Project Budget

Grant Request

Title:

Artists:

Description:

Alex & Olmsted

Takoma Park MD

Sarah Olmsted Thomas

Milo the MagnificentMilo the Magnificent is a 10-minute Puppet Slam piece that we are developing into a full-length show. Thisproject intends to expand Milo's world by creating new characters and building interactive set pieces.

$5,400

$3,000

1) Milo the Magnificent's Magic Show (2014) 2) Milo the Magnificent and his Amazing Science Fair(2015)

Alex Vernon: Puppet Designer, Co-Director, Writer, Milo Puppeteer Sarah Olmsted Thomas: Co-Director, Writer, Puppeteer

This video is an introduction to the creative team Alex & Olmsted. It is a look at past performances ofMilo the Magnificent and their upcoming full-length project.

703-582-6364

302 Patterson Court Apt 620912

Olmsted.Sarah@gmail.comsaraholmstedthomas.com/puppetry.

VIDEO SAMPLE

CONTACT

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Black Cherry Puppet Theater501 (c)(3):

NA

PAST GRANTS AWARDED

WORKSHOP

Milo the Magnificent

Alex & Olmsted

2016 Workshop Grant Application

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

TECHNIQUE: Milo the Magnificent will employ several disciplines of puppetry; Mask, rod, hand,

object manipulation, and shadow puppetry. Milo has a flat, circular face that’s constructed like a

horizontal book. Using a mechanism that we developed, the puppeteer can flip through his 13

unique expressions. The puppeteer wearing Milo not only controls his facial expressions, but

his hands and feet also serve as the puppet’s extremities. In this way, Milo is worn like a

theatrical Mask. The puppeteers wear full-bodied black velvet jumpsuits and hoods against a

black backdrop. Our visible “invisibility” adds a layer of play to the narrative as we are both

present and indiscriminate agents in the story. Rod puppets, Hand puppets and Object

manipulation will be employed to create characters in Milo’s world. Finally, there will be a

moment of live video projection and of shadow puppetry.

CONCEPT: Milo the Magnificent, a magician and scientist, wakes up in his home to a daily

routine of breakfast, science experiments, and listening to the radio. He is a Vaudeville-style

entertainer in a 3-piece seersucker suit. His workshop is comprised of vintage suitcases and

hand-cranked automata. A vintage, vacuum tube radio malfunction requires him to mail-order a

replacement part. Within the housing of the radio, Milo finds a band of vacuum tube musicians

and capacitor back-up singers; small puppets that will be projected onto a screen behind him. A

series of strange packages arrive and animate unexpectedly.

DRAMATIC ARC: The animate packages escalate from creatures/objects that befriend Milo to

ones that threaten him to ones that alter his reality completely. A pinnacle moment in the piece

will be when Milo is forced through a portal which doubles him. Two Milos interact on stage in

escalating degrees of horror and playfulness. A third Milo will be a button on this most dramatic

scene. Ultimately, the radio is fixed and everything returns to normal just in time to hint at the

next problem to arise.

EXECUTION: We plan to execute this project with the aid of set pieces. Because a black

background is necessary to highlight Milo and to disguise the puppeteers, we plan to build set

pieces that are primarily in the foreground of the playing space. A series of table tops with

hidden compartments will be set structures on the stage. There will be a door frame among

black fabric walls and a projection screen that retracts.

USE OF PUPPETRY: This piece will use puppetry exclusively. All characters will be puppets.

Milo will be the centerpiece and on stage for the majority of the story. The set will also be

interactive; tabletops and boxes will have built-in trick features. Our goal is to animate

everything on stage.

PERFORMANCES: We have an agreement with Michael Lamason at Black Cherry Puppet

Theater in Baltimore to premiere this full-length version of Milo the Magnificent in 2017.

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Milo the Magnificent

Alex & Olmsted

2016 Workshop Grant Application

2

PROJECT BUDGET

1. Project EXPENSES Cash Amount In-Kind Amount

Materials for Puppets & Set 1,000

Materials for Costumes 300

Materials for Sound System & Lighting 500

Travel Expenses to & from Baltimore 150

Puppeteers’ Stipend for Two Performers 1,000 (at 500 each)

Set Building Stipend 500

Puppet Building Stipend 500

Promo Materials 150

Photos/Videographer 500

Rehearsal Space 500

Fiscal Sponsor/Admin Fee 300

2. TOTAL Cash Expenses 4,300

3. TOTAL In-Kind Expenses 1,100

4. TOTAL EXPENSES (sum of lines 2 +3) 5,400

5. ELIGIBLE GRANT AMOUNT 3,000

Milo the Magnificent Artist: Alex & Olmsted

6. Project INCOME Cash Amount In-Kind Amount

Tickets Sales (4 performances at Black Cherry) 2,000

Indiegogo Campaign 400

7. Henson Foundation Grant Amount Requested 3,000

8. TOTAL Cash Income (sum of column B) 5,400

9. TOTAL In-Kind Contributions (sum of column C)

10. TOTAL INCOME (sum of lines 8 + 9) 5,400

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Milo the Magnificent

Alex & Olmsted

2016 Workshop Grant Application

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ARTIST BIOS

ALEX VERNON BIO: Alex Vernon is an actor, puppeteer, tinkerer, and automata engineer. In

2010, Alex made his living in NYC as a street artist by cutting freehand silhouettes in Union

Square Park. In 2011, he joined a tour with Adventure Theatre to Singapore where he

engineered the concept for his puppet Milo the Magnificent. In 2015, Alex was hired by the

American Visionary Art Museum to repair and service the permanent automata in their Cabaret

Mechanical Theatre exhibit. Alex has been a company member with Washington, D.C.’s award-

winning Happenstance Theater since 2012. With Happenstance, Alex was nominated as

Outstanding Lead Actor for the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards. Alex built a 6 foot mechanical horse

puppet for the 2015 Washington Revels, 21 Wayang Kulit puppets for WSC Avant Bard’s 2016

Midsummer, and a Fettig-inspired mechanical puppet “Faust 4” that he constructed in Bread

and Puppet’s Vermont workshop this year. Alex trained with Julia Tasheva, a master puppeteer

from the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy in Bulgaria, and Dody DiSanto of the Center for

Movement. B.S., Middle Tennessee State University. www.TheAlexVernon.com

SARAH OLMSTED THOMAS BIO: Sarah Olmsted Thomas is a fifth generation artist. She

creates and performs original physical theater pieces. In 2010, she was commissioned by

Fortnight Journal in NYC to create 6 movement works for their inaugural edition. In 2012, she

completed an apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, VT, which presented

one of her dances in their Possibilitarian Circus. In 2014, she starred in the DC premiere of

Sarah Ruhl's Late: A Cowboy Song with No Rules Theatre Company at the Signature Theatre.

Sarah has been a company member with Washington, D.C.’s award-winning Happenstance

Theater since 2012. With Happenstance, Sarah was nominated as Outstanding Lead Actress

for the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards. Sarah trained with Synetic Theater in Washington, DC, The

Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia, and Le Samovar, Ecole de Clowns, in Paris. B.A.,

Sarah Lawrence College. www.SarahOlmstedThomas.com

ALEX & OLMSTED BIO: Alex & Olmsted (Alex Vernon and Sarah Olmsted Thomas) have been

making puppets together since 2010. In recent years they have performed at the Kennedy

Center, Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Strathmore, The Puppeteers of America Festival, The

Shakespeare Theatre Company, Vermont Vaudeville, The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta,

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in Connecticut, and Bread and Puppet in

Vermont. Their puppet Milo the Magnificent was accepted into the National Puppet Slam twice

and was featured on the front page of the Hartford Courant. Milo the Magnificent was also

accepted into the 2015 La MaMa Puppet Slam. Alex & Olmsted’s crankie The Life of an Apple

premiered at the Black Cherry Puppet Theater in Baltimore and has since performed at the

2016 Puppet Homecoming Festival.

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