The people behind the puppets

As director of Puppet Government, the little puppet show/political satire/musical/mini-spectacle, I see nothing but the little guys out in front of the black curtain. "Um, Mr. President," I say, "don't turn your back to the audience. No one wants to see your cord." Or, "No, Ms. Rice, you do NOT look like a crock pot." Or perhaps, "Stop it, Dick, you're going to knock Rummy's arm off again. Now behave." And then Rumsfeld will let out a fart and Dick will wet himself laughing.

Sometimes I forget that these little appliances all have human friends behind them. Literally. So I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce them, starting with the back row of the cast photo (by the amazing Kenneth Gall) and moving from left to right.

That's Joe Bowen in the stunning yellow shirt and necktie. He's our WrongCo Salesman. It's his job to sell the president new and improved appliances every time the prez has a problem, and he's darn good at it. He is seen here holding the amazing 12-n-1 War in Iraq. Joe also doubles as a puppeteer, wrangling Pat Robertson, who tends to levitate, and George Deutsch, who doesn't.

Next to Joe we have Jeff Swearingen, a native of Dallas who has joined us in Austin this summer so he can do the show with us. Jeff's main charge is Donald Rumsfeld, and that's who he's holding in the photo doing his fart face. Donald, Donald, Donald! We can't take you anywhere! Jeff also plays Scotty McClellan, Tony Snow, Julie Meyers, George W.H. Bush and the ghost of Richard Nixon.

Ben Johnston is Jeff's partner-in-crime. His Dick Cheney (pictured with Ben) is always misbehaving with Rumsfeld. I swear, I'm going to have to separate those two! Ben also plays Phillip Cooney, Colin Powell, Michael Brown, and a member of the Press Corps. Ben is our set designer when he's not singing, dancing and behaving badly; and he contributed the show-stopping "It's Not Easy Being Mean," Dick Cheney's solo.

Moving down to front left, we see Paula Ruth Gilbert. Paula plays Laura and Jenna Bush (that's Laura in the photo), Condaleezza Rice, Cindy Sheehan, and a member of the Press Corps. Interestingly, her press job puts her behind the curtain some of the time and out front, live and in person at other times.

That's me in the middle. Chris Humphrey. I'm the director, choreographer, music composer/arranger, puppet designer. I'm the one who has to make these bad appliances behave! (Don't tell them, but I've actually become very attached to every single one of them, the little scamps!)

Next to me is the brilliant Steve Barney, the man who came up with the idea and then made it happen. Steve has written the script and the lyrics to most of the songs. He plays George W. Bush, John Kerry and Claude Allen. Steve is not only a gifted writer and actor, but he is also a gracious man who allows these appliances plenty of room to interpret his script in their own pecular, and often hilarious way. I expect that sometimes Steve doesn't even recognize his words after they've been through the puppets' interpretive mill.

Every single one of these actors is a multi-tasking, multi-character playing wonder! Think about it. That's an average of 4.4 characters per person in a fast paced, song-and-dance extravaganza done with a black curtain between eyes and hands!

Most of the time the puppets play well together. The humans play well together all of the time.