Chelsea M. Warren

Star Tribune, Chris Hewitt: “Minneapolis world premiere of ‘Stinkers’ blends laughs with astonishing puppet work: Puppets depict the enormous impact tiny people have on a family in the comedy “Stinkers.” In the thoughtful, affectionate “Stinkers,” I counted the characters and arrived at eight — which is weird, because I’m usually good at math in the single-digit range, but the correct total is six. Two are puppets, operated by two human actors, and the four are so vivid that I counted them all. The puppet design, the naturalness of the humans’ response to them and the puppeteers’ skill encourage us to keep shifting our attention between the puppets, which enact the physical behavior of a pair of toddlers, and the actors, who perform the facial expressions and speech that puppets can’t. Long story short: The idea of a comedy about a family in which the kids are puppets sounds like it could be really terrible. In fact, it is the best thing in Josh Tobiessen’s play, getting its world premiere at the Jungle Theater. Chelsea M. Warren’s beautiful puppets are different enough from an actual 3-year-old boy and 20-month-old girl that they require us to help create the characters. Between them, our imaginations and the skill of Reed Sigmund and Megan M. Burns, who play Oscar and Evie, we collaborate to dream up two children who seem astonishingly real. It took a couple minutes to get used to it but, very quickly, I was sold on Burns’ barely verbal Evie and Sigmund’s Oscar, whom Sigmund vocalizes in two registers: whispery soft and VERY VERY LOUD, with nothing in between. The children are crucial to “Stinkers,” which I’d argue is about how the tiniest people in a family tackle the huge task of teaching their parents how to be parents. As inconvenient as Oscar and Evie are when they need a fight adjudicated or a snack, and as cluttered as Warren’s set is with their toys and diapers, the children are the best-adjusted people on stage.”

Minnesota Playlist, Erin McNeil: “The best part of Stinkers is the hysterical acting by Megan M. Burns with/as Evie and Reed Sigmund with/as Oscar. Plays about small children are hard to do because it is impossible for a two year old to hit their marks night after night after night. Instead of shying away from children as a topic for theatre, the Jungle makes the choice to use puppets instead--undoubtedly disturbing, but lovable, life-sized puppets. Chelsea M. Warren returns to the Jungle Theater again as their Puppet Designer, and once again she hits it out of the park. The children are sweet, creepy, and feel quite alive. Their design will put you in mind of #reasonmychildiscrying and memes about how scary children can be. Like other plays where the actor and the puppet form a kind of hybrid entity (think Avenue Q), there is a constant gestalt between puppets and their actor handlers, which makes both more than they could be on their own. When little Evie hides her face in her father’s shoulder, the audience looks to Burns (with her amazingly malleable and expressive face) to experience Evie’s turmoil at that moment. When Oscar sheds tears over his “little bit of a rough day,” Sigmund’s body language and expressions give extra urgency to the little boy’s feelings; when added to the puppet’s small hands rubbing at his face, both actions trigger immediate empathy from the audience. We have all had a little bit of a bad day. Just because they have small bodies doesn’t mean that children don’t have big feelings themselves and incredibly large impacts on adult lives. Thus, showing the children’s real size with the puppets and their emotional/physiological size with the adult actors is highly effective. John Carton does a wonderful job acting alongside the puppets-- his fatherly affection, care, and sometimes exasperation manifest in his interaction with the children.” 

MINNPOST, Pamela Espeland: “Oscar and Evie are life-size puppets, manipulated by Reed Sigmund, a longtime member of the Children’s Theatre acting company, and Megan Burns, who’s becoming a Jungle regular. In the script, Tobiessen notes that “the actors operating the puppets … should make no attempt to hide or blend into the background.” Handled skillfully, as they are here, puppets are their own kind of magic. They and their people become one. In “Stinkers,” they even look alike. Oscar and Sigmund wear the same color shirt. Evie and Burns have the same hair, complete with bows. All the action takes place on Chelsea M. Warren’s amazing set, the home’s interior, with tall windows that make you believe you’re in northern Minnesota. It’s loaded with details: toys spilling out of a bookcase onto the floor, a paper towel roll and a knife block on the kitchen counter, kids’ drawings stuck to the fridge with magnets. A sliding glass door leads to a patio with a grill. A wasps’ nest hangs just outside; you won’t notice it right away, but it figures later in the play, and what’s fun is whenever the door opens, you hear a buzz, thanks to Sean Healey’s sound design.”

Play off the Page, Mary Aalgaard: “Praise for Chelsea M. Warren on her Scenic and Puppet Design. I am fascinated by puppets, and it was fun to watch the actors manipulate them for this show. The setting seemed so familiar, an open floor plan house Up North..The toddlers are played by puppets with adult actors manipulating them. Reed Sigmund (a TC favorite and a company member at The Children’s Theater) plays Oscar, age 4. Megan M. Burns (another TC favorite and often seen on stage at The Jungle) plays Evie, who is not quite two-years-old. What felt so true to life with toddlers is how they follow the grown-ups around, make their demands loud and clear, and everyone focuses on them and their needs. Reed and Megan look like their puppets, use their expressive voices and movements to enhance the scenes, and you see them and their puppets as one. It was fascinating to watch.”

Cherry and Spoon: “The action takes place in a Minnesota lake house (the one reference: Brainerd), rendered with much detail and realism by scenic designer Chelsea M. Warren. On the Jungle's tiny stage, it somehow looks roomy and airy, homey and familiar…And then there are Megan M. Burns and Reed Sigmund, puppeteers and actors playing the children, with puppets made to look like them and dressed in similar clothes (costume design by Sarah Bahr, puppet design also by Chelsea M. Warren). It's an ingenious choice to have the children played by puppets, especially when manipulated by these two talents. Such fun to watch both of them, and their puppets, in a sort of double reality. Not only do they manipulate the puppet movements (invading the adults' personal space as kids do), but they also mimic the puppet's movements and emotions with their own bodies. So adorable, and somehow believable as real children. How else could you possible have a young child so accurately represented in a stage play?!”

Twin Cities Arts, Basil Considine: “The titular stinkers of this play are a pair of very young children, Evie (Megan M. Burns) and Oscar (Reed Sigmund), who regularly wander through the dramatic throughline with sibling tiffs, cries for attention, and outright yelling…The children are brought to life by their actors through life-size puppets, which convey the essential details without the uncanny valley found in the company’s production of The Oldest Boy.”

Talkin Broadway, Arthur Dorman: “I have never before seen tour de force performances toddlers, one not yet even potty trained, like the two on for much of the ninety-minute run time of Josh Tobiessen's darkish comedy Stinkers, now having its world premiere at Jungle Theater. Okay, I better clarify that the two characters in question—two-year old Evie and her big brother Oscar, proud to be using a potty seat—appear as puppets, beautifully conceived by Chelsea M. Warren, who also designed the ultra-realistic, cluttered set that screams "small children live here." The puppets are operated and given voice by Megan M. Burns (Evie) and Reed Sigmund (Oscar). Nonetheless, Evie and Oscar come across completely as characters and are the warm heart of Stinkers, albeit, that warmth is as likely to come in the form of a wet diaper as a cuddly hug…But back to the puppets and puppeteers. While their agility with the rods make Oscar and Evie feel alive, Reed Sigmund and Megan M. Burns must be celebrated for their role not only in moving, but in speaking for these two toddlers, with squawks and half-formed words, whining, cheering, and naively questioning the world they are discovering with each new day. Sigmund and Burns use their own body language and facial expressions, even as they work the puppets, to amplify our recognition of the feisty fragility of these young lives. It wouldn't do for the adults involved to talk about these kids. Having them on stage is essential for conveying the life within this house, and Stinkers fully succeeds in doing just that, a spot-on marriage of performers, design, direction and writer.”

Minnesota Monthly, Jonah Harrison: “In an open-concept living room/kitchen area, the set design by Chelsea M. Warren introduces us to a well-lived-in home, with toys sprawled on the floor, piles of little shoes, and a diaper table. In his program notes, Tobiessen makes it clear that it was important to him to have the relationship between parent and toddler physically present. With that in mind, he brings in the idea of puppets, where Warren also serves as designer of puppetry. There are no child actors. Instead, realistically painted, life-size puppets of the toddlers—handled by actors Reed Sigmund (who garnered praise as the Grinch at the Children’s Theatre Company last year) and Jungle favorite Megan M. Burns—bring life to this chaotic world of child-parent dynamics in a hysterical and relatable way. In every scene he appears in, Sigmund steals the spotlight with his boisterous and obnoxiously loud character voice, blurting out every possible thought he has.”