Mary Poppins & Bert
THE IDEA
In the summer of 2019, my mother made me watch something on CBS Sunday Morning about the Lion King on Broadway. The way the costume designer made the silhouetted gazelles so that they attached to the dancers' arms was ingenious. I wanted to do something like that but with a carousel horse. One thing led to another and Connie and I became Mary Poppins and Bert.
My mother saw Mary Poppins before I was born, and she looked forward to taking her children some day. I had the great pleasure of taking my mom to Mary Poppins Returns in 2018.
The young and old still know Mary Poppins, so our costume got a sweet response at the Wild Rumpus.
THE COSTUME
For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun, and SNAP, the job's a game! Creating a costume is magical and when I walked in to Lowe's and thought, "What can I use as a pole for the carousel horses?," the first thing I saw was the lightbulb section, where my eyes landed on thin plastic tubes used to protect long florescent bulbs. I had never noticed these before in my life, so that was meant to be. These tubes weigh nothing! I spray painted them gold.
The images of the horses were used with permission and just blown up large. I know I'm a one-trick-pony on the cardboard, but I glued the images down and cut them out. I attached wires so that we could thread our arms through the wires and make the horses go up and down as we walked together (see below).
I bought a Mary Poppins costume on Amazon. Done. Connie got a white jacket from Goodwill and painted it using tape to create straight lines. She put ribbon around her hat and somehow made a bow tie. Everything is better with Connie, and I'm so glad she was up for this.
It was a jolly holiday, indeed!
In the summer of 2019, my mother made me watch something on CBS Sunday Morning about the Lion King on Broadway. The way the costume designer made the silhouetted gazelles so that they attached to the dancers' arms was ingenious. I wanted to do something like that but with a carousel horse. One thing led to another and Connie and I became Mary Poppins and Bert.
My mother saw Mary Poppins before I was born, and she looked forward to taking her children some day. I had the great pleasure of taking my mom to Mary Poppins Returns in 2018.
The young and old still know Mary Poppins, so our costume got a sweet response at the Wild Rumpus.
THE COSTUME
For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun, and SNAP, the job's a game! Creating a costume is magical and when I walked in to Lowe's and thought, "What can I use as a pole for the carousel horses?," the first thing I saw was the lightbulb section, where my eyes landed on thin plastic tubes used to protect long florescent bulbs. I had never noticed these before in my life, so that was meant to be. These tubes weigh nothing! I spray painted them gold.
The images of the horses were used with permission and just blown up large. I know I'm a one-trick-pony on the cardboard, but I glued the images down and cut them out. I attached wires so that we could thread our arms through the wires and make the horses go up and down as we walked together (see below).
I bought a Mary Poppins costume on Amazon. Done. Connie got a white jacket from Goodwill and painted it using tape to create straight lines. She put ribbon around her hat and somehow made a bow tie. Everything is better with Connie, and I'm so glad she was up for this.
It was a jolly holiday, indeed!