On any given set of the award-winning musical Avenue Q, you will find a cast full of fuzzy characters that come to life on stage. At the University of Mary Washington, those puppets are handmade by a team of students and faculty.
Featuring a set of 24 unique puppets, UMW’s production of Avenue Q will premiere on Thursday, Nov. 5 in Klein Theatre, located in duPont Hall on the university’s Fredericksburg campus. Performances will take place Nov. 5-7, 12-14 and 19-21 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 2 p.m. Friday Night Out will take place Friday, Nov. 6 and an AfterWords post-performance discussion will follow the 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, Nov. 8.
Known as the “Sesame Street for grown-ups,” the musical comedy tells the story of Princeton, a hope-filled college graduate who moves to New York to find his purpose in life. After a long apartment search, he finds a home on Avenue Q, whose current residences are made up of colorful people, monsters, and puppets alike. He soon realizes that in searching for a purpose, jobs can be hard to keep, relationships are difficult to maintain, and life, in short, isn’t easy. But, with the help of his newfound friends and neighbors, he learns that life in the big city isn’t so bad after all. Avenue Q contains adult language, adult content, full frontal puppet nudity and outrageous amounts of felt.
The fuzzy cast was a large undertaking by UMW’s Department of Theatre and Dance, headed by Associate Professor of Theatre Kevin McCluskey with the help of his theatre seminar class.
McCluskey took on the challenging role of designing the puppets in December 2014, along with the help of 20 students in his fall theatre seminar and 10 students in his costume lab course.
“While I have built puppets before, it was never a show this big,” said McCluskey. “It was set up to be a potentially awesome experience for myself and the students.”
With 24 puppets to build from scratch, the task was monumental. The team started in January and continued work through the summer and into the fall semester.
“Although it was a time-consuming project, we took the time we needed,” said McCluskey. “The puppets are such a large part of the show so their design is critical to the performance.”
Junior Kodi McCall, one of the students who worked on the puppets, found the experience particularly rewarding.
“To say it was a unique experience is a grave understatement,” said McCall, a theatre major from Cana, Va. “We are incredibly lucky to have such a supporting faculty at UMW who let us work on projects of this magnitude.”
Avenue Q first opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in March 2003, where it recieved a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical. In July of the same year, the show moved to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, where it ran for 2,534 performances, garnering six Tony Award nominations and winning the “Tony Triple Crown” for Best Original Book, Best Original Score, and Best Musical. After closing on September 13, 2009, the show then moved back Off-Broadway to the New-World Stages complex, where it is running today.
Avenue Q is directed by Gregg Stull, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance, with musical direction by Christopher Wingert. Scenic design is by visiting assistant professor Niffer Pflager and costume design is by associate professor Kevin McCluskey. Puppet design is by associate professor Kevin McCluskey. Lighting and sound designs are by guest designers Jason Arnold and Tony Angelini, respectively. Video design is by guest designer Jon K. Reynolds.
Tickets are $24 standard admission and $20 for students, senior citizens, military and alumni. Friday Night Out tickets are $35 and include beverages, hors d’oeuvres and door prizes. For further information, call the Klein Theatre Box Office at 540-654-1111 or visit http://www.fredtix.com/.
