NICKTOONS OR CHARLIE BROWN? - An Animated Concept
Establishing a distinct tone can help guide the audience’s engagement with a piece, and David Lindsay-Abaire’s script suggested a unique tonal balance. Snow Angel seems inspired by the classic Charlie Brown TV specials with relatable childhood characters and experiences. However, its irreverent sensibility and delicate brush with heavy issues plays like a NickToon with a heart.
For visual style, we leaned fully into these cartoony inspirations with broadly patterned costumes and a bright, colorful palette for set pieces, including “Nickelodeon” orange and slime green. The show was in thrust, for an immersive experience.
For performance style, the choices were bold and quirky, while sincerely motivated. Like the best cartoons, our performers led from the heart and fully animated their characters inside and out. After all, isn’t this why people constantly return to the adventures of everyman Charlie Brown?
SNOW ANGEL TRACKS
We used the metaphor of making snow angels in fresh snow to illustrate creating fun from a stormy situation.
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We painted the stage floor to look like snow and left a few snow angel prints in the paint to illustrate the metaphor.
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You can make a snow angel on your own, just like Frida and any of the kids who claim to see Eva the Snow Angel, as she is possibly an imaginary friend for each kid pretending not to be lonely.
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A lone snow angel is fun, but a host is better, and the best snowball fights involve the most players.
So, we all have challenges in life that we can choose to fight our way through with either bitterness or positivity. We can determine to fight through challenges with positivity on our own, or we can have more fun making the most of life’s challenges with friends.
MORE IS MORE
Snow Angel was a success and included many important learning steps for our growing company.
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We preceded the show with two short pieces to feature additional players and extend the evening. These similarly sweet shorts played like cartoons before a Pixar feature and built anticipation.
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We involved a record number of debut actors to launch the next phase of growth for our company.
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Sharing moments big and small, bold and quiet, broad and deep paid off.
Our audiences felt like kids again and were blessed to remember that everyone feels lonely sometimes, and we can do something about that. The show surprised with its dramatically mature punch behind its childhood antics, just like a great animated film.
