Puppeteering during a pandemic takes practice â and patience.
Just ask the folks behind âDonkey Hodie,â a new PBS series based on a Fred Rogers character.
âThe challenge is the audio,â says David Rudman, one of the showâs producers and the man behind Bob Dog. âSome masks work for me and I donât sound too muffled.â Others might not click for other puppeteers. âWe have been doing a lot of looping on the show because some of the audio is unusable.â
Rudman tried a heavier mask â often called a âsingerâs maskâ â and he almost lost consciousness. âBob Dog is very energetic,â he explains. âHe pants a lot and thereâs a lot of running around. I had to run out of the studio, take the mask off and get some air into my system. That mask didnât work for me.â
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