Katie McGeorge

I helped make the skull and hands on this giant puppet using L200 foam.

Cinderella

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts

Puppet Designer: Spencer Lott

Built and painted this bench for Juilliard's production of 'Triumph of Love'

Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale

Designer: Charlie Corcoran

I created this 5 headed dragon, ‘Tiamat,’ for She Kills Monsters at The Trinity School. The dragon needed to be ferocious and epic on a tight budget. I focused on the heads and legs, allowing the body to be skeletal and recede into darkness, so that the audience could imagine its magnitude.

I patterned the heads and legs from original sculpts, enlarged them, and assembled them out of 1/4” EVA foam.

She Kills Monsters

Director: Jasmine Pai

Fight Choreographer: Jeanne Slater

Puppet Designer/Builder: Katie McGeorge

The concept for this group of creepy yet friendly insects was ‘found object. The director wanted them to feel grungy, as if they had built themselves out of trash.

In designing the puppets, I had to consider ease of manipulation (they were to be operated by 14 and 15 year olds, and hygiene/safety in incorporating real found objects. From an aesthetic standpoint, I also considered how the movement of the puppets might feel clunky and rickety, considering their constituents.

I made each puppet ‘wearable,’ like a sleeve, on the performer’s arms, so that they could easily track the puppet’s focus by pointing their own arm in any given direction. I wanted to keep the manipulation direct to their own bodies, rather than remote with rods or strings.

The finished products were mostly commercially available objects such as dryer hose, plastic pots, and kitchen gadgets, which I distressed. The details were real found objects, such as silverware legs, bottle cap eyes, etc.

James and the Giant Peach

The Hewitt School

Director: Colleen Britt

Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge

I created this memento mori inspired ‘Victorian Dead Boy’ and ‘Dead Fat Cat,’ as per the director’s vision for these characters. The puppets were straightforward humanettes with rod controls for the arms.

The boy puppet. had an upholstery foam body and wooden arms and joints for a more antique look. It also had a magnet embedded in its hand so that it could ‘pluck’ flowers from his crown. The cat was made of upholstery foam, draped with white fur which I painted with a realistic gray patterns and wounds.

Williamstown Theater Festival

Director: Dustin Wills

Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward

Puppet Designer/ Builder: Katie McGeorge

I built this puppet from provided materials and a pattern. The actor manipulates the mouth (made from 1/8" plywood and red velvet, with an elastic strap on the top plate) with one hand, and either of the furry hands with his other hand. The hands are worn like gloves, with an opening at the back of the wrist. I built everything except the clothes and facial features, which were added by Eric. 

'Paw' Puppet 

The Puppet Kitchen

Designer: Eric Wright

Builder: Katie McGeorge

Designed this 1930's label on Photoshop.

Golden Boy

The Juilliard School

Scenic Designer: Lee Savage

Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale

Director: Janet Zarish

Constructed this 'lamp' which was essentially a rotating gobo with a lightbulb inside, designed to project a licking flames pattern. It's a wooden dowel which inserts into the stage deck, as shown, with a fiber drum on top, into which I cut the flame pattern. The drum spins, and has a bulb and various lamp hardware inside. The movement was entirely actor motivated.

Burning Fiery Furnace

The Juilliard School

Scenic Designer: Jason Simms

Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale

Director: Edward Berkeley

I created this fake turkey for a dinner scene. I carved the bulk shape from foam, coated it in jaxsan, and painted it with latex paint. I wrapped netting around the turkey and sprayed glossy wood tone through that, so that it would would leave a skin-like texture. I finished with a coat of amber shellac.

We cut a chunk out of it and later covered it in food-safe plastic so that we could place real carved turkey meat there, making it look like the actor was carving serving the turkey on stage.

Girl from the North Country

Scenic Designer: Rae Smith