kind of a sing-song kind of a boy who loves to hum and sing; he's got a streak of helpfulness in him and can't resist helping, when he can."

And Selfish? "Lazy, greedy, who hasn't realized how to be nice, how to care."

Stuff that appeals to preschoolers and younger, who can hail the good pig and hiss the bad one.

Designer Minkoff, formerly of Hawai'i but now working out of Chicago, came home to design the puppets, sets and costumes.

"I have to be honest: The pigs were born in Chicago," he chuckled about where the creatures were "conceived."

Minkoff created other puppets, such as the mommy croc and the baby croc, as well as a large frog puppet, formed from an umbrella, for "The Really Big Frog," one of two other plays under the "Pacific" banner (the third piece is "A Brand New Tale," an improv based on ideas from each audience).

Because HTY is touring this show extensively, Minkoff had to create two sets of puppets, sets and costumes, because while BullDog is on tour with his version, his HTY colleague Hermen "Junior" Tesoro is doing the same thing on a different itinerary.

"I believe this was an HTY first," Minkoff said of the dual cast.

On a very small scale, it's like a show producer touring two companies of "The Phantom of the Opera" with double the costumes, props and sets. You get a different performance flavor from each actor.

With the puppetry, HTY also is adopting a technique that's a current New York vogue: using inanimate characters, "Sesame Street" style, in a way that echoes Broadway's "Avenue Q," a production featuring a company of actors who each work with a puppet or two.

Minkoff said that to accommodate HTY's dual shows, slight modifications were made to the puppets.

"The adjustments were made to fit the actor; one is left-handed (Tesoro), the other, right-handed (BullDog), and with BullDog being shorter than Junior, there were some other refinements," said Minkoff.

The production is literally a suitcase theater outing, with the actors traveling with all their needs in steamer trunks, which are also used in the show.

The puppets are tucked into the cases for ease in transport, whether by BullDog's or Junior's car, or airplane.

"Everything lives in these boxes and comes out for the show," said Minkoff.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.