In college I did this production of Alice in Wonderland. I got cast as the Dodo who’s part of the caucus race and it was really fun. As part of my character I developed this absolutely unhinged laugh, because our scene is basically just chasing each other around in a circle screaming.
The laugh was a full throated undulating crazy burst of sound, like a mashup of every other 90’s anime villain and SpongeBob, if they were tripping balls and having the best time of their life. It is not a laugh for indoors.
As the production got under way our costumes rolled out and it was Very low budget so my costume was a purple tshirt with a feather boa wound through it, feathers spirit gummed to my face, a purple skirt, and purple pantyhose.
Now the trouble was that my scenes were all running, and there wasn’t shoes in my costume. The pantyhose slid on every surface like ice, from the stage to the aisles. I brought up concerns about falling but basically got told to just be careful.
The show must go on and so I took to the stage with my extremely slippery feet, vowing that if I fell I’d stay in character.
We had two performances and a dress rehearsal and in each one we run out three times and on the last we run down through the audience. The dress rehearsal and first performance I got through and kept my feet, slipping but flailing myself upright each time and laughing my insane character laugh at the foibles.
The final show dawned. I was confident I’d be able to manage. The first two caucus races went by and I stayed up. On the third I circled the stage okay but as I was dashing off stage through the aisle, my foot slipped out from under me.
It was slow motion for me as I felt the eyes of the audience tracking my slow tilt forward. I reached out to catch myself and landed with a hard whumpf on my stomach, seeing stars as all the air left my body. A hush fell as everyone waited with bated breath to see if this was part of the show or if they’d just watched a performer eat shit and injure themself.
The second I could reinflate my lungs I shrieked out with, “AhAhaahaHaA!” Scrabbling to my feet I flapped my arms and followed after the dormouse and turtle, laughing hysterically.
My elbows and pride were bruised but by god, I stayed in character.
Afterward my friends said, “Did you have to do that every time? It was my favorite part! Your laugh was so good!”
Strutting in as our next bird; the Nicobar pigeon.
The nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is a pretty good sized pigeon from India! The bird, while known for its fantastic, beaming rainbow iridescent feathers is also known for being the closest living relative of the dodo (yes, the dodo was a pigeon!) and also near threatened. It is also the only living member in its genus. Amazing!
Continuing on the au idea, here’s Kinger as the dodo, and Pomni as Alice. Still need to know what other characters from wonderland would fit for the rest.
Something a bit less heavy for today, haha. This is a color theory exercise that I did a while back. Each of the six sides of the cube depicts an extinct species, using a different formal color scheme. It was a fun challenge to figure out ways to make the scenes ‘interlock’ along the edges! Featured are: