The parade float is starting to look a bit different than originally thought. I'm more inclined to make the stage to be more a backdrop than a performance stage. Of course, it is being designed and built to be as flexible as possible (for various applications), but in terms of the "Gnomes of New Hope", I see it more as a presentation of animatronic puppets with the live performance taking place in front of or around the stage area. In the event that the parade ends in a festival or craft fair, then the float will serve as part of a public performance, but mostly as a backdrop. The reason is primarily size. The sets on the parade float will be sized for the puppets and not live performers, making the play area down in front (so-to-speak).
Initially I had, thought that the sets for the parade float would be shared by the puppet show, but I'm not so certain of that now. That's a possibility, but there are set-up issues with that if it is tied to a parade. I think leaving the animatronic float as a separate "cyclorama" on exhibition in a festival environment simplifies matters and would be just as, if not more, effective. The other issue there is the complexity of wiring and mechanics for the float to be animatronic. In all likelihood, I will design the float with the ability for the chassis to be removed from the upper stage. That way we can build multiple floats that can be serviced by the one chassis. That would also allow the "float" to be used as a fixed stage for any given period if time.
More on this later. AG
