Savage Ugly

props, puppets, art, and design by Jessica Mondres about me

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Haven’t been great at updating this lately. Here is a cardboard crate of flowers I recently made for Sideshow Theater’s production of You For Me For You by Mia Chung. Top photo from the Chicago Tribune review.

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I like taking and editing pictures - I mostly use either my iPod touch or my iPhone, and alternate between a bunch of different photo apps to edit them. One of my favorites is VSCO.

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Portmanteau Crab puppet: Mariposa Nocturna

Steph and I had to rebuild the crab puppet we use in Mariposa for the Physical Festival performance.

Steph got this toy crab, carved out the legs, and reattached them with springs to create the mechanical effect we were interested in.

Then I painted the crab to match the aesthetic and color pallet of our show.

It ended up moving better than the original puppet it is replacing, and it’s a prettier puppet too. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

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Portmanteau (an artistic collaboration between myself and Chicago artist Stephanie Diaz) is remounting Mariposa Nocturna this Tuesday and Wednesday, 7pm, in the 4th annual Physical Festival Chicago, an international festival of contemporary, visual, and physical theater. I’ve always loved the work Physical Festival features, and I’m beyond thrilled Portmanteau is a presenting artist this year. Mariposa Nocturna was developed in 2013 with support from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. It has previously appeared at Nasty, Brutish, and Short; The Chicago Cultural Center; 16th Street Theater; Free Street Theater; The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival; and The National Museum of Mexican Art.

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Working with a shoestring budget I needed to make 22 sets of pop-up fairy wings, a light-up fairy staff, and 13 lit fairy wands (among other things.) To save time and money on such a build-heavy project, I got cheap pre-lit wands at a bulk price and used spray paint, hot glue, and wire to make them look like wands a bunch of woodland fairies would use. Pretty happy with the results.

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Here is the finished Fairy Queen staff, built for a production of Iolanthe.

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Fairy Queen staff process shots. This is my first light up prop. The staff turns on and off when it is tapped on the ground. I used pvc, a gum ball machine from the Dollar Tree, and a simple LED circuit to build it. Now that the basic structure is complete, it just needs decoration to complete the effect.

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Fairy Scroll for Iolanthe

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Lord Chancellor teddy bear with handmade wig and lace collar for Iolanthe at Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company in Hyde Park.

I got the bear from a thrift store for two dollars. I made the wig with newspaper, masking tape, white paint and cotton batting.

I replaced the bow tie with a lace collar (like the one on my inspiration photo) made with a bit of lace from the notions section of Textile Discount Outlet in Pilsen.

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Union Jack teapot for Iolanthe at Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company in Hyde Park.

We wanted a very British teapot on a very tiny budget. So I found this white $3 teapot at Village Discount Outlet and used permanent marker (baked on in the oven) to achieve the desired effect.

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A puppet I built for my 2016:/17 DCASE residency.

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Bonsai Tree constructed from wire, foil, foam, paint, reindeer moss

built for Yasmina’s Necklace at 16th Street Theater

Director: Ann Filmer; Set Design: Joanna Iwanicki

Real bonsai trees are expensive and difficult to keep alive. Convincing replicas were also outside of our budget. My solution was to build my own bonsai.

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Peter Pan Puppets for St Clement Catholic School

Designed and built: 3 handheld cloud puppets, three miniature house props, 4 shadow puppets, 7 ft crocodile puppet, 2 large scale cloud props

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Puppets designed and built for Sketchfest show “The News is Now” at Stage773.

The hand-rod puppet was described in the script as having been built while drunk out of paper plates and duct tape, so I used paper plates and duct tape to make the mouth piece, bases for the googly eyes, and cuffs and a tie (not yet added when I took the above photo.)

The sock puppet got murdered in the show by the bigger puppet. It was pretty dark.

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Life-size cow puppet designed and built in collaboration with Stephanie Diaz 

for Red Orchid Theater

Unfortunately, we never got a photograph of the finished cow, but this shot gives you a good idea of her size and shape. The only element missing is the hair/hide finishing touches.

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Miller High Life cans for Carroll Gardens at 16th Street Theater

The actors needed to open and drink several cans per performance, so I painted cans of seltzer gold and created reusable High Life sleeves that could be slipped over the cans.

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Yasmina’s Necklace at 16th Street 

Director: Ann Filmer Set Design: Joanna Iwanicki

This was before I got in the habit of taking process shots/before pictures ;) But in these photos, you can see the Bonsai tree I built, the tea tray I pepped up (it was plain white to start,) and the table runner I sewed.

The dining room set had good bones but was in bad shape. I cleaned up and reglued the joints of the chairs, reupholstered the cushions, and refinished the dining table.

In this play, Yasmina is seen working on her painting (commissioned piece by Chicago artist Megan Bonke) throughout. To avoid having to have new paintings each night I had her use gesso (which dries clear) instead of paint. So she was able to really ‘paint’ without obscuring the look of the canvas.

The filled jar on her painting table is meant to be soil she carried with her from Iraq when she had to flee, a keepsake of her homeland. Several times throughout she opens the jar and smears the dirt into the painting, as well as onto her cheeks. Our actress had sensitive skin and so most make-ups would not work for her. Ultimately I found used coffee grounds to be the best choice for believable dirt that didn’t irritate her skin.