Brittney Collins and Madison Boutilier

The Lucha Reyes Marionette Theater stop motion animation was created in conjunction with the Hopscotch opera as a culmination of a field of research into Los Angeles. The short film serves as a device to weave together elements of the opera with historical and physical elements of the city.

The narrative elements of the Hopscotch opera positioned our research.  The Hopscotch main character, eventually renamed Lucha, is a Mexican-American native of Boyle Heights. She is interested in puppeteering and music. This led us to Boyle Heights, Mariachi Plaza, and the statue and story of Lucha Reyes. This also led us to research the Bob Barker Marionette Theater. 

The elements of our stop motion film unite the Hopscotch narrative with the history and physical attributes of the city. The story itself is of Lucha Reyes, summarizing her experience as a Mexican woman in Hollywood. The story is told through stop motion string puppeteering, hinting at both the opera character’s interest in puppets and the Boyle Heights landmark Bob Barker Marionette Theater. The background setting is a short journey through Los Angeles itself, finishing in the historic Mariachi Plaza, with Lucha taking her place on her podium. The stage border is a carved Los Angeles map of the Hopscotch opera car journey. Structurally, the individual film scenes can be woven together in a variety of ways. This mimics the Hopscotch opera structure, separating the element of time from narrative. The film seeks to both complement the Hopscotch opera and shed light on an often-unrecognized part of Los Angeles history. 

Mariachi Plaza Sketch 2Mariachi Plaza SketchesWBML_Storyboard_7