I'm not sure how many years it's been since we built the dragon, by now, over seven years, maybe over ten. A team from NYC was employed to design and supervise building a seven headed dragon puppet as represented in the Book of Revelations. It was intended to replace the hand puppet that was used for decades. It is also like twenty times bigger.
Well, when it was announced that the dragon would be built at MPAC (Mitchell Performing Arts Center) the community was invited to volunteer. I figured why not, after all, I am a theatre guy.
So I ended up building the chassis to the body & tail, as specified and assembling the necks, while other people built the paper mache heads and made scales.
Well, after the one week build was done, Alex (the designer) christened me the Dragon Master. So I've been in charge of all repairs, modifications and instructing the puppeteers in operation.
Over the years, I've rebuilt and redesigned numerous aspects of the Dragon. The heads were reconstructed to accommodate a flow of water (silk) which involved modifying the structural and mechanical design of the mouths and the operation of the heads.
The necks we're altered to accommodate the actual operating circumstances, regular annual repairs have been implemented, due to things like the sword fight resulting in damage, but also the original design was insufficient, in terms of durability and didn't really meet the needs of ongoing performance. It was designed as a parade puppet.
Most particularly, this year, I have had to redesign and implement a new spine structure in the tail.
The tail is a very active part of the puppet, having a stinger like a scorpion, which flexes as part of the operation, to represent stinging and pulling down "the stars of heaven" as conveyed in Revelations.
So, the tail has broken numerous times, not only because it was not designed for years of use, but because the puppeteers get excited and wack the tail around a lot.
I will post some photos of the dragon and the rebuilds that have taken place when I can do so.
I have to say that; this year's rebuild has me thinking a lot about the puppetry I want to implement on the parade float for the Gnomes. I'm thinking that the sets and such for the parade float may also be usable in Little Theatre, but I'll talk about that later.
I expect to post video of the tail rebuild and will post a link here.
That's all for now. AG
I've also performed as John for the last twenty plus years.
She represents The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven, revealing the Dive. Good and True in the Word
