There’s a lot of things happening in the production of “Meja i spökjägarnas sal” (Eng: “Meja in ghost hunter’s hall”), a puppetshow which is a spin-off based on our award-winning manga series Kick Off. Today Stockholm’s City Theater gather gathered the ensemble of “Meja i spökjägarnas sal”, each of them with different super powers, to present the play and read through the manuscript. So far we have mostly been working with the director, art director, set designer and producer. This was the first time for us in the studio to meet the rest of the ensemble who are involved and we looked forward to it! Today was also the first time we got to see the dolls Meja, Andreas, Krille and Jenny (characters from Kick Off). There’s also Yoshiro, who is a new character especially designed and written for the play. On the photo above is the adorable ghost hunter Meja. Don’t you think she has features that reminds of those gracious Japanese BJD dolls?

The super powers gathered! It started with everybody presenting themselves and their roles in the production. Helena explained the marriage between manga and theater and we ended the meating by an aloud reading by the puppeteers. Helena had procesed our storyboards into a manuscript fit for the stage. We worked closely to her when writing and drawing the storyboard for the play.

From lower left corner: Eva Kassander (producer), Annika Arnell (puppeteer), Daniel Trankell (stage manager/teqhnician), Appel (stage manager/teqhnician), en woman (dramaturgist) whom’s name we have forgotten >__<;, Torbjörn Svedberg (composer). In the middle: Magnus Erenius (puppeteer). From lower right corner: Andreas Braula (scenographer and puppeteer), Helena Nilsson (director and art director), Kay Tinbäck du Rées (puppeter).

After the reading the majority of us were moving to another theater closeby for rehersal. Since it was the first rehersal, it was more like moving all the props from point A to point B and figure out how and where they should be. But before moving on to the other theater the puppeteers Andresa and Magnus had a fencing duel in the theater’s workshop.

Today was also the day when the doll-maker Thomas Lundqvist did the hand-over of the puppets to the theater. It was an important part and a symbolic gesture. He brought a big suitcase to the rehersal theater and unpacked the doll carefully. He presented each one of them and explained their features. Appearently Meja and her friends were specially cunstructed to fit the requirements of the play (the need to be very flexible for the action scenes when they cast magic spells against ghosts etc). The dolls were not finished at present, but the theater is allowed to use them for rehearsal now. The dolls will be finished around the beginning of January.

Here are they! The characters from our manga Kick Off - (from left: Krille, Andreas, Yoshiro, Jenny and Meja). We were told that it was quite unusual for puppets to have eyes that can blink, they usually use the body language to express the dolls actions and feelings. But Meja and her friends can blink! Since this is a play based on manga, the doll-maker Thoma wanted the dolls to be able to perform some facial expressions. And that’s why some of them can gaze while others can even lift their eyebrown!

Thomas personal favourite is the doll of Andreas the ghost (the one he’s holding up on the photo), and it’s our personal favourite as well. Andreas has a special set of facial expressions that is very different from the rest. He can look arrogant, but in an other angle he can instead look sad. It’s hard to not pur superlatives on Thomas work, but his craftmanship is really impressing! His interpretation of our Kick Off characters is far beyond our expectatoins. We are honered.

(All Andreas fans out there don’t have to worry about Andreas having a new hairstyle! Thomas is just showing the material he will use to create Andreas’ hair. Later he will have his handsome haircut.)

Chiko, the hamster, shows his discontent of not being in everyone’s focus.The on in focus, at least on this photo, is the doll Hilda (Mejas big sister who is a great ghost hunter).

Thomas had to leave early. But the next cool thing was the dressing of the dolls with the costume designer Anna-Lisa Persson. Anna-Lisa picks the fabric and colors and sew the clothes of the dolls. Even though she only had the dummy clothes with her (they were something similar to an illustrator’s sketch) we were surprised how well her selections of fabric matched with our inital idea when we created the clothes to our manga characters.

Anna-Lisa proudly shows the poncho she has created for Meja especially for the play. In the manga Meja is wearing a coat outdoors, but we agreed it would be too complicated if every character needed an additional jacket (it’s a big hassle dressing the dolls). And that’s why Anna-Lisa created this poncho which keeps some of our original design ideas for Meja’s coat.

They guys dressed! Closest to us is Andreas the ghost, the new character Yoshiro and Krille who is the main character together with Andreas in our manga Kick Off.

The best friends Jenny and Meja. And some footballs!

Meja’s big sister Hilda inspected everything from a chair. Hilda doll is made by the puppeteer Annika Arnell. And she has real hear!!! As you can see the ensemble of Stockholm’s City Theater has not only one but several super powers. Respect!

Left: Did Krille get a new haircut? Haha, no. This is a sample of the hair material Krille is going to have. It’s rumpled like his hair use to be. We like it a lot!

Right: The new guy Yoshiro throws a narrowing glance into somewhere distant, played by the director Helena on this photo.

Here you can see Kick Off’s main characters Krille and Andreas. In this play the gave their position to Meja the ghost hunter.

That’s all for this time’s sneak peek! Next time we will take a look at the props and the rehearsal if we have time.

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Links

Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the ghost hunter’s hall” part1
Read more about “Meja in ghost hunter’s hall” in the Stockholm City Theater’s website (Swedish)
Visit Kick Off’s official website
Read our entry about Kick Off receiving the award “Best comic 2008″ in Sweden.

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