Back in November last year, I was asked by Tanya, the author of our upcoming pantomime, if I would make a parrot puppet for the show. I was a bit surprised since the show was Cinderella and I wasn’t aware that there was a parrot in that panto. But then, when I read the script I found that it had a camel in it too, so what was a parrot between friends?
I agreed to make the puppet and, having found the appropriate place in the script, I set about working out how it was to operate.
The scene was nearing the end of the panto when the comedy duo, Stanley Wright and Ivor Watt (you can imagine the “he’s right and what’s what” dialogue), were returning from their holiday in South America and had arrived at Compton Abbas Airfield in Dorset. Upon being so requested by a customs officer Mr Watt placed their suitcase on the customs desk to be checked. The customs officer proceeded to pull out of the case what appeared to be a dead parrot. This parrot would, after having been banged on the desk (à la Monty Python sketch) and thrown back into the case, climb back out of the case, hiccupping the while.
It would be necessary for the puppeteer to be inside the desk so as to manipulate the parrot whilst assisting the customs officer to pull odd things out of the case like the vodka bottle the parrot had emptied, a washing line (for shopping on line) sporting all sorts of odd bits of clothing; an old fashioned phone with ears eyes and a mouth ( a head phone); a basket (for the on line shopping); a bag of apples (Apple Pay); a fish and two tins (a perch for the parrot and toucan as company for him); a credit card, and a teddy dressed in a PayPal tee-shirt, just in case the Apple Pay and the credit card weren’t enough to pay for the shopping; and an email invitation to the wedding of Cinderella to Prince Lee.
The puppeteer had to manage this while at the same time holding the drunken parrot high above his/her head so that it could be seen to be watching the action and hiccupping loudly from time to time.
This needed some thinking about. Obviously it was necessary for the base of the case to be removed and for a similar sized hole to be cut in the top of the desk so that the various items could be handed up to the customs officer – that seemed straight forward.
The puppet would need to be at least life-size, and reasonably strong to withstand being bashed about. The scene was not a long one, but nonetheless a sufficiently substantial puppet might be so heavy that holding it up in the air would be painful. The answer of course was two parrots. One which could take the abuse, and one which was light and manoeuvrable and the beak on which could open and close. To be able to manipulate the beak the puppeteer’s hand would need to be inside the parrot’s head, but since it would be way above the case on the desk the puppeteer’s arm would have to be inside the parrot’s body as well.
My thought was that the parrot could stand on the rim of the case and this should help the puppeteer hold the parrot up for the length of the scene. I discussed this with the director of the panto and it was agreed that this would be the best option. I also offered to be the puppeteer, mainly because it would be easier to fit the parrot to my arm if I was to “wear” it than to have to keep checking the fit with another person.
Unfortunately the customs desk and the suitcase were not available for me to work with – the desk not yet having been constructed and the suitcase not chosen, but I was anxious to get on with making the puppet because the cast members who would be in this scene would need to be able to rehearse with both the parrots.
The puppet would need to have legs and feet so it could stand on the edge of the case. I could also have it “walk” along the edge of the case by having one of the legs more moveable than the other and attaching an operating stick to the foot. I would then be able to make it side step along the case and back again. I might also be able to mimic the parrot scratching it’s head with that foot.
I’d decided on a red macaw so I did a trawl of our two charity shops to find some really bright red and blue fabrics. On my first foray I found a large Christmas stocking in bright red foam-backed velour, some red lining material and a bright blue plastic mac. Subsequently I came across a bright royal blue velour jogging suit – trousers and hooded top – and I used that instead of the mac.
As the puppet would have to be at least life-size, I did my usual trawl through Google for skeleton and size information as well as reference pictures. It was at this stage that I decided to go for a Red and Green Macaw because it’s a bit bigger than a Red Macaw and has green rather than yellow feathers on its wings. (I can’t remember now why the colour was important).
Next I got out my stash of empty plastic milk bottles, wire coat hangers, some thinner wire and my masking tape. Having consulted the skeleton for sizes and fashioned the legs from bits of the coat hangers, attaching feet made from the thinner wire, I wrapped the “thighs” with some of my non-woven cotton cloth and covered the lot with masking tape.
Then, using the skull images for size and shape, I made a rough shape of the head from bottle bits.
After first attempting the parts of the beak using curved bits from the life-size milk bottles, I decided that I’d be better off needle felting them, especially as I had been advised that the parrot’s head should be oversized for the body, to be more easily seen by the audience – the milk bottle beaks weren’t big enough. The felt beak was a better idea anyway as it enabled me to stitch on the inside a piece of foam tubing just big enough to get a finger inside which would help with opening and closing the beak. I stitched the beak parts to the head – one advantage of using milk bottle bits is that you can stitch through them quite easily.
I drew a line on the skull where the white skin of the face would meet the red head feathers and covered the face with masking tape. Then, using black glass eyes, I constructed slightly protruding eyes surrounded by masking tape eyelids, Next came the head “feathers” using part of the toe of the Christmas stocking, which was basically the right shape. This was stitched on following the line I had drawn and the top of the beak.
Finally I painted the face white and added the red lines which appear on a parrot’s face and I also added extra pieces of the red velour to the puppet’s neck.
Next the body, which needed to be hollow so that I could get my arm up through it with my hand protruding from the top so it would go inside the separate puppet-head. This would dictate the size of the body – from my wrist to the crook of my elbow – as my elbow had to be outside the puppet. I had already made a pattern for the body based on the skeleton image which I had downloaded and luckily it was the same length as my forearm. The body “skeleton” was constructed from a couple of milk bottles stitched together and covered in masking tape.
The legs were then attached to the body with more wire and so that the right leg could be moved up and down and side to side using the stick which was attached to the foot for ease of manipulation.
The legs and the lower part of the body were painted red, rather than covered in fabric “feathers” . The body front was covered with more of the red Christmas stocking fabric.
A tail was needed and this would have to cover up that part of my arm which wasn’t inside the puppet. I made it from pieces cut from the foam sling which the hospital gave my husband last year after he tried to cut his thumb off with a circular saw. I covered this (the foam, not the thumb) with blue velour from the jogging suit. I also cut three foam feather shapes which I covered in some of the red lining material and these were stitched to the blue tail and then onto the bottom end of the body front. I also added some more blue velour to the front of the body between the legs.
Next some wings. These I also made from the foam sling and covered with blue velour and red lining material and also some green fabric – painted calico. When all was stitched down, Polly was finished.
Time was getting on by this stage, it was January and the desk and suitcase still hadn’t appeared so I couldn’t practice the moves Polly would have to make. However I still had to make the other parrot – the “dead drunk” one. With so little time available it would have to be a lot less detailed if more substantial than the puppet.
Out came the milk bottles again and the foam sling. The body was just one bottle – a bit square-ish but it would have to do – covered in red lining material. I made a pair of legs with feet with wire covered in masking tape. These were attached to the body – stuck straight out in a “dead bird” position. The shape of the wings and tail was cut out of the last of the foam sling and this was stitched to the body, then covered in red, green and blue fabric. The head was made in a similar way to the puppet’s but with closed eyes. The beak was actually the one previously made from bottle plastic covered in masking tape and painted. The head was stitched – very firmly – to the body. It stood up well to being bashed against the table, thank heavens.
I think it was barely 2 weeks before actual performance that the customs desk and the suit case turned up for us to rehearse with. It transpired that, because of the size of both, I was only going to be able to get head and shoulders and body down as far as breast bone visible to the audience, so I needn’t have spent time with the legs and tail after all. Had I known I might instead have made the wings so they could open. After a few rehearsals I decided that, for operational reasons, I would actually fix the puppet’s head to its body permanently.
Here he is performing his little heart out!
