Playing with puppets

Bringing animated humans to life on stage is one thing.

Portraying a reindeer and a little snowman is another.

Instead of simply putting actors in costumes, director Jason McGraw went another route.

Sven the reindeer and Olaf the snowman will be on stage as puppets in Jay County Civic Theatre’s production of “Frozen Jr.,” which runs Wednesday through Sunday at Arts Place.

“To me, seeing a person dressed as the characters just doesn’t come to life as much as seeing a full puppet,” said McGraw. “We have great puppet makers here, and to me I wanted to tap into their knowledge and their skill set a little bit and create something that would really come to life on stage.”

Those puppet artists for “Frozen Jr.” are Heather and Jason Maitlen of Portland and Lee Osteen of Anderson.

The Maitlens, who also built Dragon for the 2018 production of “Shrek the Musical,” took on the challenge of bringing Sven to life. The body of the reindeer is constructed with a frame of half-inch PVC covered in foam padding and fabric. The puppeteer wears the body like a backpack and acts as the animal’s front legs. The head rests on a harness in front of her to keep it in position as she supports the weight and controls the mouth.

Osteen created Olaf mostly out of styrofoam in an effort to keep the little snowman as light as possible. (He weighs about 4 pounds.) His body is also filled out with some pillow batting covered in white fabric and his nose was sculpted out of styrofoam.

It was Osteen’s first experience with creating a puppet.

“Every day is a new adventure in this group,” he said.

Two actors — Brenna Bailey and Alison McGraw — split the duties (three shows apiece) of operating Olaf while Hannah Littler is in charge of Sven.

Olaf’s eyes and mouth are each operated by a single finger pulling on a ring attached to a wire to make them open and close. The snowman’s arms are also attached to a wire that the girls control with their left hand.

Both Bailey and Alison McGraw said Olaf was the role they were hoping for.

“We have a lot in common because we both have big, goofy personalities,” said Bailey.

“It’s fun because he’s a very active character,” said McGraw. “He’s fun and loveable. And likes warm hugs, of course.”

The same was the case for Littler, who has no lines in the show. Just like in the movie, Sven is voiced by Kristoff (played by Brandon Broering).

She said she thought it would be fun to just be able to go on stage and react to everything that is going on around her.

“It’s harder than I expected it to be because I didn’t really think about how heavy the costume would be, how big and hard to move around it would be,” said Littler, who controls both Sven’s jaw and tongue with her left hand.

And while they are serving as puppeteers, Bailey, McGraw and Littler are performing as well.

“Both the puppet and the puppeteer, their reactions together just make it so much cooler,” said Jason McGraw.

Like the Olaf role, the eldest Anna and Elsa characters are split three shows apiece — performances are 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday — with Rachel Werling and Samantha Williamson as the former and Leah Hummel and Jenna Myers as the latter. The show also features Logan Patterson as Hans, Kaylynn Clark as Young Elsa, Anika Fennig as Young Anna, Aubrey Millspaugh as Middle Elsa and Inara Sanderson as Middle Anna. Tickets are available at Arts Place, by calling (260) 726-4809 or online at artsland.org.

In addition to the puppets and the actors, the show includes projection backgrounds and lighting effects, also handled by Osteen.

“It’s been a lot of detail work that we’ve tried to do with this,” said McGraw. “We’ve really done a lot of projector work with this show along with the puppeteering. The special effects are a huge part of the show. It’s just nice to sit back and see something come to life and be magical, as Disney really is.”