Puppeteer awakens quirky 'Sleeping Beauty'
By JONATHAN WILLIAMS For accessAtlanta Published on: 07/31/2008

Most contemporary audiences are familiar with Disney's animated "Sleeping Beauty," but there are actually different versions of the story dating back several centuries. Keeping key elements intact, Kansas City puppeteer Paul Mesner reawakens this classic fairy tale in his award-winning one-man show.

You portray all the characters and action by yourself on stage. How do you master such a tedious craft?

The part that gets tedious in my job is driving and loading and unloading — the schlepping. Puppetry is not for sissies; there's a lot of equipment to carry in and out. This is a show I built 20 years ago when I was a younger man, and I made it vigorous and big and complicated. I must admit, the shows I build nowadays, I keep an eye toward not making it any more difficult than I have to and still give the audience the visual sensations that you want to create in a theatrical experience.

Your version of "Sleeping Beauty" is slightly different than the tale everyone knows. What are some of the more significant changes or additions you've made to the story?

I like to do a fair amount of research, and I found some early versions of "Sleeping Beauty," and in those, the queen, before she gives birth to Beauty, is swimming in a pond, so I turned that into a bathtub. In some versions there's a frog and in some versions there isn't, but I have a magic frog that pops up. ... I tell the story in general broad strokes, but I like to add the quirky characters and let them have their little moments.

Do you have any favorite characters or scenes from this production?

There is one marvelous little scene where the baby princess Beauty has crawled out of her crib and crawls around onstage and does a few antics. There are noises, but no words, and it goes on for a good two or three minutes. It's the lightest puppet in the whole show and one of the smallest figures, but it completely entrances the audience. It's one of those wonderful moments where you wish you could create that moment in every show you do.

Your production of "Sleeping Beauty" won the prestigious Citation for Excellence in the art of Puppetry from the Union Internationale de la Marionnette in 2000. What's more rewarding to you, winning that or the positive reactions from audiences?

They're very different. One is from your peers and that is very gratifying. But it's great to hear the audience sit in rapt attention listening and laughing. That is, of course, gratifying, and hopefully I get that every time I perform if I'm doing my job.