Edward Tulane(s)

Made by Lindsey Stewart and her HS Drama Students

We needed to have about 6 “china” rabbits for our production of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We did not want to take a chance on something actually breakable, so we looked into papier-mâché and turned to the clay. I turned the challenge over to my HS drama students and they worked together to make heads that all looked similar (we did not go with the pattern because we didn’t need quite that much detail, just general shapes for the head) and the clay was just what we needed to give that porcelain look without the fragility of china, especially since they had to be transported and even tossed on stage. Add bodies and clothes made by my mom and we had a rabbit army fit for a theatre competition!

We also needed a dog, and I liked the idea of a marionette type puppet but wanted it to be a little quirky to go with our rabbit style. I did use the dog pattern here and then built the body out of chicken wire covered in tape and tinfoil. My puppeteer did a great job of making our Lucy come to life on stage. My paint job isn’t the best, but she fit our style and all of our judges loved her.