Animating Buttercup #1: Creating Through the Pandemic

Animating Buttercup is a blog series documenting playwright Julie Weinberg’s adventure into animation — a first for her! Help create the film, Buttercup’s Lament, by making a tax-deductible donation!

Our artists’ rendering of what the streets below my apartment looked like during the COVID lockdown. New York was unbearably quiet!

For a few years, I’d been writing plays with cats as protagonists. I find it irresistible to imagine what my cat is fantasizing when they suddenly pounce on a bottle top or get the zoomies (for non-cat people, that’s when they run helter-skelter, careening off walls for no discernable reason. See also: Parkour). I spend far too much time trying to interpret the flick of a tail or the cadence of a meow – is he hungry? Is he grumpy? Is he lonely? Does he love me? 

My Mom’s cat, Beau – or as I called him,Beau-Beau – had been with me for a while when the pandemic arrived. When my Mom died I took him in, despite the fact that he’d snubbed me big time over the years. He was a very affectionate, (at least with my Mom)kind of plump, 8-year old ginger-tabby. I guess he was a one-woman cat. Gradually I became his Human. 

Then I got Covid in mid-March 2020. I was really sick for a while, and everybody was terrified – myself included. People were dying everywhere, especially in NYC, my home.All our lives were obviously forever changed and we were collectively VERY depressed. I read about tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo that tested positive for Covid. Trust me, I studied Beau carefully – was I going to make him sick? I also read that New Yorkers were studying their pets, to see how they felt having their humans around non-stop. What did they normally do in secret when Mom was out at work? This inspired me to write Buttercup’s Lament, the play, alongside a feeling that I had to keep writing. To stop writing would be succumbing to the pandemic – I’d be surrendering my life.

I was sick when I started writing the play, and my wonderful writers’ group, the 9th Floor, had started meeting on Zoom. They LOVED Buttercup and encouraged me to continue developing it.With this story, as in life, two cats are better than one, certainly better for the dramedy I envisioned. I once met my neighbor Karen’s cat, Peanut, in our lobby, where Karen wore him around her neck like a giant fur collar. Peanut didn’t say much, but he was a classy guy. Henri, the other cat in our story, is a tribute to Karen. In fact, that character was originally named Peanut! Reena, the human cat-mother in the film, is my projection of life as a young, aspiring Broadway hopeful – as I had once been – having the world crash around you. Many people were abandoning the city, but for me and Reena that was never considered an option.

Our team for Buttercup’s Lament works across state and international borders through Skype — one positive from the pandemic.

My mom’s cat, Beau, a source of light for me during the pandemic.

I also imagine that these cats would have a growing awareness that something is amiss if their Mom never leaves their apartment. Thematically, I was writing about an evolution in the consciousness of these cats, from selfish and primitive hunter/eaters into humanized and compassionate beings that want to keep their Mom safe. That theme remains and extends to the human characters through the addition of an irascible neighbor, Michael, to the film. He and Reena have been neighbors for years yet never interacted before the story begins. Michael is based on two people: Ira Hawkins, an actor/singer who lived on my floor and unfortunately passed away; and Ed, another neighbor who became a friend by dint of the pandemic. The relationship of Reena and Michael is a tribute to them both, and to new friendships. 

Once I was happy with the script, I submitted the play to a couple of Zooming theater companies – one in Texas and one in New England. The play was produced on Zoom twice, to great praise from both artists and audiences. My friend Neal Porter, publisher of acclaimed children's books, saw one production and suggested I write a book or why not an animated short film? That idea percolated in my mind for a while – almost a year. “Me? Animation? I know nothing at all about it!” ButI changed my mind and here we are, entering the storyboard phase! 

“Animating Buttercup” is a blog meant to document my journey as an artist and playwright entering a new medium, and our team’s creative process. Future installments will delve into how I cobbled together a team of artists, as well as the writing challenges involved in adapting a play into animation. You’ll also hear from members of my team, see the film’s progress, and most importantly see the beautiful art of the film and learn how the designs came to be. 

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