Mesner Puppet Theater CONTACT Mike Horner 1006 East Linwood Blvd. Kansas City MO 816-756-3500 mike@mesnerpuppets.org mesnerpuppets.org 501 (c)(3): Paul Mesner Puppets 64109 Project Budget Grant Request $26,250 $4,000 PAST GRANTS AWARDED 2014 Family - Ragtime to Bebop: the Story of Kansas City Jazz (Paul 2008 Project - Hansel and Gretel (Paul 2005 Seed - Songs of Mayhem (Paul 2003 Project (4k) - Chupacabra (Paul 1990 Project (2.5k) - Sidewalk Poems (Paul Hola! Hola! is a English/Spanish bilingual production that will be mostly non-verbal and told through pantomime. Our story is about a little granny who loves to cook a jealous chef who tries to steal her recipes. When Granny travels to Mexico, she takes her recipes with her, and the meddlesome Chef and a helpful bilingual pigeon follow in pursuit. VIDEO SAMPLE Title: Hola! 9/8/2016 Artists: Puppeteer, Mike Horner; Story & Design, Mike Horner and Paul Mesner Description: The video demonstrates the way in which pantomime, a typing bilingual pigeon and music will be used to tell the story of the granny as she travels through Mexico. FAMILY
Hola! By Mesner Puppet Theater Henson Family Grant Application Concept With Hola!, we wanted to explore a new approach to an English/Spanish bilingual production. The show will be mostly non-verbal and told through pantomime. Throughout the show, Spanish words (and their English equivalents) will be projected onto the set, identifying objects and actions integral to the action and plot of the story. A friendly pigeon with a typewriter is the source of these words, pecking away at her keys while the words appear above her head. Story Our story is about a little old granny who loves to cook and bake. Granny s most beloved recipe is for her signature cookies. A professional chef who lives next door desires to learn the secret ingredient in Granny s cookies. He tries to steal the recipe but is repeatedly thwarted by his own bumbling or by the typing pigeon that lives on Granny s balcony. When Granny leaves for a vacation to Mexico, she takes her recipes with her, and the meddlesome Chef (and helpful pigeon) follows in pursuit. In Mexico, Granny enjoys her vacation, snorkeling in the ocean, lounging on the beach, and hiking through the jungle. She also explores the culture through the music she hears, the people she meets, and the new foods and flavors she encounters. All the while, the jealous Chef trails behind Granny, always trying to snatch her recipe in absurdly ridiculous ways, much like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. The pigeon helps Granny along the way in evading her pursuer. Granny eventually meets a young Latina woman who shares her love of cooking and baking. After they exchange recipes, the Chef catches up to them and learns the universal ingredient that makes their recipes so successful: love. Granny returns home with new recipes and a new appreciation for other cultures. Production We will combine rod puppetry with projections to tell this story. Front and rear projection will be utilized to create the scenery and varied locales that Granny visits. We will create animation and video sequences for certain segments (such as underwater scenes) and find ways to combine puppetry with animation/video to achieve certain effects (like having a video pigeon fly into a scene and be replaced by a puppet pigeon as it lands). We have partnered with a Mexican sculptor based in Puerto Vallarta to create heads for our characters.
Mesner Puppet Theater, Founded in 1987 Mike Horner, Artistic Director, was a creative force with Mesner Puppets for ten years before being named Artistic Director in 2016. He is the principle puppeteer for the company as well as the lead puppet builder and designer. Horner performs in Mesner Puppets' annual season of shows at the company's theater and tours nationally and internationally. Horner has built puppets for other theaters' productions in Kansas City, including "Shrek the Musical" at the Jewish Community Center and "The Oldest Boy" and Hand To God at the Unicorn Theatre. Paul Mesner, puppeteer, author and performer became interested in puppetry at an early age. As a teenager he studied with Lee Ridge in Lincoln, Nebraska before starting his own puppet theater in Omaha. He toured his shows throughout Minnesota before studying at the prestigious International Institute of Puppetry in Charleville-Mezier, France. He moved to Kansas City where in 1987 he founded Paul Mesner Puppets. His awards include two UNIMA-USA Citations for Excellence in Puppetry for Sleeping Beauty and Wiley & the Hairy Man, the Distinguished Service to Education Award from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and 2015 Individual Artist of the Year from Missouri Arts Council. Alberto Trejo García, puppet sculptor, graduated from the Cuale River Island Sculpture Workshop under the tutelage of Francisco Quintero. His papier mache and clay sculptures can be seen in group exhibitions in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as well as in collections all around the world. Most of his pieces are in papier mache, dedicating their designs to a creative stream of imaginary beings verging on surrealism, dotted with motifs and colors typical of Mexican handicrafts. Mesner Puppet Theater is a globally known professional puppet theater company whose local season attracts around 12,000. National and international tours entertain an additional 30,000+ children and adults at performing arts centers, schools and libraries across the country and, last year, Germany and India. The company believes wholeheartedly in entertaining audiences and doesn t mind including deeper meanings when no one is looking. Mesner Puppets collaborates with local and national artists, musicians, fashion designers and crafts people to create puppetry with an engaging sense of humor. The company uses a variety of puppet styles, from finger puppets to rod and stick puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets, and bigger than life-sized puppets worn by performers. Our Mission: Innovative storytelling that captures imaginations and inspires communities. Our Vision: Collaborative cultural ambassadors telling stories through theater with puppets to educate and enhance communities. Community Impact Statement: Theatrical experiences that encourage a sense of community and creates a place to explore feelings, thoughts, and ideas through artistic means. We present nearly 200 performances per year attracting an average of 30,000 audience members. Many of our attendees are experiencing theater for the first time.
Hola! Show Budget Show dates: Production Hola! Nov 9-20 2016 Music Director $2,000 Puppet Design $750 Puppet Construction $5,000 Set Design/construction $1,500 Projection $750 Lighting Design $750 Lighting/Sound Operator Sound Design $1,500 CostumeDesign/construction $500 Stage Director $2,500 Production Manager $750 Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Staff Puppeteer (s) $2,500 Contracted Puppeteers/Actors $2,000 Other musicians $4,000 Script consultant/permissions Construction materials & supplies $1,000 House manager $750 Total Production $26,250 Company Managment Program Printing & Graphics $220 Office rent Staff cost $520 Postcard printing $482 Brochure design $188 Brochure printing $1,265 Brochure/ postcard mailing $1,261 Advertising $1,181 Kansas City Star KCUR Radio $275 Total Company Management Expenses $5,392 Projected Income Ticket Sales $6,221 Grants received $1,379 Other local funders Total Income $7,600