Thursday, June 24, 2004

Me & some of the cast of Avenue Q


Me & the Star of Avenue Q, John Tartaglia, whom I met before when I visited the set of Sesame Street in 2002.

Peter Linz, Me & Jennifer Bernhart. I met Peter before too, wayy back in 1993 at the San Francisco Puppeteers of America National Festival. Jennifer was just featured in the Winter PofA magazine (the one my article was in).

Unfortunately, I was not able to meet Stephanie D'Abruzzo, who had slipped out earlier. It's bizarre, but I've known who she is since 1993 too. Back then I had a Net relationship with a woman named Tori at Northwestern. She was costume designer for Stephanie's student-Emmy winning puppet show video, and had sent me a news article about her work. That's what inspired me to enter my show in the student Emmy's.

Nor was I able to see Rick Lyon, as he was out that day. I met him also at the 1993 PofA Festival, and have run into him several times at puppet events. His understudy Barrett Foa was really good though.

It was kindof funny how I managed to meet these guys. I suppose I could have just waited outside like the other fans, but when I entered the theatre I overheard a woman say "Congratulations!" to an older lady with dark hair and glasses. Hey, that was the producer I saw on the Tony Awards! (Who said "It doesn't suck to be us"). She then told a couple they could stay afterwards and meet the cast. Hmm. It turned out she was there with her parents, and this couple had very generously given up their really good seats so that they could be closer. So during intermission I walked up to the producer (whose name is Robyn) and said "Hi! I saw you on the Tony Awards. Fantastic show so far." She seemed tickled that I'd seen her and said "Oh, thank you. I'm taking my parents to see the show, they hadn't seen it yet." So later after the show (I was in the 2nd row with absolutely amazing seats, by the way), I stuck around and found that couple, started chatting with them and saw Robyn's parents. Asked them how they liked the show. Then Robyn came by and introduced the couple to her parents and looked at me. I introduced myself as Brian, a puppeteer who knew many of the cast. I was wearing my Sesame Street shirt, which I suppose reinforced that. Anyway, when security came by to sweep people away, Robyn said "These two are with me. And this guy..." Hehehe.

Here's Robyn, accepting her Tony Award for "Best Musical."


The next day, John, Stephanie, Jennifer, and Rick were all on the Regis & Kelly Show.


Me and one of my earliest friends, Eric Jacobson. He and I met at a Summer Arts Camp in San Antonio, Texas, back in 1982-4. I played his father in a musical about kids wanting to become videogame designers. We lost touch -- he went to NYU, I went to U. Penn. In 1994, we somehow ran into each other at the Jane Henson talk at the Henson Festival. I had just won my regional Student Emmy for my puppet video and landed a job with a CG Animation company. He had just landed a job with Children's Television Workshop to work on Sesame Street. But then we lost touch again, and it wasn't until 2001 that I saw him on an A & E special about Sesame Street, performing Frank Oz's character Bert. It took a while but I tracked him down, and discovered just how tight the puppetry community really is.
He of course knows all of the above puppeteers.
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posted by Brian at 10:51 AM

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