naomikritzer | Mayday - public workshop

I've written before about the Mayday Parade. On the first Sunday in May, the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theater puts on a huge parade down Bloomington Avenue to Powderhorn Park. I've watched the parade annually since about 1998. Molly has gone every year since she's been born, and this year she wanted to be in it.

Heart of the Beast does public workshops starting at the beginning of April. We couldn't go last Saturday because I was at Minicon, but I took her today; her friend Emily and Emily's mom Elizabeth came as well. When we arrived at nine, an artist was explaining the storyboard, which is posted up in the lobby, so that we would understand each section and be able to choose something to do. Molly and Emily both decided to be frogs in the second section, "All Life Comes From Water." (The theme for the parade this year is Water.)

The workshops are startlingly organized and efficient; they're clearly used to giving direction to people who show up but have no real idea what they're supposed to do. There are stations set up for each section of the parade, plus stations for certain tasks -- a cloth and sewing station, a tool station, and a clay and papier-mache section. The artist at the "All Life Comes from Water" station offered us a big book full of frog photos to look at, and then pointed us towards the clay tables to make masks. There were two artists at the clay tables who provided us with materials and instructions as needed. The girls started with a plastic bag with some wadded-up newspaper inside, covered that in clay, and sculpted a frog's face on top. Then they carefully covered the face in plastic wrap, and put five layers of papier-mache on top. Elizabeth and I helped some, and the artists periodically wandered by and offered suggestions like, "For the next layer, just lay the strips on dry, because there's so much goop on there right now you don't need to add any more. They'll help soak it up. If it's too wet it'll take a really long time to dry."

The workshop lasted two hours; then there were announcements, and everyone helped clean up.

We'll be going back in future weeks to paint the masks and help the girls make costumes. Elizabeth and I will also need costumes; since the girls need to be escorted, we'll also be things from the All Life Comes from Water section, probably water lilies.

The whole workshop was amazingly fun.

I've always resisted participating in the parade because if you're in it, you can't watch it, and I love watching it. But being in it looks like it may be even more fun.