"Seussical" News: Benilde-St. Margaret's Students Bring Puppets Alive in Whoville

Chaska Valley Family Theatre has teamed up with Benilde-St. Margaret's (BSM) students to design the operating mechanisms for several puppets in the upcoming production of "Seussical-The Musical".  Personally, I can't wait to see what they come up with! Check this out...

Benilde-St. Margaret’s students and Cody Braudt of CalArts/CVFT pictured here outside the lab, "Where the magic happens"!

When the Chaska Valley Family Theatre (CVFT) stages “Seussical-The Musical,” June 21-30, some of our favorite Dr. Seuss characters will come alive with the help of student engineers at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School (BSM).

About a dozen students have volunteered to meet outside of class in the BSM Advanced Competitive Science (ACS) lab every Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. until June 5. As a team, the students are designing the mechanisms animating the feathered and painted creatures that will populate such magical places as the Jungle of Nool and Whoville. The fabrication of the puppets will be done by CVFT puppet designer, Cody Braudt.

“We’re imagining what it will take to make eyes blink and beaks open and close,” said Rachel Thorstenson, BSM Class of 2013, daughter of Tad and Sheila Thorstenson, Plymouth. “We’re also figuring out how to give the birds’ necks and heads full range of motion controlled by the puppeteers. We may be doing some computer-aided design work, too,” she added. Some of the BSM students may attend rehearsals and performances to serve as advisors to the puppeteers.

The father/daughter team of Mary Pat Ross, BSM Class of 2015, and Randy Ross, Excelsior, is co-directing the production. “It’s fun to be working with my dad on this project,” said Mary Pat. “It’s also fun to have my fellow Red Knights involved.”

Once the mechanisms are designed and built, they will be placed inside the puppets and the actors will continue to work with the creatures and bring the story to life (more on that later!). Thanks to MRCA, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. The show will feature more than 100 specially designed and handcrafted puppets! Please continue to join us over the next few weeks as we take a behind-the-scenes look at puppets in the making.

Many thanks to Melenie Soucheray,  BSM director of marketing and communications for her work on pulling this information together. I know this has been a great project to work on -not only for the students but for CVFT as well.

For those of you who don't know about the other wonderful things going on at Benilde, please check this out:

Benilde-St. Margaret’s School is a Catholic, co-ed, college-preparatory school, grades 7-12 located in St. Louis Park.  Advanced Competitive Science (ACS) is a conceptual engineering program in which students explore mechanical and electrical systems through fabrication and assemblies, design processes utilizing 3D modeling tools and control systems incorporating sensor interfacing, data collection, motion control and embedded logic programming. To learn more about BSM and its college-preparatory curriculum, including the ACS program, go online: BSMschool.org.

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Jibs 

CVFT Theater Lover & Ensemble Singer Extraordinaire