Arts & Culture

Adult puppet musical Avenue Q is coming to Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre from Tuesday July 14 to Saturday July 18. Dave Stewart caught up with the puppets and the puppeteers for a chat. (pictures by Richard Wintle)

So tell me about Avenue Q?

Kate Monster: Avenue Q is a pretty downbeat neighbourhood on the outskirts of New York. It’s full of lots of quirky characters who can’t afford to live anywhere else!

Princeton: I’ve just moved here, and it’s great so far. Gary Coleman is the superintendent, how about that?!

Trekkie Monster: Avenue Q nice place for Monster like Trekkie to live. Nice friendly peoples!

How long have you lived here? What brought you here?

Kate Monster: I’ve lived here a few years now. I’m a kindergarten teacher, and with the crummy salary I can’t really afford anything else. My boss Mrs Thistletwat won’t give me a pay rise so I think I’ll be here for a little while longer!

Princeton: I’m the newest resident on the street, so I’m still settling in. I’ve just graduated and I came here to start my life in the real world. So far the real world sucks, but I guess you can’t be a student forever!

Trekkie Monster: Trekkie live here many many years now. Trekkie buy apartment after making good dollar on stocks. In volatile market, only stable investment is porn!

Are you excited about visiting Swindon?

Kate Monster: Oh sure, I’m super excited! We’re here for a whole week in July, so hopefully the weather will be nice and we’ll get chance to go out and explore.

Princeton: I hear there’s an Air Tattoo on whilst we’re in Swindon, which is super exciting!

Trekkie Monster: Are there nice gentleman’s clubs for Trekkie to visit?

The show’s been a roaring success, winning Tony awards all over the place. How has fame changed you? Do you get recognised?

Kate Monster: I’m kinda shy really, so I’m determined to keep my feet on the ground and not get a big head! Although Kevin Spacey tweeted me the other day, that was kinda cool!

Princeton: Sometimes people ask me for my autograph. But then I realise they think I’m Bert from Sesame Street. I guess we do look kinda similar, so I play along to be polite!

Trekkie Monster: Trekkie have groupies now! Trekkie happy to greet his adoring public, and make new pretty lady friends!

Do you find that you have a tendency to burst into song at a moment’s notice?

Kate Monster: Of course, liiiife is a muuuuusical! *ahem*.

Princeton: I try to keep the urge under control, it makes it kinda hard to get a job!

Trekkie Monster: Trekkie no sing too well. Trekkie more into rap.

Kate Monster – what advice would you give to aspiring young Kindergarten teachers?

Kate Monster: I would say, dream big! At the moment I’m a Kindergarten teacher, but my true ambition is to open a school especially for Monsters like me.

Princeton – What advice would you give to young graduates seeking a purpose in life?

Princeton: Don’t give up! It’s a rocky road, and things don’t always go as you plan. Some people have known their purpose their whole life, some people never find their purpose, but you’ve gotta keep looking! And who knows what you will find along the way.

Kate – Amongst your fellow cast members, who is the biggest diva backstage?

Kate Monster: Well, that’s not difficult – Lucy the Slut. Diva is her second name, I’m just glad I don’t have to share a dressing room with her!

Do you think there will ever be an Avenue Q sequel or even a movie?

Kate Monster: Ooh, that would be fun!

Princeton: A sequel! We could call it… Avenue R! No…?

Trekkie Monster: I think movie good idea, but only if Trekkie played by Animal from The Muppets. He my idol!

 

©calyx_Pictures_Ave Q

A chat with the puppeteers on the unique challenges of Avenue Q :

Sarah Harlington (Kate Monster):

“Avenue Q is like no other musical out there. It’s very, very funny, very naughty (in parts!) but it’s also got a really lovely story and a great heart to it. In the show I play Kate Monster as well as Lucy the Slut – which is quite a challenge as there are scenes where both characters are on stage at the same time having arguments! So I’ll be holding Kate on one hand, and there’ll be another puppeteer holding Lucy on here arm. I will speak for both puppets –it’s really difficult, and I have to really concentrate (!) as switching the voices are different for each character. [puts on Kate Monster’s high-pitched voice] ‘Because Kate Monster speaks really high up here!’ [switches to a deep sultry tone] while ‘Lucy the Slut speaks down here like this…’. I also have to make sure I’m in sync with the other puppeteer’s mouth movements.

Had you done any puppeteering before Avenue Q? No, not at all…puppeteering is completely new to me, and when I went to the audition I honestly had no idea whether I’d be any good, but I tried it out, and I guess I must have been alright ‘cos I got the job! [laughs]. But it’s an absolute gift to an actor- having the opportunity to take on such a big role and also gaining a new skill too.

There’s a very ‘adult’ part of the show [a puppet sex scene] which, funny as it is, must be incredibly difficult for the actors to keep a straight face? [laughs] Yeeah… At first it’s so strange because it’s probably one of the hardest puppeteering moments in the show, and when we were learning it of course it’s so funny, and we had mirrors in front of us the whole time in rehearsal, and the puppets are naked and have little furry boobs, and not only that but because it’s so difficult to co-ordinate the moves between my puppet and Princeton, you find yourself concentrating really hard and asking each other really serious questions like ‘when I’m giving you that blowjob is it ok?’ and then you realise what you’re saying and you’re like ‘oh my god…!’. But everyone in the production is so lovely and great to work with, and so talented I even catch myself watching them in the show and have to tell myself ‘Concentrate! You’re in the show!’. I’m really excited to be part of it, and can’t wait to

Favourite Song of the Show?: A song I get to do with Princeton [as Kate] called ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’, it’s one of those songs where having a puppet on your arm allows you to say things you probably couldn’t say if it wasn’t there! I also really enjoy Lucy the Slut’s ‘Special’ because she gets to strut around the stage and really give the song some welly!

Richard Lowe (Princeton):

Although I live in North London now, I’m originally from Cirencester so it’s great to be back in this part of the country! Avenue Q is a show that focuses on a certain street in New York, called Avenue Q, home to an eclectic mix of characters – some puppets, some humans – it’s a good mix, I think. The emphasis is on the relationships they all have, and follows mainly Princeton [who Richard plays] who, just after graduating college, he rents a house on Avenue Q and is basically trying to find his purpose, to find out what he wants to do with his life. And then he meets Kate – his love interest throughout the show – and the rest of the characters – the show really focuses on the community that the street has, in an extremely funny way!

Had you done any puppeteering before Avenue Q? I’d not done puppetry like this before, though I was in a show called The Light Princess at the National Theatre, which involved puppetry, but it was a very different style of puppetry –similar to what you see in War Horse. For example, I was always taught not to take my eyes off the puppet, so that’s really what I knew, and then when I came to Avenue Q, it’s the opposite – don’t look at the puppet, it’s both of you working together…so that was a bit of a strange transition. It’s been a real challenge. The skill making it look easy!

Tell us more about the technical side of the puppeteering itself?

Well – in terms of the lip synching,  it’s not with every word, but every syllable, and, if you imagine your hand inside a puppet’s head, you have to make sure you don’t move the top of the puppet’s head when you’re lip-synching, you have to just try and move the ‘jaw’ down with your thumb, so it takes some getting used to! And aside from the moving jaw, the puppets faces are static – they don’t blink or frown or anything – so it’s our job to create their emotion, so it helps that the audience can also see the puppeteers mirror the puppet’s emotions throughout the show. But I remember when I watched bits and bobs in rehearsals it was interesting just how much emotion you can get through a puppet – just by tilting its head, or looking down a bit.

Favourite Song of the Show?: Agh…that’s such a good question ‘cos I don’t know! I think my favourite to perform is probably Rod’s song ‘My Girlfriend who lives in Canada’. In rehearsal, because it’s such a quick song, it was a real killer on the arm (!) but once I got used to it more and more it became great fun. It’s a manic song but it’s got such a good pay off at the end.

Stephen Arden (Trekkie Monster):

Avenue Q is lovingly ripped off – a pastiche, if you like – of Sesame Street. The characters are very similar to ones that people might remember from their childhood, I think that’s where the show kind of works, it’s almost episodic in its format, so if you grew up watching Sesame Street or any similar kids show you’re instantly familiar with the format. Except this time it’s about adult problems, rather than your ABCs…

Tell us about Trekkie Monster?

Well, he’s a sort of cross between Cookie Monster and The Grouch. Trekkie is a large glove puppet –one of the more complex ones in the show, so it requires a couple of us to operate [co-star Jess Parker is the one in the other glove]. So every move we do is choreographed, everything. Every step, every gesture, everything. It took about a month of rehearsal to get used to it, but even when the show is performed – and I’ve been doing this about a year now- it still takes that level of concentration. Knowing when the other person is walking – so you both move together, for example – you can’t go different ways! You learn to kind of ‘breathe’ as a unit.

Had you done any puppeteering before Avenue Q? No, though I’m from a music theatre background [Stephen starred in Sweeney Todd and Spring Awakening]– lots of singing and dancing, but as Avenue Q is a show that’s been around a while, probably most of us in the musical theatre world have thought ‘I’d love to give it a go!’.

Favourite Song of the Show?: Well, Trekkie’s got one telling you what the internet is for and, er, -is this a family magazine? – no, OK, well he tells us the internet is for porn, and that song usually gets some of the biggest laughs of the night. He’s quite loveable, so when he comes out with these profanities it’s quite funny. The puppets get away with a lot more than humans could – it’s like Rod and Emu – he always got away with misbehaving because of who he is, an ‘it’s not him, it’s me!’ kind of thing. Things I wouldn’t normally say in day to day life I now get paid to say!