The Nine-Foot African Elephant

Early on: “I want to see the cast in character come across a bridge or down a street behind the elephant,” mused Doug Roysdon of Mock Turtle Marionettes as he sketched the frame work. “Then they become puppeteers.”

This says a lot about the dynamics of good puppetteering. The cast in character without the puppet would be grotesques and the puppet itself a peculiar nine foot thing that doesn’t move.

Like all good art, it first bounces off the retina, then it bounces off the brain and then the heart. And its ready to sing.

But first one has to build it.

The elephant has become a lynch pin. As Jp Jordan mentioned in the discussion of the formation of the script, the Pageant Wagon provided an aspect of spectacle. Originally the thought was to pull the wagon with horses. As Director Christopher Shorr and Artistic Director Jp Jordan walked Lehigh University locations, I mentioned that in my years of location work horses are a real mess in public space. Both physically and economically.

Since Dan Rice was famous for his elephant and the first to teach an elephant to walk a tight rope, was there any possibility of the elephant? JP immediately thought of Doug. “Doug can build anything.” He had done the large puppet work on Quixote.

I was taken by the iconography, as well as, the symbolism and metaphor of the elephant. Elephants are the symbols for Lincoln’s Republican party. And the idea of the burden of a “snake oil wagon” being pulled by a captured African, most likely brought by boat… well has a ring to it.

Doug and Rob White of Touchstone have been making the skeleton of Dan Rice’s elephant, which will pull the circus wagon in A RESTING PLACE. “At first, we considered bicycle wheels, but it’s going to be too heavy. Maybe wheel barrow wheels, but they have to be pneumatic to absorb the shock.”

The frame and cover will weight about 200 lbs and rise about 9 feet. As well as carrying Rob and a least a child. So stability and balance are concerns. A run away elephant is no more welcome in 2012 than mid 19^th century. This was solved with industrial casters with set brakes.

Construction is conditioned upon the ability to disassemble and reassemble efficiently for transport to five locations in the single week of A RESTING PLACE performances. After full construction Doug will check and see where plywood can be stripped to reduce weight.

“I’m thinking in terms of a Kite.”

“The toughest part will be the placement of the wooden slats, which bow and give shape to the haunches.” muses Rob White as he cuts another of the 40 3 inch slats.

Doug has decided to add another thinner slat directly above the main slats.

“It’s more work but it will have more of a 19th century feel to it. The over slats will be painted black to have the look of metal. This is the WAR ELEPHANT!” says Doug.

“But the more I look at this wood, beyond that, the more I think we should let it alone. We’ll have to look at it and see.”

Of course, one always wonders if this kind of craziness works. The answer seemed to come at two of the actors after more than four weeks of rehearsal see the first presence of A RESTING PLACE that was not words on paper.

This will work.

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H. Scott Heist
journalist in residence
Touchstone Theatre’s A RESTING PLACE

© h scott heist 12

Contributions are the work of H. Scott Heist, journalist in residence. Both photographs and copy are reserved. Use is by permission for the promotion and appreciation of the Civil War/Cemetery Project. All inquiries and comments are both invited and appreciated.