Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Cambridge River Festival

The Cambridge Art Council's River Festival was on Saturday, featuring our tribute procession for legendary Cambridge storyteller Brother Blue. The parade to open the festival began in Harvard square and wound its way down John F. Kennedy Street toward the Charles.
It took a bunch of people to lift Blue onto the backpack harness, but once the rig was in place the (super human!) strength of two people was all we needed.
Many thanks to our friend and partner Joseph Keane, seen here on the right, for assisting in bringing Brother Blue to life! Joe collaborated closely with us to create the underlying structure of Blue's face using various wires, foams, and supports. We'll delve more into that process in posts coming soon, so stay tuned!
The beautiful butterflies that flitted and fluttered behind Blue were brought to life by an army of volunteers. Many thanks to them for keeping Blue's favorite symbol of peace and harmony with him. This procession is planned to be an annual feature of the Cambridge River Festival, and each year more unique and colorful butterflies will be added. Let us know if you have any concept designs that you would like to see come to life!
The hands, manned by head maskmaker Eric and Behind The Mask volunteer Stacie, flanked Blue's face to give him even more personality.



The parade culminated in a Festival opening ceremony, in which the butterflies took the stage behind Blue and a chorus sang an original song about his importance to the community. Thanks to the support of the Cambridge Arts Council, tons of volunteers and interns at Behind The Mask, and the helping hands of the participants at River Fest, the Brother Blue procession and tribute were an astounding success.
Writing & Photo/video credit: Charis Talcott

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Feature Article in The Boston Globe

A feature article about Behind The Mask can be found in today's Globe "G" section. Check it out here!



Also, don't forget to check out the Cambridge River Festival, going on TODAY from 12-6pm near Harvard Square. Behind The Mask will be showcasing our tribute procession for Brother Blue as well as a butterfly workshop.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

River Fest Prep is in Full Swing

There are two days until the Cambridge River Festival, which is to be held along the Charles this Saturday, June 5th.
Above are two posters featuring artwork from Behind The Mask that are in the MBTA to advertise the Festival.

Today and tomorrow, we will be finishing our tribute to the beloved and dearly missed Brother Blue, the official storyteller of Cambridge.
Our tribute procession includes a large-scale (over six feet high!) reconstruction of Blue's head, accompanied by a matching-scale pair of beautifully sculpted hands to evoke the expressiveness of Blue's tales. In addition, we are working on many beautiful butterflies to flutter and dance in the river air all around Blue. Each butterfly is unique, with its own personality, very much like each one of Blue's stories. Each year, as this will be an annual tribute at the River Festival, more unique butterflies will be added to the procession.
Above is a concept sketch for the procession. More pictures and video are soon to follow.

Welcome!

Hello to all, and welcome to Behind The Mask Studio & Theatre's new Blog!
 
Here at Behind The Mask, we are committed to sharing what goes on during the artistic process from start to finish. This blog will be a place for us to share thoughts, observations, media, and ideas. This is a great place to stop by if you want up-to-date information about how things are going in the Studio, what we are working on, and what we're cooking up to create next.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, as it is an integral part in keeping the conversation about art alive! We want to hear your opinions and ideas as readers as much as we want to share with you what we're up to. We value any contribution, whether it be in supplies, volunteering, ideas, or simple positive reinforcement.

Thanks so much for reading, and without further ado, let's get posting!