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My marionette's left arm snapped mid-show in front of 30 kids, do I fix it or trash it?
Last Saturday I was doing a puppet show at the Aurora Public Library in Illinois for about 30 kids, and halfway through my wooden marionette's string setup, the left arm just gave out and flopped down like a dead fish. I had built this thing from scratch over 4 weekends using basswood and brass hinges, and I was so proud of the joint work until that exact second. The kids went quiet, one toddler said 'uh oh,' and I had to think fast. I grabbed a spare hand puppet from my bag and finished the show as a two-character bit, acting like the broken marionette was just sleeping. Afterward, a mom told me her son now wants to build his own puppets, so it worked out kind of. But now I'm stuck: do I try to re-string and reinforce that arm with wire, or do I scrap the whole marionette and start over? Part of me says the wood is too soft and it'll keep breaking, but the other part says I spent $60 on materials and 20 hours on this thing. Has anyone else had a joint fail mid-performance, and did you repair or rebuild?
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