Introductions: Froggie

Even MORE extreme blogging! You’d think I was on a tour or something…

We just got done with four awesome shows in Wilmington, NC (more on that soon) and are starting our drive towards Upstate NY, so it’s time for another introduction. Meet Froggie.



Froggie is an exercise in deep acting, serious focus, intense listening, and motivated ribbiting. Indeed, my exploits at Prospect Park Zoo prepared me well to, as they say, “become one with the frog.” The frog appears in one scene, where Max and Ruby are headed to Grandma’s house to pick up costumes for the show. Max finds a froggie in the pond and Ruby tries to get him to put it back. Max controls the frog onstage, moving him in and out of his pockets and making him “hop,“ while I provide vocal “ribbits” offstage, sometimes with an eye on what’s happening, sometimes not. And this frog is a pretty playful fellow.

I had no idea I would be playing a frog when I signed up for this gig. At our first read thru, Jeff informed me that the RIBBIT notations in the script were actually lines—my lines—and that it was my job to figure out how they worked. And thus began my descent into Froggie-dom. First, I decided each RIBBIT was based on the frog’s state of being at the time. Did he like the front pocket? What about the back? How does he feel about being held? Was there a time when he wanted to be back in the pond? What’s his relationship with Max and Ruby? And how does one translate these states of being into motivated RIBBITs?

Yeah, so, that didn’t work. Clearly, I was spending WAY too much time thinking about the frog, and not enough time thinking about how the frog functions in the scene. The frog is Max’s buddy, and an extension of him. So, if Max is excited, Froggie is excited. If Max is cheeky, so is Froggie. Jeff and Tracy had me watch the scene from the front a few times, croaking along, hitting my consonants hard and making the RIBBIT sound more onomatopoeic. And it worked! The scene tightened, the jokes got funny and I even got to throw in a pissed off frog sound. What was introduced to us as a “filler” scene is actually one of the favorites in the show. Frequently, I have to guess at my cues, because the kids are screaming so loud that I can barely make out what’s happening on-stage.



RIBBIT!!

Kid quote of the day: During Blue Tarantula, Ruby and Max get scared by a very large creaking sound that comes from under Max’s bed. In the air after the sound cue, a very frightened voice chirped: “Uh oh.” Stopped the show.

Call tomorrow: 7:00am, Red Roof Inn parking lot, Richmond, VA. We’ve got a very full day of traveling to Upstate, NY.