Annett Mateo, Theater Puppets and the like

	designer and builder, puppeteer, artist
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	Theater Puppets
			The fearsome Moby Dick! For Clay Martin's witty re-telling of the mariner classic! This is a classic hand style puppet. You can just see the sleeve under his fin. Click on the pictures to see larger, clearer image.

			A classic frog, of course a repressed prince, for Clay Martin. The arms are loose hanging for effect though the fingers(?) are wired so they can be made to hold something. Click on the pictures to see larger, clearer images.

			Anansi the famous spider of the African tales. Clay Martin featured Anansi as his narrator for his Black History Month show. This is a classic hand style puppet. You can't see the sleeve at all as it is tucked underneath. Just the mouth moves on this one. Click on the pictures to see larger, clearer image.

			'Masks' for the Puget Sound Revels annual production of Christmas Revels. This is the Breton version. These are mask/head pieces that are made of a thermoplastic mesh (varaform) so that the actors could have full visibility and they could sing clearly through them. They are for the story of the Green Knight that takes place as part of the whole concert pageant. The characters are Lord Bercilac, King Arthur, Sir Gawain, Lady Bercilac, and Gawain's Squire. They had requested an illustrated kind of look so the colors and details of the faces are deliberatly left quite flat. Click on the picture to see the individual masks.

			Puppets from Jack in the Beanstalk, the annual fall show that Molbak's produces. They do a different show every year. This show was adapted and directed by BJ Douglas. I designed and built the puppets: Jack, the Chicken that lays the golden eggs, and the Singing harp. They are all rod style puppets operated by actors on stage. On Jack, his head turns and his mouth moves, his hands are controlled by rod(s). The chicken's head turns and it's mouth moves, (though it doesn't have lips!). For the Harp, only the mouth moves. They were constructed primarily out of closed cell foam and fabric and are very light. There were also a smaller chicken and harp for when the puppet Jack is up in the Giants castle they remain the same scale. The small chicken is pictured, the small harp isn't. These tiny puppets don't move. Click on the pictures to see larger, clearer images.

			These are a few of the puppets from the Seattle Children's Theater premier production of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe from the 2002/2003 season. Puppet Artistic Director Douglas Paasch. There were over 15 puppets of all sizes from small rats that chewed Aslan's bonds to a 13 foot tall Rumblebuffin. These are the puppets that I designed and built primarily. The two squirrels are having tea with two other woodland creatures played by actors. There are control rods on the back of their heads. The heads have a full range of motion and when the head is pushed forward the hand with the tea cup is raised so they can drink their tea! The little (furrier) guy has to use both his hands to hold his cup. They are mounted to the table. The centaur's back legs are controlled by levers on the actor's thigh. And yes, the mechanism does cross so the gait is correct. The costume nearly completely hid the interesting part so this is a 'naked' shot. Click on the pictures to see larger, clearer images.

			Left are shown some of the puppets from the Seattle Children's Theater production of The Big Friendly Giant from the 2002/2003 season. Puppet Artistic Director Douglas Paasch. There four small, six giant and a variety of shadow puppets built for this play. These are pretty basic puppets. The small ones have arms that are controlled by short rods as their only moving parts. I constructed the bodies for all the small puppets and also carved the Tibbs head and one of the Giant heads. The Sofie puppet had to survive a total of nearly 200 shows on stage most of the show! The giant heads were constructed out of fiberglass for this reason.





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