A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner May 2006

Tony Kushner's complicated political play deals with how five friends, all artists, cope with the changing regime in 1930s Weimar, Germany.  Agnes, an actress, joins the Communist Party and performs an agitprop skit for them.  Her characters are Adolf Hitler and a Red Baby, representative of the nascent Communism in the country.

The play's director, Maureen Ryan, wanted the puppet of Hitler to be clear and simple, something Agnes could have constructed in her apartment. The idea of angles, like the swastika, immediately sprang to mind.  The preliminary sketch shows the convergence of these angles.

The puppet was constructed from small cardboard cereal and oatmeal boxes, covered in tape.  The moveable limbs needed reinforcment to prevent separation during performance. The face was simplified, giving only what the audience needs to really understand who the puppet represents.

Pictured here as Agnes is Bonnie Milligan.  The comic nature of her improvisation made the scene a stand-out in the performance. costume and scenic design by Jacqueline Seals, lighting design by Jason Banks