A BLANK PAGE
Seussical is about unlocking possibilities through imagination. We made our stage a canvas for nearly 100 students from two rival schools to combine for the first time, and we needed imagination to pull it off. I selected Seussical, not for personal preference, but because it was the right show for our needs, even though some worried it was a "kids' show". With two schools auditioning record numbers, we needed a show with multiple leads and an ensemble we could amplify and split in creative ways to add to the story, not detract from it. I also hired two colleague choreographers for the split style; one for the quirky, angular, 8-bit movements of the whos and the other to bring punch, prowl, and fluidity to the animals of the jungle. On day one, I read The Sneetches to the cast to dismiss any rivalries before they began, held up a blank sheet of paper as our metaphor, and explained how we’d proceed.
CIRCLES AND THE COLOR WHEEL
Following both my gut feelings and research from other productions, I saw two potential dangers in designing Seussical: color overload and straight-from-the-pages storybook designs. Seussical is deceptively complicated and can run the risk of appearing either garishly overstuffed with characters and locales or predictably juvenile with designs simply copying the storybooks.
We decided to split the color palette between our divided ensemble. Whoville, with its decidedly younger characters would be limited to primaries: red, yellow, and blue. The jungle would take all varieties of secondary colors: greens, purples, oranges, etc.
I envisioned a set like the inner workings of a child’s mind, with large shapes and emanating colors like the aesthetic of Pixar’s Inside Out or the abstract sequences from Disney’s two Fantasia films. We avoided the Seussian pencil lines and flats painted like picture books and incorporated large circular platforms for added depth, instead. Lighting designer Eric Pitney masterfully lit the platforms from inside with LEDs that could switch colors to complement scenes as they would unfold. These animated the piece like giant paint pots shifting scenes as Jojo imagined them, thus encouraging the actors and audiences to play along!
GAME ON
We extended the theme of childhood play throughout the piece by adding games, toys, and interactive play elements to each scene:
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LIFE-SIZE SKETCHBOOK: Jojo began the show alone at his desk with a single light and a blank stage. Across the cyclorama we projected a live feed of the actor sketching The Cat in the Hat in real time. As the real Cat appears beside him, we establish that the scenes to follow would originate in Jojo’s imagination.
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HUMAN PLAY-DOH: The Who Ensemble begins as groups of “Human Play-Doh” that morph together in team stage pictures to depict the objects Jojo is forming with Play-Doh on his desk in the opening number. The actors helped devise these designs.
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VIDEO GAME BOSS: The script requires Jojo to make a journey in the “Havin’ a Hunch” number, so we created an interactive video game concept where Jojo would battle a new “boss” on each light platform to fight his way home, clearing the board and switching red lights to green on each platformed level.
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JUNGLE (OF NOOL) GYM: The jungle was a working jungle gym with two twisty slides donated from the city parks division, a shorter bumpy slide unit on wheels, and a fireman’s pole.
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BUILDING (CITY) BLOCKS: Whoville was designed and constructed from giant geometric building blocks.
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LITTLE PEOPLE A LA FISHER-PRICE: We wanted the whos to have individuality and purpose within their collective look and goal. Rather than making them “who uniforms” with matching costumes (which would have been easier with such a large ensemble), we opted to divide their attire between the three primary colors and make each of them a character with various costumes and occupations, like popular toddler toys, such as a firefighter, doctor, and painter.
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TEAM SPORTS ANIMALS: The Jungle of Nool characters play a variety of games during their scenes, including Chinese jump rope, badminton, woven Frisbee, ball, hide and seek, and a race between the Yertle the Turtle and the cheetah (who keeps lapping him). Many of the jungle costume designs incorporated repurposed team uniforms. The Wickersham Brothers wore furry team track jackets, and baseball caps were part of the headdress designs for the Sneetchess, Zax, Crocodile, etc.
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I SPY: We incorporated several Seuss characters not required by the script. They were “Where’s Waldo?” style Easter Egg characters occasionally featured in vignettes to surprise those who caught them, like Fox in Sox and the Oobleck.
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POOL TOYS: Actors created anenomes and undersea pictures with patterns from pool noodles, and the fish characters glided through the silk waters on ripsticks and rollerblades while “divers” did tumbling stunts. Noodles also made Horton's nest.
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R/C DRONE: Rather than flying the eagle with rigging, we chose to have him fly the clover around on his remote controlled toy drone. His costume design included Aviator glasses, a pilot’s headset, and a fringed bomber jacket.
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PARACHUTE BIG TOP: We used the giant parachute from various camp style games to form the circus tent, while actors maneuvered the poles for the tent in interactive set changes.
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PROPS: We always used toys, like NERF SWORDS for the cadets, POPGUNS for the hunters, and a toy SPYGLASS for the sailors.
IMMERSING & INVOLVING THE AUDIENCE
The show is so playful, and we wanted the audience to join in the fun. We wouldn't spell everything out for them but would engage their imagination and invite them to play along, instead.
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Before the show, we passed out 100 fiber optic flowers to children in the audience with instructions to turn them on at the Cat in the Hat’s cue later in the show. When the eagle drops the clover into the clover patch, the children created the clover patch with their light-up flowers on the house floor. Horton then meanders through the house “listening for whos” during the scene.
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When Jojo imagines himself on an ocean dive in “Anything’s Possible”, we extended the underwater experience into the audience by showering them in bubbles and widening the canvas of the moving lights to swirl the waves into the house.
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In the Finale, the whos scatter throughout the audience with noisemaking props and enlist the audience’s help in chanting, “We are here! We are here!” until everyone is saved.
This playful and imaginative production of Seussical became a piece we were immensely proud of and thankful to bring to life. It made many new fans for the piece who had been skeptical of its source material, including colleagues and the DSM High School Musical Theatre judges who nominated it for 10 awards, including Best Musical, Best Ensemble, and Best Direction, which it won!