I’d done elephants and rabbits–anyone can do a rabbit, I didn’t know that yet–but it wasn’t until I tried an eagle that I discovered Trudy. When I debuted the duck to my nieces, they pressed me for the gender. In fact, so strong was their need to know the nature of Trudy’s sex organs that I decided then and there to make Trudy asexual.
Of course, ducks have cloacas, which are somewhat asexual themselves, but I wasn’t going to be another shadow puppeteer who makes a penis shadow from a thumb knuckle. In truth, people want sex organs on shadow puppets more than they want the story that weaves the shadows together.
I wanted Trudy to be different. I wanted Trudy to be known, not for Trudy’s gender, but for Trudy’s hilarious voice, which is a thinly veiled impression of my father the hermaphrodite.
