In 1993 Flexitoon received the first ever National Endowment for Children's Educational Television grant. We partnered with Thirteen/WNET (NY) and produced the special Goin Up.
Mr. Lift & Skylar
Mr. Lift (and Dad) was played by Jonathan Freeman. Jon is a Tony-nominated actor currently featured on Broadway in The Little Mermaid. He was also the voice of Jafar in Disney's Aladdin, and he puppeteers Tito Swing on Shining Time Station.
Jonathan first met Olga Felgemacher in 1975 where she was leading lady at the Bil Baird Marionette Theatre. Jonathan was hired for PINOCCHIO (Olga played the title role) and they have been soul mates ever since. I feel the same. Jon joined Flexitoon in 1986.
Skylar & Katitude (Olga & Craig)
Goin Up was a very exciting project to work on. Not only did we create it, but Flexitoon produced it as well. Our executive producer from Thirteen/WNET was Kathleen Rae, and she could not have been smarter or more supportive. As producer we brought in Dann Linck. Like everybody in the FlexiTeam, it's vital to be well-versed in multiple areas, and Dann, along with terrific producer's cred and rolodex, also played an amazingly inventive bass!
The Bass Licks of Mr. Linck
I wrote the music and played electric twelve string guitar for Goin' Up, and puppeteer Alan Semok (r) brought the keyboards to life as if they were another puppet character at his fingertips (Alan is also TEX on Shining Time Station.)
(Semok & Marin)
We called our band THE PLAYGROUND.
Mr. Lift, Mr. Producer, Ms. Puppenspieler, Mr. Marin-ette
If you would like to hear some of the music and see a couple of scenes from Goin' Up, go here: http://www.flexitoon.com/video.php3
Precious gold from the vaults!!! Was this all a dream we shared? Never more fun on a project was ever had...love you Craig, Olga Alan and all!
ReplyDeleteMr. Producer