Cap Puppets

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Puppeteers
  • Association
  • Puppeteers of America
  • Performing art
  • Finance

Cap Puppets

Header Banner

Cap Puppets

  • Home
  • Puppeteers
  • Association
  • Puppeteers of America
  • Performing art
  • Finance
Puppeteers of America
Home›Puppeteers of America›Kidscreen »Archive» How Waffles + Mochi found their puppeteers

Kidscreen »Archive» How Waffles + Mochi found their puppeteers

By Anne Davis
March 15, 2021
0
0



Significant strides have been made over the past year to improve behind-the-scenes diversity in the children’s entertainment industry. But when Higher Ground Productions started launching their new series Waffles + Mochi, the studio realized that a group was being left out of these inclusion efforts.

“The puppet community is very intimate,” says creative producer Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen. “You will receive many recommendations for very famous people. [We heard], “ This person is really great because she is technically advanced and has worked on Sesame Street“. But what was really important to us was finding the right voice. Often this voice is in an under-represented community [where the talent] may not be represented by agents or have a detailed curriculum vitae. “

Produced by Michelle and Barack Obama’s production company, Waffles + Mochi launches on Netflix this Tuesday. The hybrid series follows a pair of puppet characters as they explore a grocery store to discover and taste new foods from around the world. Michelle appears in every episode, along with other guest chefs and celebrities. Creators Erika Thormahlen and Jeremy Konner (Drunk story) are inspired by a frozen food aisle in a grocery market.

Shamsid-Deen and his team auditioned a large group of puppeteers to complete the cast, but they also reached out to everyone they could in the wider puppet community for recommendations. And YouTube and social media sites have helped them find people online who may not have been imbued with puppeteers, but who had tried something innovative on their own channels. The team also looked for foodies who could be trained as puppeteers, says Shamsid-Deen.

The show’s headliner is Michelle Zamora, who had helped Higher Ground find talent as a consultant before Shamsid-Deen realized she would be perfect as a Waffles.

“She’s a mother, but she was also the only person on set who was a Latinx woman and a puppeteer,” Shamsid-Deen says. “She was giving us a lot of technical advice – like how to eat a puppet – and we realized as we worked with her that she was Waffles.

Russ Walko stars as Mochi, with Jonathan Kidder, Diona Elisa Burnett, Taleia Gilliam, Andy Hayward, Piotr Michael and George Konner to complete the cast.

Higher Ground is collaborating with Partnership for a Healthier America on the show, and its mission is to encourage kids to learn more about food and inspire even the pickiest eaters to try something new. As an adult who dislikes lobster, this is a lesson Shamsid-Deen relates to.

“We want kids to see something that can turn them on, and put it in their mouths and say, ‘Hey, I like it or I don’t like it, and I’ve made up my mind. [by trying it],'” she says.



Related posts:

  1. Rush is right! Radicals run Joe Biden’s presidency
  2. Refugee Smoke and Mirrors – The Patriot Post
  3. SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Teams Up With Rx Savings Solutions For Prescription Drug Savings
  4. Ma-Yi Theater Uses Puppet To Explore Anti-Asian Aggression In Experimental Vancouver – Times Square Chronicles

Categories

  • Association
  • Finance
  • Performing art
  • Puppeteers
  • Puppeteers of America

Recent Posts

  • The Puppeteers – The Sun-Gazette Newspaper
  • Pride Month Special: Drag Artist Sushant Divgikar Says, “Our Talent Speaks Louder Than Our Gender”
  • LIBRARIES HOST A CHILDREN’S PROGRAM ON THE ANCIENT ART OF PUPPETING | Community
  • From the Macdonald Hockey Association to Hockey Manitoba, Kim Paull’s journey – PortageOnline.com
  • Glastonbury’s startling return – CNN Style

Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions