- Disney's the Lion King is at the Orpheum in Omaha through March 24.
- There are 230 puppets in the show including extras just in case something breaks or an understudy is in the role that night.
- The puppet assistants replace feathers, fix mechanical issues, touch up paint and more; before, during and after the shows.
- Watch the video for an inside look at the puppet shop that keeps the puppetry and masks looking their best.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's a creation of animals on stage that the audience could see during Disney’s The Lion King.
A collaboration between actors and the team behind the scenes.
"Welcome to the puppet shop, for The Lion King" said Brandon Kirkham, a puppet assistant for Lion King.
For puppet assistants like Kirkham, hours are spent in the shop.
"It's all controlled, just a little finger controller that runs down the sleeve of his costume," said Kirkham.
"Here we have his eye control, that I am controlling with my thumb," Kirkham said. "This trigger controls his mouth."
"Checking to make sure Zazu isn't missing any feathers or none of the strings have broken that control his eyes or his mouth or wings or anything like that,” Kirkham said.
Just three to four people make up the team, a permanent and important part of the overall production, that travels from city to city.
"Our job is to maintain the design, maintain the vision, maintain the show, keep it going," Kirkham said.
The show has been on the road for years, but the design is a culmination of different cultures, something he says the broader audiences may not know.
"Simple African puppets," Kirkham said. “There are things that are inspired by Chinese bunraku, um Indonesian shadow puppetry."
“It's a real treat to work on something like this that draws from so many sources,” Kirkham said.
It's not always smooth on a Lion King show day though.
"One of the handles on the hyena legs broke and I had about 2 minutes, 3 minutes to switch it out, it was tight, but we made it happen," Kirkham said.
But it's all part of the rush.
"When I first started the job, it was the most stressful thing on earth," Kirkham said. “But like now it kind of makes the show fun, you know it kind of keeps it interesting."
Whether it's replacing feathers, re-painting one of the masks, that are surprisingly light, or even fixing a mechanical issue… it's all about bringing characters to life.
Disney's the Lion King runs through March 24 at the Orpheum.
