She may have a Daytime Emmy nomination under her belt, but it’s Leslie Carrara-Rudolph’s hands and voice that typically get all of the attention.
Most of the puppeteer squats outside the camera’s eye as she performs Abby Cadabby, the 3-year-old fairy-in-training and breakout star of “Sesame Street.”
This time, audiences at the Center for Puppetry Arts are getting an eyeful of Carrara-Rudolph herself, complete with bouncy blond pigtails and infectious smile, as she steps into the spotlight alongside some of her own puppet creations. The self-proclaimed “theater baby” armed with impressive pipes leads the charge in “Wake Up Your Weird,” an interactive performance that reels the audience into the act with puppetry, art, music and storytelling.
“It’s a show and a workshop in one,” she explained after a recent performance. “I basically combine some of the work in my workshop classes with some of my puppets and performing. I talk with the kids about how they can use their voices, bodies and imagination; three powerful ingredients to bring joy.”
Carrara-Rudolph created this show’s brand of joy specifically for the Center for Puppetry Arts, which contacted the puppeteer about mounting a show. Although she uses elements from some of her other original productions, “Wake Up Your Weird” stands on its own as it makes its debut run in Atlanta.
Lolly Lardpop, Carrara-Rudolph’s sock and rod puppet co-star, tips the cute meter with orange locks and helium-pitched vox. Lolly and other characters, including the giant lizard Slax, help move the show along. But Carrara-Rudolph said she and the audience create the show together.
At one point, a drawing of a monster serves as inspiration for the kids to figure out where it lives and what it does for a living, squeezing the juice from their imaginations as the lifeblood for “Weird.” And when it comes to the lyrics for a song about making monster muffins, the young audience fabricates the ingredients, which have run the gamut from chocolate chips to broccoli to toenails.
The 55-minute performance relies heavily on music, and it’s designed to take children on an exploration of language skills and to encourage them “to collaborate with their spirits.” Yet participants aren’t limited to the pint-sized. Carrara-Rudolph said a recent show found both a 5-year-old and a 65-year-old improvising onstage together.
“Wake Up Your Weird” wraps Sept. 26, the day before the 41st season of “Sesame Street” premieres on PBS Kids. Carrara-Rudolph returns to the program with Abby Cadabby, a character that sparks some mock puppet rivalry with the star of “Weird.”
“Lolly is very jealous of Abby,” Carrara-Rudolph joked. “I have to do some intervention.”
All on- and offstage frivolity aside, the puppeteer said she’s truly honored bringing Lolly and company to the Center for Puppetry Arts, a true mecca in the world of puppetry.
“Just like ‘Sesame Street’ is the Olympics of television, performing at Center for Puppetry Arts is a huge honor,” she said. Her first reaction was that Lolly needed a new dress for the occasion.
“The more people who come and discover the center earlier in their lives, the better. Arts don’t play a big enough role in schools, and people should really take advantage of what communities have to offer.”
Preview
"Wake Up Your Weird." 10 and 11:30 a.m. Sept. 23-24; 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Sept. 25; 1 and 3 p.m. Sept. 26. Members $9; nonmembers $16; ages 1 and younger free. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org .
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