Prop: Swan puppet
Appearing in: “Cocktail Time,” City Lit Theater Company
Background: When Page Hearn was adapting P.G. Wodehouse’s “Cocktail Time” for City Lit Theater Company, he was stumped by a scene in which an irate swan tries to chase away people who encroach on his island.
“I considered turning the sequence into an off-stage occurrence,” says Hearn. But then he decided to give the bird a few lines of dialogue.
So Cynthia von Orthal created a swan hand puppet for the role. “I had to pore through a whole bag of feathers just to get about 10 good ones,” she says. “My studio got filled with feathers and sometimes I would get an allergic reaction, so I’d have to stop and clean up.”
She adds: “One of my dogs ripped up a whole bag of feathers and they were everywhere. I think he thought it was a bird.” The swan puppet, fortunately, remained unruffled.
For the bird’s face, Von Orthal wanted an art deco look and an aggressive expression. “I didn’t want it to look too cartoony and I wanted it go with the 1920s style of the show,” she explains. “I had the eyebrows coming in and down over the eyes and up at the corners so the swan would look angry and ornery.”
Actor Christian Gray, who portrays two characters in “Cocktail Time,” was chosen to bring the swan puppet to life. He had already created a “hoity-toity voice,” inspired by watching Warner Brothers cartoons. “Christian took to operating the swan naturally because he wasn’t afraid to play with it,” says Von Orthal.
Other aspects of being a puppeteer weren’t so easy. Gray has to hide inside a big box decorated with reeds that represents the swan’s “island.” “It’s kind of a contortionist exercise.”
Despite the difficulties, a transformation has occurred. “I finally realized one day, when I was carrying the puppet offstage, that the swan was no longer my hand, that the swan is a swan and has taken on a life of its own,” Gray says.
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“Cocktail Time,” runs through Jan. 12 at City Lit Theater Company, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. $24; 773-293-3682.
