If you believe in magic, you should work in Children’s Theatre (Part Two)

The evolution of a cardboard camel. Knowing what and when to adapt to keep the “magic” alive.

Making a life size cardboard camel with no budget, elementary school technicians and less than two weeks was no minor feat. It also felt like people wanted us to fail, but that could just be fear talking. The project required us to deviate from our original plan in order to have a walking camel for the performances. So I wanted to share the humps and bumps we experienced and to overcome them!

Cardboard Camels don’t live in the desert

Cardboard camels don’t live in deserts and they don’t store water very well either. In fact, they come to life in workshops at children’s theatres during warm summer days and should be kept far away from water at all times all they turn to mush.

To recap our process thus far this what we did:

1. We made a pattern based on the prototype.
2. We scaled the pattern at 10x the prototype size and traced all the parts to cardboard.
3. We cut cut out the cardboard pieces(with box cutters and scissors)
4. We glued the foam spacers to the neck pieces and threaded the “vertebrae”.
5. We glued the spacers on the legs pieces and head.
6. We assembled the legs with foam spacers at the joints.
7. We cut the ribs for the body of the camel.

Everything was going according to plan, the kids were working fast, the task we manageable and they were starting to conceive how this 1/4inch model would become life-size. However points 6 & 7 were turning out to be problematic.

The Humps

Our output started slowing down. Something was wrong with the legs and body. So we worked on other production elements such as the set and props while we tried to figure out what to do next. It was Thursday of week 1 and time was really becoming an issue. We had 4 day left! The camel and all the other technical elements needed to be done for the following Wednesday’s technical rehearsal. But we needed time to think and pivot because our current plan was not going to work.

The Legs:

The legs went from being seemingly secure and slick to unruly, dangling cardboard bits. The foam spacers at the joints were to big and impractical and did not serve as “cartilage” in the same way as the did in the neck. The foam allowed for excellent range of motion in the neck but was utterly ineffective in creating the right leg motion.

The Body:

The rib patent no longer seemed viable. It presented two major problems:

1.)There was nowhere to attach the limbs securely

And

2.)Where would the puppeteers operate the puppet from?

Knowing when to Adapt

It was at this point that I realised that we were stuck. I could identify how to resolve the limb issue, however, solving the body was dominating my thinking our progress was drastically slowed. I couldn’t understand why it made sense in the prototype but not when making the life size version….

What to do? I was stuck! But we had to have a finished Camel even if it wasn’t EXACTLY as planned, there was not other option but to solve the problem at hand.

So I did the following:

• I took a step back (a.k.a stopped panicking)
• Swallowed my pride
• Reminded myself: “There is a bigger picture!” and reminded myself of the Goal: to have a life size “walking’ camel puppet-THAT’S ALL.
• Evaluated the situation and solutions
• ASKED FOR HELP.
• Decided on an ACTION plan
• Broke the big tasks into smaller manageable tasks.
• Got working with strict time-lines for deliverables

Adapting the Prototype

Often the best way to do so is reminding yourself of the “bigger picture” or “the goal”. By doing rather than planning, you figure things out!

In remaking the model I solved the “leg” problem. The foam spacers were too big. The application in the leg joints was not the same as in the neck. In the neck we wanted a 120 degree-ish larger range of motion. Because this enabled the neck to move up and down and side to side. However, that was too much motion for the leg joints.

So we made simple cardboard spacers, used dowels to make a hinge pin and small bolts and elastic bands as end pieces and washers to prevent the bolts from ripping through the cardboard.

Sharing the load

My mother always says “two minds are better than one!” and I think that in most scenarios that is true. I ASKED for help and it was the best thing I could do. So I called my mom (she is super useful at solving problems, and knows me so it was incredibly useful to bounce ideas off her!).

Knowing when to ask for help, and asking for it is an incredibly valuable skill. Asking for help is not a weakness but rather a strength. Sometimes it is daunting because it means we have to acknowledge to ourselves that what we are currently doing is NOT working AND THAT IS OKAY! Pride and fear of failure can prevent you from doing what you NEED to do, so get over those mental humps and as hard as it is!

I asked a colleague if he could advise me. This was so useful too! He had been using some of the cardboard we had scavenged for a different project and had great patent for little Flintstone like cars that kids could “drive” around the stage. So I asked him if he though a similar patent would work in creating a strong surface to which we could attach the limbs. He said “YES!” and so we made a box like torso that solved both our problems. We now had a secure place to attach the legs to and we had a place for the kids from which they could operate the camel from!

“Be one with the Camel!” — Advice from a Kid

Baby camels are born without humps. They are however able to run within hours of birth.

Making the camel move was the next challenge! Because we had made our legs both secure and ensured the range of motion was sound, adding the controls to the legs and manipulating them wasn’t so challenging. It took 3 kids to puppeteer the camel. Two in the torso: one operating the front legs and one operating the hind legs. A third person manipulated the camel’s head and lead the other two puppeteers!

We used dowels to make rods with which to manipulate the limbs. We added a rod to the head and handles in the “jaw” region for a secure grip. Come show day we had a camel walking across the stage and it was AWESOME!

Watch the camel take its FIRST STEPS!

We had to spend sometime getting the hang of walking, as well as co-ordinating when to move your arms in order to make the camel’s steps seem logical. The kids found it very useful to use breath. Audible breath helped them synchronize their steps (inhale = move back and exhale = move forward). Breath also helped them make the puppet come to life, their exaggerated breathing made the puppets torso move up and down which gave the illusion of the animal breathing! And like little Mat said: it’s only good if you “Be one with the camel!”.

Seeing the kids bring something they made come to life was magically! Seeing them be proud of what they made and most off all that they had fun was the cherry on the cake.

Lesson learned: persevering is not always going to get you to your goal! Sometimes you have to know when to pivot and how to do it (joint’s and all)!

Again I echo this sentiment! Some of the most magical moments that I have experienced watching both professional theatre and children’s theatre is when I see the performers and artisans do or make something that I didn’t expect or think they were capable of doing. It is the suspense of disbelief — therein lies the magic.