We performed an updated retelling of the Saint George myth as a short play called "Saint George at the Roxbury", in front of a live 80-person audience. I think we pushed this task to the limit.

This took a bit of time and a bunch of teamwork. Lank orchestrated, helped build a little, and performed. Lincoln designed, built, and operated the puppet. Barbapoca co-puppet-op'd, took photos and uploaded video. Heatherlynn ran the lights, with nephew Jesse working the camera.

There were about 7 hours of labor put into the making the dragon, which was made completely from scrap wood, cardboard, and a bunch of dormant fabric. All of these materials were from previous shows at the small theatre company of which we're all a part.

Said theatre company has a late-night show on Saturday nights and we petitioned to do this as part of the show. The producers said okay!

We forgot to take pics of the making of the dragon, but here is the finished product:



Here are a couple of pics of the making and testing of the fireball:



And here is our prop sword - it took Lank two hours of searching, hitting 8 different bars in the Silverlake area, to find one of these damned plastic swords! And no, he didn't have a drink at every bar:



And the coaster that Lank used as a shield was a Simpson's coaster that said "Drink Duff at Moe's".

Our friend Rebecca played the damsel, and the gent who introduces us is our pal Terry. Music by RATATAT. If only the fabric for the dragon's body hadn't gotten twisted! Oh, the perils of live performance...

Photos of the performance by our friend Jenelle.



Who's gonna stop him?


Some close ups of the dragon after the show:

Click on the video below to see the performance!

Here, Lank celebrates the event in verse:

A fair, lonely maid longed to meet someone nice,
But none of the guys in the club broke the ice.
Along came a tall, awkward fellow apace,
His lack of a clue could be read on his face.
On seeing the maiden, this fellow was drawn,
But tried to play cool and just get his dance on.
When he found the nerve to at last make his move,
He spied something bopping its head to the groove.
A slinky blue dragon, as big as a car,
Was slithering toward the fair girl from the bar.
Its eyes, cold and shiny, sat high on its brow;
Its maw was so big it could swallow a cow.
The dragon went straight for its feminine prey,
And edged the tall fellow quite out of the way.
The serpent was rude, and the fellow was shocked
When he realized he was being cock-blocked!
The lanky gent faltered - what course should he take?
Could he leave this girl to the creepy blue snake?
As he shied away though, his eyes and hers met;
She needed a rescue, and that's what she'd get!
He drew up his courage and, cocktail in hand,
Confronted the beast with a dauntless demand -
He asked that the dragon back off and play nice,
And hoped that this one firm request would suffice.
The dragon responded with rancor and spite,
And showed that he'd swallow the man in one bite.
Although a bit worried, and though he did flinch,
Our boy stood his ground and gave up not an inch,
Which so fanned the flames of the blue demon's ire,
It spat at our hero a huge ball of fire!
A dodge and a miss! What a narrow escape!
Lank flung his drink in the beast's mouth when agape.
No quenching resulted; the beast gave the same -
But Lank had a coaster to fend off the flame!
A battle ensued, with much gnashing of teeth;
Lank bob'd and he weaved and he dived underneath
And with a quick thrust the foul creature was gored,
The killing blow dealt with a tiny blue sword.
The big dragon swooned and then fell over dead,
And Lank, to show off, put his foot on its head.
But what of the maiden? Would her favor blossom?
To seal the deal, Lank ripped his shirt and got awesome!