Cassie Meets John Tartaglia

I knew that if I was going to make good on this new year’s resolution to have more puppetry experiences, I would have to make some serious commitments to it. I recalled my evening out at Puppet Palooza last October and wondered (dreamed) if it’d be possible to work with John Tartaglia. John has been a performer in a number of Broadway and children’s television productions. Most notably, he played Princeton and Rod in Avenue Q and hosted his own program, Johnny and the Sprites, on Playhouse Disney. This is a clip from one of my favorite pieces of his work:



Before arriving at his studio for my lesson, I thought about what I really wanted to learn. I thought about my Monday night puppet sessions with Sabrina and Audrey in Massachusetts. I had so much fun working with them and bringing Cassie to life, but I never felt confident in giving Cassie a voice. This became my ultimate goal for my lesson.

At 12pm sharp, John opened the door to his studio for me. His workspace is a dream! It’s filled with shelves of puppet creations and building materials, posters from his production Imaginocean, and large windows for fantastic natural light. He sat with me, and we really had an opportunity to discuss goals, tricks of the trade, and who this Cassie lady really is….seriously, we talked A LOT about Cassie. Approximately an hour into the lesson, I had an Ah-Ha moment (is it necessary to credit Oprah when this phrase is used?). By simply removing myself from a mirror when working with Cassie, I was able to let go and let the character come to life. I literally had to get myself out of my own way….or out of her way.

I was so excited to meet someone who genuinely loves what he’s doing and yearns to share his craft with others. John was incredibly supportive and thoughtful in his instruction and feedback. He provided me with some great resources to look at and ideas for practicing at home. It wasn't until I was reviewing an exercise this evening that I realized, "Oh my God. I sang the ABCs with John Tartaglia and freakin' Cassie!"

This is an unbelievable start to 2012, and it’s inspired me to continue to move forward, have fun, and trust my instincts more. Perhaps the greatest piece of advice John shared with me was to surround myself with people who are joyful and joy-makers. Sometimes that can be pretty hard to do in New York, but I'm up for the challange.

Find out more about John and his amazing work here www.JohnTartagliaPuppetry.com!

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A New New Year's Resolution

Goals, resolutions, dreams…call them what you will. To me they’re almost all the same. If I set out to do something, I know with great certainty that I will accomplish it. I’ve learned that not everyone feels the same way. Goals are sometimes completely unattainable, resolutions can be broken, and dreams, for some, remain just that. That being said, I know I haven’t been the best at coming up with an idea every day during 2011 to complete my #2011ZagsIdea resolution. I tried really hard, though! Most importantly, I learned a lot along the way. More about that here.

I’m excited to announce my New Year’s resolution…#2012ZagsIdeas. Kidding.

This year, I’ve decided to more formally cultivate my puppet passion. I’m planning to take lessons, attend building workshops, see more performances, and even develop and perform my own piece. It’s a much more flexible resolution with room for interpretation. I have no idea what it will look like four, eight, or 12 months from now.

Stay tuned for the adventure…I’ll be posting about my experiences here!


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#2011ZagsIdeas

The new year is fast approaching, and I can’t say I’m upset about that. 2011 was pretty insane, and I wish for more balance in the coming year. As I reflect on the past few months and think about what I’d like to change personally and professionally in 2012, the first thing that comes to mind is #2011ZagsIdeas. This is, perhaps, the craziest and most obnoxious New Year’s resolution I’ve taken on thus far. I thought that by tweeting a new idea each day, I’d be somehow be achieving a poor man’s copyright and that I’d be able to refer to them from time to time.

Awesome wall hanging via

I actually wasn't so smart about saving my tweets on Twitter. It's hard to go back and find all of them. There are definitely search engines out there that will save hashtags for you, but I was so not Twitter savvy in January 2011. If I had to do it again, I would probably post on the blog and tag them with 2011ZagsIdeas. It'd be much easier to refer to! Here's an article from Mashable about Twitter hashtags that I should have read before.

How it worked…
Inspiration is truly everywhere. Though I got a little lazy on the tweeting towards the end, each day I thought of something new through conversations with others and close observations of the world around me. #2011ZagsIdeas inspired new curriculum that I implemented into my classroom, projects that challenged me and expanded my camera and editing knowledge, and work to be completed in the future. Even the blog revamp is rooting in this year of developing inspiration. A few successfully completed Zags Ideas included:
Myrtle Video
Tree stop motion
Turn Pearl into app and get kids’ illustrations
Holiday card
Big Top Fitness screenings

Perhaps the most successful was a music box stop-motion film I made last spring. Inspired by a tinker toy, I took over 50 still images of the music box and pieced them together in iMovie. I then recorded the music box’s song in GarageBand. The film caught peoples’ eyes and inspired different members of the Tufts community to reach out to me with new ideas about using stop motion. This was a MASSIVE learning experience.

These ideas have even inspired my 2012 resolution. I'm excited to share it with you and get started. Stay tuned for that post tomorrow!

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Resolution Revelation

I rarely make New Year's resolutions. For whatever reason, summer has always held a greater promise to me. As May ends, I decide what I'd like to learn or do in the forthcoming three months. Perhaps the pressure of 365 days is just too much.

I find myself in an interesting personal place this January. As of tomorrow I enter my final semester of graduate school. I'll also be finalizing all details of my Rogers Project and will be completing my thesis in the next few months. I just need something new to get me through this.

I decided that I needed to stimulate my creativity just a bit more and challenge myself to think about the kind of work I want to create when this whole grad school thing is over. This year I'll be coming up with a new children's media idea or pitch each day. Yes, each day. Life happens, and there may be days that go by where I just can't do it...but I have to try! I truly believe inspiration is everywhere, everyday. Because it's way easier to use Twitter from my phone than the blog, I'll be tweeting these ideas each day. You can follow me at: ChrissyZags

They don't have to be super involved or fully thought out. Who knows, I may come up with a single character and spend the rest of the year deciding what the world around them looks like. I'm so excited to take this journey. I hope you'll take it with me!