Becky Hawkins
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Postcards from the Children's Theater
🕑 Added 2020-12-24 06:55:28 +0000 UTCHi patrons!
My coworker Talon has been filming a series called "How Do You Do" for the children's theater. It's a talk show where he plays both the host AND the co-host, the puppet Perry Winkle.
I'll admit, I spaced out during a Zoom staff meeting, and misheard the puppet's name as "Harry." So I texted a trusted coworker "who is harry??" and pictured Talon working with some difficult actor who wanted endless retakes.
That whole misunderstanding was too complicated to fit into a one-panel cartoon, but it turned out that having Talon deal with a diva puppet worked well with the comic, and was much funnier. I also had fun doing a postcard with 2 very different color schemes to suggest separate settings.
In the Before Times, the newsletter cartoons were usually based on things I saw or overheard from the box office. I also rely on coworkers who interact with more students and kids than I do, and have an ear for cartoonable situations. I was worried that ideas for newsletter cartoons would dry up while we were working from home. But as you can see, working from home has made for lots of funny new situations. I heard that back in March/April, some theater teens were eager to see how our newly weird situation would be portrayed in the newsletter, which is super heartwarming.
This is the first December since 2010 that I haven't been at the theater for the holiday show. I played clarinet and flute for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 2011, and I started working in the box office the next summer. This year we have a holiday special streaming for free, and the theater is empty. In a regular December, we perform the holiday show about 40 times, counting previews and school matinees. So it is weird not to be there all the time, in a constant flurry of phones and ticket printers and crowds.
Anyhoo, Happy Holidays of some variety! Thanks, as always, for supporting me on Patreon.
