THIS IS A SATIRE!
My dolls love museums. That´s why they wanted a set on that subject. First I had planed to work with 10-12 dolls, but over the time, they all found a way to be included in this new play!
It took more than two month to provide the set. I needed new winter-cloth for all 20. That meant a lot of sewing and crocheting. Some of the pullovers and crochet dresses seem to be oversized. That´s purpose. I like the oversized 1980s style and my poor dolls have to suffer from that!
Curtain´s open! Now here´s the play:
On a cold day at the end of winter, some visitors come to see the museums new exhibition!
They walk around from section to section and enjoy the rare artefacts under the observant eyes of the museums watchers.
All is peacefull…But not for long! Trouble comes straight through the front door!
“What´s THIS here? That´s no shopping mall!”
“Of course not! It´s a museum!”
“Why on earth should I go to a museum? I thought, we´d go shopping and have fun, like we always do in our spare time!”
“But visiting a museum IS fun! Look at all the people, admiring this beautiful examples of rare ancient art!”
“All I can see, ist a bunch of morons, staring at some rotten old junk!”
“And this two gloomy penguins over there observe me all the time!”
“That women are museums clerks. It´s their job to monitor! And it´s obvisious, why they stare at you!”
“You mean, it´s my new Sergio Lumpo Ensemble, they´re looking at?”
“Isn´t it AMAZING? I bought it just yesterday!”
“Not everyone has such a good taste like me!”
“My dear, sometimes I ask myself, how WE became friends!”
“Who´s that girl? Look, what a fuss she makes!”
“I don´t know, from where she got THAT clothes!”
Meanwhile, across the room in the “gloomy penguins” corner….
“Have you seen that parrot over there?”
“Yes! That woman must be color-blind!”
“I know that type: Wants everything, knows nothing, but has an opinion on every subject! Typical airhead!”
“But the little redhead with the specs seems to care about her….”
“Life isn´t fair! She has a good friend, who likes her and she don´t deserve it! And I have no one!”
“That´s not right! I care for you! We´re colleagues for so many years now and don´t you think, that´s a bond?”
“I hope, we can always be friends- And colleagues!”
“But now we have to look after the airhead! I hope, she won´t stumble over one of our artefacts while searching for the ladys room!”
“Can´t we drag her out of here?”
“Maybe, if we could start the fire alarm!”
While our penguins laugh, Tulabelle and Elsa, two sisters who share the same mother, but different fathers, enjoy the Asian section of the exhibition.
“Oh sister! Look at all this beautiful things! I really wish, I could have one of those lacquer-vases for my flat! Sometimes you can find such items in antique-shops, but they´re much to expensive for me!”
“I would have bought you one for your birthday in June, but the stock market crashed down last week. I´m just glad, I didn´t loose my job at the bourse!”
“And I´m just another young designer with great ambitions, lots of creativity and no money at all!”
“But one day, you will be someone! And I will soon get back to success again!”
Walking around can be exhausting. So many visitors use the bench-area for a short rest and exchange of views…
“It´s the best exhibition, they had in years! I´m really glad, we came here! Have you seen the Egyptian fresco?”
“Yes! It´s fantastic! It remained for so long and is still so beautiful!”
“I find so many Inspiration for my own art here!”
“And I look forward to your vernissage next month!”
But not everyone enjoys the exhibition that much…
“Oh please! Can´t we get out of here and go shopping? This place is so boring and cheerless! And it gives me the creepes, to see all this dusty old thrash!”
A woman nearby turns around, looks at the airhead and says:
“That´s no “thrash”, Girl! The flyer says, the big amphora over there is around 100 BC!”
“Gosh! That ugly old pot is more rotten, than I thought!”
“Just be brave!”
“If you´re a good girl and let me have the museum, I take you to your favourite restaurant, after we´re finished here!”
“Who pays?”
“I do!”
“Deal!”
Helena made her friend quiet…Now she can walk around having pleasure without someone constantly wailing behind her back…But maybe, they should have skipped the Egyptian section!
“Look at these! Have you seen this amazing dress? Well, THAT´S something interesting! Do you think, a gown like that suits me?
“Please don´t touch, Madam!”
“The mummy! It´s alive!”
“She´s unconscious!”
“So sorry! We did´n´t want this to happen!”
“Something´s wrong over there…We better go and have a look!”
“I´m not sure, if it was a good idea of our management, to hire actresses for a “more lifelike experience” at the exhibition!”
“I think, it was good! At least we can get rid of the airhead and go back to normal!”
“Let´s carry her out, als soon as possible!”
“Have you seen that? Poor girl!”
“Oh yes! Sometimes the beautiful craftmanship of ancient artefacts can really be overwhelming!”
Cast:
Midnight: The Airhead
Helena (actually Tyler): Airheads good friend
Esmé: Miss White, a museums clerk
Tyler: Miss Black, another museums clerk
Elsa Lin + Tulabelle: The two half-sisters
Sabina + Inque: Two girls on a bench
Louise Devereaux: The woman with the red pullover
Antoinette: Cleopatra
Doku: The mummy
Grace, Reneé Devereaux, Velma, Phryne (actually another Velma), Brenda Starr, Mrs. SaintJohn (another Brenda), Magic, Law & Davincia: Museums Visitors
Wigs and shoes: facetsbymarcia
costumes: The house of eder by madeofrags
Behind the scenes:
My sets for Christmas and New year were hard work. Such big sets with so many dolls need weeks, sometimes month of preparation. And the providing of the set, the shooting and editing of the pictures takes another two days. But most of the things went well on both sets.
But this time, the set was a horror.
Often enough, there is a lack of light. But this time, I had much too much. I had to shoot some of the scenes from different angles and the sun-spots more than once ruined the pictures.
And some of the dolls didn´t work the way, I was accustomed.
Usually I can depend on Elsa Lin and Tulabelle. But this time, it was almost impossible to make them stand and hold the poses, the way I wanted. Finally I had to change the complete scene and place the dolls on a bench. Maybe, they didn´t like their parts in the play? Who knows!
It was the same with Sabina and Inque. Both are third-hand dolls and don´t pose very good anymore. So I use them for scenes where they can lie down or sit somewhere. Good background girls, but never the leading ladys…
For Helena and Midnight, I had to use stands. They act in front of all the others and so I had no choice this time, but to fix them, while posing.
In this situation, I found out, that all the rumours about useless doll stands are RIGHT! None of the stands really worked. No matter, what kind of stand I used, the dolls kept on swinging und I don´t know, how often they dropped on the table and caused a domino-effect on everything in their surroundings. The reason is, some of the stands are not solid and others don´t allow the doll to reach the stands base with their feet. They “float”.
Another issue was Midnights wig. (She´s a real Diva!) Whatever I did, the wig constantly fell of her head. And that´s though I used a silicon-cap. It was the same with the little facinator, she wore, even if I fixed that thing with a needle….hopeless case! And that´s the reason, why this headpiece changes positon on some of the pictures.
In the last scene with her, when the museums clerks carry her out on a stretcher, she lost her wig finally…And I didn´t notice, until the shooting was done. I can´t recreate the set , so it´s the way it is! Fortunatelly, the mistake isn´t that striking.
For the stretcher-scene, I had to cheat. No 16″ doll on earth, not even a solid old Tonner, could carry a stretcher with a heavy-weight Sybarite on it. And the older Tonners hands are not made to hold anything. So I scoobed a stool under the stretcher (actually a tray) and covered it all up with the heads of the dolls in front of the scene.
