First: tickets are on sale! Go get your tickets! I’m quite happy with how the site turned out. Let me know what you think!
Also, here are the skeletons, looking rather lively:
They’re all wearing last year’s skulls and I’m really impressed with how sturdy they all are! Except the one with its leg up. That was the first one I built and its armature was designed differently. You’ve seen that one before—it used to juggle. But it’s different now.
I always planned to have two separate skeleton gags that functioned as one forensic story: one skeleton that lost its head and is trying, hopelessly, to find it; another skeleton that is playing, carelessly, with that same skull. Some variation of this has been in every version of this show, going all the way back the very first plans in April 2016 (it used to be three skeletons playing keep-away). The tossing animation was going to be difficult, so I came up with this juggling animation more recently. Still difficult, but approachable.
I decided I wanted to feature skeletons on the poster, and these two seemed a natural fit, but I wanted more interaction between the two figures. Juggling became a precarious balancing act, trying to stay undetected by the seeker. It’s funnier and more visually interesting, I think!
Working on these sculptures, I decided that that pose is what should show up in the show too. If it’s more visually interesting on paper, it should be pretty interesting in three dimensions as well. Plus, it’s a more reliable animation—the teaser is now just kind of wiggling, trying to keep balance, which means fewer moving parts. And, when people see this, they’ll remember these two characters from the poster! It’s all more coherent. I’m happy.
By next week, all the skeletons will be done. Like, done done. Painted, moving, everything. Ready to get the heck out of my apartment and go back into storage until it’s time to bring them to the theater. Whoo! See you then! Buy your tickets!