The Puppet King Willie Wilson's the `vet' for `Lion King's' cast
WILLIE WILSON lovingly pats his favorite hornbill, looking for missing feathers, and perhaps a bent wire or two.
Zazu is propped up on a work bench, almost ready for action. There is actually another Zazu lying on its side on the shelf below, just in case. The night before, the upper Zazu had quite a workout, three hours of flapping and squawking and singing and dancing on the stage at the Academy of Music as one of the main puppet characters of "The Lion King."
Zazu is propped up on a work bench, almost ready for action. There is actually another Zazu lying on its side on the shelf below, just in case. The night before, the upper Zazu had quite a workout, three hours of flapping and squawking and singing and dancing on the stage at the Academy of Music as one of the main puppet characters of "The Lion King."
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Zazu is one of 230 puppets and masks used by human characters in the ultra-interactive "Lion King" stage show, and each of them gets a good look-see every day by Wilson, the road show's puppet master since 2002. This day, Zazu needs only a little fluffing around the feathers and a slight bend back of a small wire holding one of the flapping wings.
"Good. Sometimes it can be complicated, but they have to be ready to go every night," said Wilson.
Wilson, a barrel-chested, middle-aged man with a ready laugh, seems the quintessential fellow for the job. He's half-kid-in-the-candy-store, half artisan. Even after years, day after day, with "The Lion King" backstage, he loves flapping Zazu's wings, combing the Simba mask's facial hair, fiddling with the finger-control motors that move Scar's huge mask up and down.
"It is what I always wanted to do, use everything I learned to make a show work," he said. "I was never very good on stage, but I know I am a good prop guy."
Wilson has to be not just good, he has to be a thorough prop guy for a complex show like this one. In many cases, the characters merely wear masks and costumes. Yet, many of the characters - both major and minor - are a part of the bunruku puppet tradition.
Bunruku, which originated in Japan, has an actor working a puppet, usually about half his or her size, the two of them melding as a character.
The main characters Zazu and Timon (the meerkat), for instance, are bunruku, and thus the puppets have lots of working levers and wires and flaps, all the more likely to break or bend and necessitate repairs by Wilson or his two assistants.
There are full-body, puppetlike animals in the show, too. There is a cheetah whose actor walks in midbody, human legs substituting for cheetah back legs and human head and cheetah head attached by 3-foot-long wires so movements are the same.
There are giraffes whose human parts walk with hands and legs on stiltlike legs. There are wildebeests with huge, scary faces, and Nala, the female lion lead, with a purring mask
"Good. Sometimes it can be complicated, but they have to be ready to go every night," said Wilson.
Wilson, a barrel-chested, middle-aged man with a ready laugh, seems the quintessential fellow for the job. He's half-kid-in-the-candy-store, half artisan. Even after years, day after day, with "The Lion King" backstage, he loves flapping Zazu's wings, combing the Simba mask's facial hair, fiddling with the finger-control motors that move Scar's huge mask up and down.
"It is what I always wanted to do, use everything I learned to make a show work," he said. "I was never very good on stage, but I know I am a good prop guy."
Wilson has to be not just good, he has to be a thorough prop guy for a complex show like this one. In many cases, the characters merely wear masks and costumes. Yet, many of the characters - both major and minor - are a part of the bunruku puppet tradition.
Bunruku, which originated in Japan, has an actor working a puppet, usually about half his or her size, the two of them melding as a character.
The main characters Zazu and Timon (the meerkat), for instance, are bunruku, and thus the puppets have lots of working levers and wires and flaps, all the more likely to break or bend and necessitate repairs by Wilson or his two assistants.
There are full-body, puppetlike animals in the show, too. There is a cheetah whose actor walks in midbody, human legs substituting for cheetah back legs and human head and cheetah head attached by 3-foot-long wires so movements are the same.
There are giraffes whose human parts walk with hands and legs on stiltlike legs. There are wildebeests with huge, scary faces, and Nala, the female lion lead, with a purring mask
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