Happy Puppet Hour 2
Directed by: Daisy Tichenor and Jacob Surovsky
Sound Design by: Mia Glenn-Schuster
Composition by: Nick Kassoy
Scenic Design by: Ruby O’Brien
Lighting Design by: Ruby O’Brien
Projection Design by: Ruby O’Brien
Costume Design by: Courtney Frank
Puppet Design by: Jacob Surovsky
Photos by Derek Chrstiansen
Happy Puppet Hour 2 exists in a reality where the TV show from its predecessor, Happy Puppet Hour: Live from Planet G, has become a wildly popular talkshow. Live from Planet G is a talkshow hosted by two aliens, Captain Morglick Longly and First Mate Terry, who came to earth after finding the golden record, which had been taped over by Family Feud and other daytime TV shows from Earth. The show has become so popular that their life story has been adapted into a broadway musical that has attracted some attention from an evil alien in a nearby galaxy. Bringledoom, the afforementioned evil alien, attempts to use their broadcasting signal to lead his ship towards earth so that he may carry out his plan to blow up the planet. Morglick and Terry must power up the kinetic generator, using energy from the audience, to fight back against Bringledoom and save the Earth. Happy Puppet Hour 2 is presented as the final episode of Live from Planet G, featuring celebrity interviews, musical excerpts, and much much more. This sequel takes all the technical flash from the original Happy Puppet Hour and layers it onto a story with a genuine emotional core, all stuffed inside a bunch of blue felt.
Happy Puppet Hour 2 is an incredibly dynamic piece, with scenes taking place everywhere from a space ship to a family feud episode to a dance-a-long sequence led by a robot meant to get the audience on their feet. Because the show is so dependent on audience interaction, the sound design is incredibly malleable inorder to adapt to a wide range of responces, with each soundscape being comprised of multiple elements that can be adjusted manually in real time. The nature of this production, because it includes both excerpts from a fictional musical adaptation of the TV show, Live from Planet G, and segments of the show itself, also required the sound design to conform to two separate aesthetics so the design could help with the differentiation of the two major narratives at play.