The stage spectacular The Lion King is playing in town right now. Meet a Milwaukee native who helps ensure that all of the puppets withstand the stresses of the road.
The Lion King show began 17 years ago on Broadway, with an unexpected marriage between Disney and stage director and designer Julie Taymor. The musical introduced a wide audience to Taymor’s highly creative and individualistic work.
That includes the extensive use of puppets of all kinds – from the smallest birds on a string to full-size elephants and giraffes integrated with actors. It’s a big cast – and there are a lot of puppets, which takes a lot of backstage support to make sure an audience sees nothing but the best.
http://youtu.be/-pgZtzDj_7o
Milwaukee native Bruce Paul Reik is one of the puppetmasters on tour with The Lion King. He took time out from production work to chat with Lake Effect's Bonnie North.
"It’s sort of like working in puppet triage," Reik says. "There’s always something going wrong, illnesses to diagnose. So I’m just always at the ready to fix whatever is wearing out or breaking."
