Musicals | The Guardian: Paddington stands within touching distance. His fur flutters as he turns, his neat button nose sniffs the air, and his eyes soften with a smile. For years, design details of the bear for Paddington the Musical, directed by Luke Sheppard, have been kept top secret. Now here he is, in his blue duffel coat and red hat. A quiet theatrical marvel. “What we’re doing,” says producer Sonia Friedman, “has never been done before.”
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The rigging of the paddington bear is so ingenuitive, and never something I would have thought of! Arti Shah’s role as a creature performer is such a cool job that I never thought might exist! That reminds me of the rat creatures from Princess and the Bride, but I am assuming that Shah’s performances are much more convincing. I also want to talk about how cool it is that there is an entirely separate actor controlling the voice and facial movements of Paddington. This is a level of theatrics that might not have been thought of, let alone achievable years prior. The integration of technology into live performances has seen such a cool progression over the years, and this integration into puppetry is super interesting. Especially with how much press this has gotten, I hope to continue seeing advances in the fields of both puppetry and technology as a means of creating more realistic theater experiences.
Paddington! When I first saw the production photos, I was genuinely in shock at how realistic the bear looked. The details of the fur and the face, along with the movement that he had, were really cool and made it seem like it was a real bear on stage ( at least in the photos). The overall idea of bringing Paddington to the stage was a great way to create a warm, heartfelt family show, but I would never have thought it could be done, given the requirements Paddington takes on. This puppet/costume is really its own work of art. I wonder what it would be like to act or really more to move in it, for example, how hard it is to see, how are your movement constraints are, etc. The execution of this bear is so inspiring. It makes me want to see the show just to see how realistic the bear moves and how in sync the actors really are.
Oh my goodness paddington is so freaking cute I can't even! Before they revealed how they were going to do this, I had been hoping that they would use a puppet to be paddington, but after reading this article and seeing their process I agree that a puppeteer would have been distracting. The way they have created a bear costume that looks so realistic but is essentially the same thing as the mascot suits you see in theme parks is so cool. I love how they have utilized two performers to make the bear come to life, with one on stage and one backstage voicing the bear and controlling the facial expressions. I think it's really awesome that these two people work so closely together, and I'm sure that they had to form a really strong connection in order to be able to pull this off. I'd be curious to see as well how things go when one of the roles is being filled by an understudy.
I have seen the Paddington reveal all over Instagram these past couple of days. My first introduction to the puppet/costume was just through a video of curtain call. I spent 5 minutes trying to decipher whether it was a puppet or a costume before doing my research and discovering that it is in fact a mix of both. I think it's fascinating that the two actors have been able to communicate and come up with such a wonderful way to bring Paddington to life. It is not easy to make movements and speech compatible if they are not being done by the same person. Everyone I have talked to about the real-life Paddington has expressed that they such a deep love for the fuzzy creature even if its just through a video screen. I love that Paddingtons story has consistently inspired multiple generations and continues to bring creativity and imagination to new audiences.
This article is so cool! I love the Paddington movies, and I think it is so cool that they are bringing him to the stage. The photos of this musical are stunning. Paddington looks so cute! At first, I thought that Paddington was a puppet or a robot of some sort. After reading, I learned that Paddington is actually played by 2 actors. One actor is in the paddington costume and carrying out all the physical movements. The second actor is offstage, and is carrying out all of Paddington’s vocals and facial expressions. I would really like to know how they are able to wirelessly control Paddington’s facial expressions. As the actor inside the costume said that it is very light, there can’t really be an extensive amount of electronics inside. I think it is genius that they are having the person doing the vocals also do the facial expressions, as there will be much less reaction time in the system. I think that oftentimes big puppets are seen as spectacles, but I think that small characters such as Paddington are just as special!
When I first saw Paddington and his costume on my instagram I was immediately blown away. For some reason I thought it was some kind of automation, until I learned there was a real human inside of the bear costume. I found it really cool that there are actually two people behind Paddington, which makes sense though seeing the voice actor is also controlling the facial expression. I’m curious though how much head space that the actor inside the costume has seeing that there are automations for the facial expressions? I also wonder where the actor’s airways are on the costume cause it seems so well hidden in it’s design. I also find it cool that the casting is very inclusive with a wide variety of age groups being on stage. However, when it comes time to recast the on stage actor for Paddington, how many changes would they have to make to the costume?
Wow! I am so excited about Paddington. I was worried that he might come out looking too robotic or uncanny but I think he looks so cute. He captures the essence of Paddington that I think is in the movies and books. I'm so impressed by the ingenuity and also simplicity of how he works. I think it’s very clever to have a creature actor in him and also someone working the facial controls wall voice acting him. That’s very technical but not overly complicated. I also think that it is smart that they have two main actors working the role together, Hameed and Shah, so that they can really meld to play one character together. But I think that it is also good that there are back up creature actors so that if Shah is needing to take a break, she does not become overworked or burnt out, and there are other actors to be able to take her place if need be.
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