Chaos for the kids

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This article was published 04/11/2004 (7715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EVERYTHING seems pretty calm and sunshiny-pleasant in the make-believe world of TV’s Tipi Tales, as puppet youngsters Junior and Russell search for discarded deer antlers in the boreal forest that they and their cousins, Elizabeth and Samantha, call home.

There’s a little bit of excitement when Junior spots an antler lodged in the crook of a tree branch, and a few moments of bickering when whiny Sam tries to force her way into the boys’ fun, but other than that, it’s pretty much another uneventful day in the woods.

Just below ground, however, it’s a very different story.

There’s a sense of carefully orchestrated chaos, and maybe just a touch of claustrophobic alarm, as a clutch of nine Tipi Tales actors, puppeteers and cable-pulling crew members moves, in a swirling, wheeling mass that belies the simple, smooth movements of the three puppet characters above them.

Squatting on low-slung stools that glide soundlessly around the cement floor, encumbered by a maze of wires, rods, microphones, poles, script pages and miniature TV monitors, the real-life performers who control the Tipi Tales kids seem to be doing about a dozen different things at the same time.

Working in clusters of three, they move their stools, manipulate the puppets’ hands, bodies and facial features, recite lines, sing songs and generally create the impression that life is pretty simple if you’re a kid looking for fun, life lessons and small-scale adventures on the mossy forest floor.

“In a way, I would say it’s a cross between acting and dance,” says Winnipeg actor Ryan Black, who provides the voice and head movements for Tipi Tales’ Junior.

“What we’re doing under the set, basically, is moving our bodies in very strange ways in order to set up the shots, and at the same time, we’re trying to project the emotions of the characters’ voices up through these inanimate objects. So what you have to do, really, is be able to ‘send’ the emotion that’s in your voice up through the trigger finger that controls the mouth, while at the same time tilting the head with your thumbs in a way that matches the emotions.”

Black adds that the show’s producers have made substantial improvements to the puppets and sets this year, giving the on-screen product a more realistic look while at the same time making life slightly easier for the folks who toil in Tipi Tales‘ subterranean world.

“Because the puppets are attached to the stools, we basically have to deal mathematically with these huge stools and the geometry of the space,” he explains. “For the second season, the underneath part of the set has been cleared out a lot for us, because last year we were crashing into things a lot and had to spend a lot of time holding ourselves in really strange positions.”

If the look of the show will change slightly when the second season of Tipi Tales premieres early next year, the style and substance of the series most certainly will not.

Tipi Tales, which is produced in a studio at Trinity Television by Winnipeg-based Eagle Vision and airs on Treehouse TV and APTN, remains a show aimed at preschoolers that relies on simple storytelling, gently appealing music (by local kids’-TV legend Fred Penner) and the aboriginal principle of Seven Sacred Laws (love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth).

In addition to Black, the Tipi Tales cast also includes Herbie Barnes as Russell, Jan Skene as Samantha and Rebecca Gibson as Elizabeth. Marsha Knight and Jules Desjarlais co-star as the cousins’ Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather, and the Seven Sacred Laws are represented by Eagle (Ilena Zaramba), Buffalo (Susan Aglukark), Bear (Ray St. Germain), Sabe/Bigfoot (Gerry Barrett), Beaver (Ted Longbottom), Wolf (Curtis Jonnie) and Turtle (Kimberley Dawn).

Series co-creator/executive producer Lisa Meeches says that the new season’s set of 26 episodes (15 minutes each) will adhere to Tipi Tales‘ core values while incorporating a couple of new thematic twists — including a focus in each show on a new Ojibway word.

“That key word will be introduced and then used over and over again in the script; it’s almost as if the script is written around that word,” she says. “One of the things we wanted to be mindful of this year is the growing movement to preserve aboriginal language. This is our contribution to that effort.”

Meeches adds that each episode will also be re-voiced into an Ojibway-language version that will also be broadcast on APTN. The English version of the series also airs internationally on New Zealand’s Maori TV network.

Despite the fact each scene requires a lengthy setup and numerous technical rehearsals, followed by multiple takes and re-takes in a brightly lit studio that gets increasingly warm as the day progresses, there doesn’t seem to be any lull in the energy the actor/puppeteers bring to their performances.

It’s a fact that obviously impresses producer/director Lesley Oswald during this, the last of four weeks of shooting for the series’ second season.

“We do the equivalent of two feature films in 16 days — that’s the amount of script we’re covering,” says Oswald. “We have about 280 scenes that we’ll complete in 16 days. The important thing that (the performers) bring is their energy, their commitment to their characters and their sense of humour.

“We have a rehearsal week, when we go through all the scripts and allow the actors to ask any questions they might have, and we go through all the music with Fred (Penner). And when they come to the set, they generally know the shows and understand where the characters are coming from emotionally, and what I expect from them on the set is that they know their characters and are able to have fun with what we’re doing.”

And that, as pint-sized Junior and Russell continue their above-ground search for antlers while six full-sized adults wheel, twist and contort, recite, sing and snicker their way through the scenes in their under-moss maze, is exactly what seems to be happening.

“It’s pretty neat,” Black reflects. “It’s a real challenge trying to translate all of your facial and emotional expressions into your fingertips. The puppet controls are different this year — their heads turn left and right, and they can bend their bodies forward and back, and adding those two axes of movement requires a whole new set of skills to run the puppets.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca