All Photo Credit: Tisse Mallon
Sesame Street puppeteer Fran Brill
November 9, 2008
by Victoria Andrew
The Orange County Regional History Center was packed with an enthusiastic crowd November 9th, to listen to actress and Sesame Street puppeteer Fran Brill give a talk on Sesame Street’s conception, evolution, and current trends. And surprise! She brought her spunky Muppet, Zoe, along for the ride.
Brill went into depth on the technical challenges, advanced acting techniques, and acrobatic feats Sesame Street puppeteers go through during the show's taping, such as hiding behind crates, performing on rolling lawn chairs, and even wearing spandex to match blue screens to be to be invisible from the camera.
How did Brill get on this iconic piece of tv history?
“In the early 70s, I answered an ad to be a puppeteer. I never imagined how challenging it could be, yet I love how there is always something new to learn. With Sesame Street, we are always growing and learning as performers.”
She also described her non-Sesame career which involves voice overs, commercials, Off Broadway shows, soap operas, more TV, and film. Says Brill, “Often I feel as though I’m a circus performer who spins several pie plates, yet nothing has been as rewarding as creating Muppets, Prairie Dawn and Zoe.”
Prairie Dawn was born when Sesame Street was completely dominated by all male performers. Similar to Shakespearean times, all of the Muppets were performed by men including female characters in a falsetto voice. Yet, with the dawning of the feminist movement in the early 70s, Sesame Street adapted to the times. Brill thus created the “quintessential little girl” Muppet named Prairie Dawn, whose ultra femininity and sophistication differs from her later gender – bending, spunky tomboy Muppet, Zoe.
Brill enlightened her packed audience with Sesame Street’s philosophy that children learn more when watching the show with adults. Thus, writers invented parodies of popular shows to appease both children and adults, such as “Meal or No Meal”, “Desperate Houseplants”, and “Monsterpiece Theater,” which had the History Center crowd roaring with laughter.
The morning closed with a tribute to Sesame Street’s creator, Jim Henson, who always said the Muppets' curriculum should be “funny yet educational.” It was Henson’s mission to “always has a positive attitude, treat everyone with respect, and to leave the world a better place than before.”
Jim Henson’s daughter, Heather Henson, will be the featured speaker at the History Center’s grand opening night event of “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” Exhibition on Thursday, Feb. 5 2009. 407-836-8580 for reservations.