The Muppets Company

[Gonzo14]

I'm not talking about the real life Company, I've been thinking about within the "Muppet Universe" if their productions/movies/etc were all run by the muppets themselves, how that would go

Here's what I've come up with

First of all, in my idea they didn't have an organized system until the mid-80s, before that it was just random but then with the success of the Muppet Show and their growing popularity, they formed this system

The Muppets Company is run by Kermit the Frog as C.E.O.

Other High Ranking Muppets include
Rowlf the Dog: Musical Coordinator (arranging, working with artists to pick songs and write original muppet songs)

Fozzie Bear & Gonzo: Casting Directors (deciding who's in each production and how they all fit in, Fozzie specializes in outside/human casting while Gonzo deals with casting the muppets)

Rizzo the Rat & Pepe the Prawn: Head Writers (this one's more self explanatory, I also think that Pepe started as an intern during Muppets Tonight before being promoted)

Scooter: Operations Manager (Dealing with the day to day operations such as accounting, etc as well as doing the "stage manager" type job even for larger productions, working on the details)

Kermit would work with these 6 characters when planning a major production, when all together they're known as "The Board of Muppets"

In addition, there are a number of Full Time Muppets, some of them obviously have specific jobs (for example, the Electric Mayhem) but the others are all very prominent and are usually featured in most muppet productions
The Full Time Muppet Associates include Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Janice, Zoot, Animal, Beaker, Bunsen, Swedish Chef, Robin, Sam the Eagle, Bobo, Statler, Waldorf, and Miss Piggy

Part-Time Muppets include Sweetums, Johnny Fiamma, Sal, Beauregard, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, and Clifford
(I also think that Johnny, Sal, and Clifford were full time starting with Muppets Tonight, but dropped down in the early 2000s)

All other Muppets are currently on a contract basis, working each gig separatly as requested


I also have come up with the Muppet Theatre being the company headquarters, adding onto what we've seen, I imagine the building having 3 floors (except for the auditorium part, which is clearly high enough to not have any floors on top.

In the basement is a kitchen/small cafeteria under Stage Right, and Under Stage Left is Muppet Labs (the real one, not the set that was used during the Muppet Show)

Stage Right is just as seen in the Muppet Show, complete with dressing rooms for the Full Time Muppets (except for those in the Board of Muppets)

Stage Left is a large hangout/storage area for props/sets (just think of the main room in the show "Sonny with a Chance") This room is also very high and has an upper balcony for storage so this room alone is high enough to take up two floors (there is also access to this area from the 2nd Floor

2nd Floor Stage Right is a recording studio, where Rowlf and the Electric Mayhem (and occasionally others) work on composing, writing, and recording the music for the Muppets

3rd Floor is the offices, Kermit, Rowlf, and Scooter each have their own, Fozzie & Gonzo share one as do Rizzo and Pepe, there is also conference room. I haven't figured out the layout of these rooms yet

So what do you think? is this an interesting idea or am i crazy?

 

[Skekayuk]

It's a great idea.
You'd need a pretty big theatre though, something on a par with the size of "The Lane", well perhaps a little smaller, but not much.

 

[Gonzo14]

Yeah, the size might need to be adjusted, but I think it you just add 2 floors ontop of the theater we see in The Muppet Show, its a conceivable thought

 

[Duke Remington]

I like this idea, too.

But I do have one idea to share: the conference room on the 3rd floor could be called the "Jim Henson Conference Room", as a tribute to the man that first brought the Muppets into the world.

 

[Aaron]

This concept would make a great role play

 

[Gonzo14]

Yeah it would be a good roleplay

Also, good Call on The Jim Henson Conference Room

I can also use this to explain a few things

various Character's Disappearances
Rowlf became very involved in the music of the Muppets. For example, imagine the music of The Muppet Christmas Carol being a collaboration between Paul Williams & Rowlf the Dog.

Scooter began to take on Directing/Producing. I'd like to think that during those years when he was absent, he was still involved behind the camera.

The Electric Mayhem started to get big gigs/concerts/tours on their own, separate from just the Muppets. They were still involved and recored the scores/background music for most if not all the big songs at the time. They also managed to make cameo appearances in TMCC, MTI, and MFS.

All of these characters have started to make their way back on screen in the past years. The Board of Muppets realized that they are a big part of who the Muppets are and that even though they are busy with their careers, Rowlf, Scooter, and the Electric Mayhem need to be seen

 

[Dearth]

With regards to the layout of the theatre, here are some thoughts based on various theatres where I've been fortunate enough to tread the boards...

The largest theatre I've ever spent time in is Norton Auditorium at the University of North Alabama, in a town called Florence. I often think of it when watching the Muppet Show.

In fact, some years after I graduated, I attended a Carrot Top show there, and when he walked out onto the stage for the first time, he commented "Wow, this is a real *theatre*." Apparently he'd been playing a lot of sports arenas. Then he looked up and to his left, and asked, "Where do those two old Muppets sit?"

Alas, that spot in Norton is occupied by the pipe organ, so no such luck there.

But it does have a large audience with one balcony, the main stage, an orchestra pit (actually a section of the stage that can be raised or lowered hydraulically), and a big area at stage right where most of the backstage hijinks occurred.

Backstage at both sides were stairwells which went down one level to the green room (directly below the stage), dressing rooms (men's on SR, women's on SL), and several more 'underground' rooms for prop and costume storage. These stairwells also went up several flights, giving access first to an acting balcony at SR (very dangerous if you ask me, as one could walk right off the edge, there was no rail) and then taking you on up to the catwalks for the lighting and the fly system.

The stage left backstage area was tiny compared to stage right, and since we almost never see this side on TMS, I have to think it's practically the same. Notice in the 'Take Ten Terrific Girls' number that Waldorf goes off stage left to fly in the scenery, and you get the impression he's just barely off. This corresponds exactly with the design at Norton, where the counterweights for the fly system were kept very close on SL.

There were also costume storage rooms kept out in the front of the building, near the public restrooms. Almost forgot those were even there.

The SR side was even larger than one would guess, because it connected via a rollup door to the set prep area, which was actually in another building. Above the set prep area, accessed by a spiral staircase from backstage, were the offices of one of the theatre professors and the stage manager (Alice, a woman who has measured my inseam more times than I care to remember -- she's still the stage mgr. at Norton, and I graduated in 1992!).

Next to those offices was a classroom with mirrors along one wall, known as NA 201, where we usually rehearsed the performances before moving down to the actual stage shortly before we opened. It was cheaper to heat and cool, you see, and gave the set crew more freedom to build and paint.

I think any offices should be in either the house (out front) or in a connected building like that, because we know the Muppet Theatre has to have a huge empty space directly above the stage for the fly system and lights. But maybe if the dressing rooms were above the stage, offices could be above them. Shrug.

Another theatre where I've acted several times is the Ritz in Sheffield, AL... a converted movie house. It has practically ZERO backstage area, because it wasn't built for it. It was only built for a screen, so it had a lot of retrofit done. At some point, they bought two adjacent buildings and connected all three into one facility. The rearmost building, off on SR, became set construction and storage, while the building next to the house (also on the SR side) became a reception/rehearsal room with a working kitchen. Upstairs is costume storage, a very spooky dusty old attic. And just like at Norton, the Ritz has practically nothing on the SL side, just a stairwell leading down to the dressing rooms and orchestra pit below.

Our most recent facility is the Shoals Theatre, back in Florence. Another converted movie house, this one is laid out sideways. You enter from the front doors and make a 90-degree turn to the left to go into the seating area. The theatre itself runs behind two other businesses along that street, a coffee shop and a radio station, who actually pay rent to the theatre board as their landlords. Not a bad arrangement.

The Shoals is reminiscent of the Muppet Theatre in that its dressing rooms are not below the stage, they're on the second floor backstage and accessed via a staircase. Alas, they're SL rather than SR, but with the whole building sideways it's hard to keep straight. If you have to use the restroom in the dressing rooms during a performance, the actors on stage and possibly the first few rows of the audience will hear the water moving through the pipes of the back wall.

And the theatre with the most charm, where I've directed five shows and still do improv comedy (Sticky Wicket Improv Troupe, we're on Facebook) is the little Zodiac Theatre, again here in Florence. But it's so quirky that it resembles the Muppet Theatre only in its homespun randomness. A converted Firestone garage, it has almost no structural resemblance to a theatre... it looks more like a comedy club. Black cinderblock walls, a flat floor with a raised stage.

But what it does have, due to the triangular shape of the building created by one diagonal road in an otherwise rectangular grid of streets, is some wonderful natural acoustics. So you can almost forgive the face that everything else... the seats, the stage, the curtain, the orchestra loft (not a pit, it's above the stage on SR), the light booth, even the lights, were all cobbled on to fit the needs of whatever show required them first.

I can lay claim to the addition of the first permanent curtain, which debuted for my production of Barefoot in the Park... some 28 years into the theatre's existence. [It was nice to give something back to the Zodiac, because that was where I made my acting debut-- as the Voice of the Plant in a 1989 production of Little Shop of Horrors.]

And at the Zodiac, there IS no stage left. There's just a door that opens onto the parking lot.

I've also been given a tour of the Princess Theatre in Decatur AL, though I've never acted there. Another retrofit movie house, it has no fly system and no set storage space. SL and SR both end a few feet off the main stage, so they have to pick plays with very few scene changes or make some highly creative choices. To get to the dressing rooms, you literally leave the building and walk down the alley to a separate structure.

So, I think the offices for the Muppet Company don't necessarily have to go vertical. They can go into adjoining buildings, yet still be considered part of 'the Theatre'. And for some reason, I've never been in a theatre with a large stage left area (or at least none where it was the same size as SR) so that feels really anathema.

But the great thing about theatres, especially the Zodiac, is that they evolve around the shows they're doing at the time, and around the creative people who inhabit them. So I think the Muppet Theatre is probably the most amorphous theatrical 'building' imaginable.

Alex

 

[Duke Remington]

If you don't mind me reviving this thread, here's some other ideas for the Muppets Company, particularly at the Muppet Theater:

In the basement kitchen/cafeteria/canteen, the staff could include Gladys, Winny, the Swedish Chef and Angelo. Gladys and Winny would be at the counter, taking the food orders and serving them, while Swedish Chef and Angelo would work in the kitchen, cooking and preparing the food.

And, of course, we can't forget about the pit orchestra, which would include the same musicians that made up The Muppet Orchestra during The Muppet Show's 5-year run, but its number of musicians would be increased. The expanded Muppet orchestra would include:
-Nigel (conductor)
-Rowlf (piano)
-Animal (drums)
-Floyd Pepper (bass guitar)
-Zoot (saxophone)
-Lips (trumpet)
-Trumpet Girl (trombone)
-Crazy Harry (musical triangle)
-Janice (guitar)
-Dr. Teeth (tamborine)
-Clifford (bass fiddle)
-Jim Henson Muppet (banjo)

And various whatnots, pigs, etc. would join them occassionally to play other instruments in the orchestra (flutes, clarinets, violins, xylophones, etc.) when needed.