Ziggy is the extraterrestrial puppet star of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s and Beyond the Garage Productions’ ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure.’
Ziggy is taking his act out of state.
The extraterrestrial puppet star of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s and Beyond the Garage Productions’ “Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” will be introduced to audiences of South Carolina Educational Television and WKNO, a PBS member television station in Memphis, Tennessee.
The live-action puppet series “Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” teaches core arts concepts through the magic of storytelling, according to LPB. This season, sponsored by the Louisiana Division of the Arts, will cover creative concepts such as color, mood and character.
Ziggy is the extraterrestrial puppet star of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s and Beyond the Garage Productions’ ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure.’
“Ziggy is a 9-year-old creature from another planet who comes to Earth to learn about art,” the series synopsis states. “He lands in Louisiana where he and his friends meet all kinds of artists and creatives while exploring different art genres.”
Another first for Season 3 of the digital-first educational series for all ages will be a premiere event at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge at 6:30 p.m. Friday. In addition to screening two episodes, the event also will feature entertainment by Louis Michot of The Lost Bayou Ramblers, and the Baton Rouge High Step Team. Ziggy himself will also make an appearance.
Before the big night, “Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” creator and director Clay Achee and Clarence “C.C.” Copeland, LPB president and CEO, took time to shed a little light on what’s in store for the little green creature with the glowing antennae this season.
The director’s take
“I think it’s a lot about trying to figure out whatever you did best and keeping that, and trying new things where you feel like you didn’t do your best,” Achee says in assessing the season ahead.
Achee’s excited about a new format for Ziggy to talk to the guest artists.
“He’s doing kind of a late-night show, where the guest comes in and sits down and gets interviewed and then shows us their art,” Achee said. “I think it’s a really fun way to show off the wonderful guests we get to have.
“Generally, we were trying to have more fun this season by making the jokes more plentiful and the gags bigger and more cartoony,” he said.
Clay Achee directs ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure’ nd co-writes the series with Elizabeth Foos.
With the addition of the character JV Upcycle, a quite helpful junkbot, the show is now a cast of eight puppets and their puppeteers. Filming for the 10 episodes again took place on the inside set, which has been enlarged, at LPB Studios, while outdoor scenes were shot in the spring at Beauvoir Park.
“We’re really utilizing more outside spaces. It makes it feel like we’re in a real world,” Achee said.
Elizabeth Foos shares writing duties for “Ziggy” with Achee, part of a cast, creatives and crew of 20, including an art department and camera team.
“It’s growing into, you know, a really wonderful little hardworking family,” he said.
Puppeteers and crew prepare to shoot a scene for ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure.’
A view from the top
While Achee was running front-of-camera logistics, Copeland was behind the scenes ironing out series funding and details on “Ziggy’s” expansion into South Carolina and Tennessee.
Copeland said he’d been working with Corporation for Public Broadcasting in hopes that it would fund “ZAA” a couple of extra seasons.
“‘We were fortunate enough last year to work with the Department of Education, and they gave us a grant to go along with Season 3,” he said. “That included two episodes geared to the homeless initiative.”
He explained that the grant allowed LPB to buy 750 iPads, load the shows and distribute the devices to homeless shelters throughout the state.
“And if you think about it, so if a child’s in transition and they unfortunately have to go to a shelter, they would have ‘Ziggy’ stand-alone episodes with all the core curriculum for the little ones,” he said.
Ziggy is the extraterrestrial puppet star of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s and Beyond the Garage Productions’ ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure.’
Meanwhile, Foos, who’s also an educational consultant for the series, worked closely with CPB to secure funding for the pilot, a necessary tool in reaching out to other stations about “Ziggy,” Copeland said.
“We looked at where can we best get ‘Ziggy’ out nationally. So I said, ‘Well, hey, I know Adrienne Fairwell, the general manager of South Carolina Educational Television and they’re a state network just like LPB is, but they’re larger, they cover more area (in) South Carolina,” Copeland said. “Then we looked for an independent as well, a smaller station. So we found WKNO in Memphis.”
Guest artists from both of those stations dropped in on two “Ziggy” episodes.
“So you had a guest artist from South Carolina come in and do an arts thing, and you had someone from Memphis come in and I think they did something on the music, Memphis and the blues.”
Copeland said South Carolina ET has committed to airing “Ziggy” on their digital platform, and said they would possibly even put it on air. Northwest Public Broadcasting in Washington state also is interested in airing the series, he said.
Ziggy is the extraterrestrial puppet star of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s and Beyond the Garage Productions’ ‘Ziggy’s Arts Adventure.’
“So then I’ll have East Coast, West Coast, and mid-South with Memphis. We’re trying to get ‘Ziggy’ out there,” Copeland said.
To stream past “Ziggy” episodes, explore characters and download simple art activities, visit ziggy.lpb.org or stream on the “Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” YouTube channel.
