Very Hungry Caterpillar comes to Walton Arts Center

Saturday, Nov. 22 11:00am
Tickets are $10-$16

Ages: 4-7
to purchase tickets:
http://tickets.waltonartscenter.org/production/view.asp?id=3141&x=13&y=9

I took Maeve to see this show two years ago when she was 1 ½. The puppetry is excellent and mostly done in black light. Maeve was mesmerized by the slow storytelling and the very expressive puppets. She sat in her seat for ½ of the performance before needing to walk up and down the WAC auditorium steps. I can't wait to take her (now 3 1/2) and Rowan (almost 2) and watch their experience of the show.
I’ve known about Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia since grad school. One of my mentors and professors, Graham Whitehead, was the former Artistic Director. The company has been around for a long time and has an excellent reputation. Definitely read the books before (and after) the show. Their mission is to excite young readers and inspire their literacy experience.
Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia has adapted for the stage, three of Eric Carle’s stories: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Cloud, Mixed-up Chameleon. Two puppeteers operate several puppets at once. They wear black clothing and masks to be invisible. The puppets and scenery are designed to look like Eric Carle’s drawings and pop-out on the stage through the use of black-light. This purple light makes anything black disappear and anything with color on it stand out. The puppeteers use body movement, rhythm and precise timing to create the characters of Caterpillar, Cloud and Chameleon. Mermaid Theatre chooses challenging books to adapt, writes original music and hires professional puppeteers in the hopes to acquaint young spectators with the visual and performing arts as with the pleasures of reading.

>http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/

The website for Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia (see a video clip and photographs of the performance).

>http://www.eric-carle.com/slideshow_paint.html Learn how Eric Carle paints his tissue in the illustrations of his storybooks.

>www.atozteacherstuff.com

Excellent resource for lesson plans on making books with students. >www.familycrafts.about.com/od/puppets/

Instructions for making lots of different kids of puppets with simple materials.

I will be teaching Family Workshops both before the show: 9:30-10:30am and after the show 12:15-1:15pm. The cost is $5 a person. We'll be using our bodies and voices to play in the stories and making puppets. To learn more or buy tickets - go to:
http://tickets.waltonartscenter.org/production/view.asp?id=3713&x=6&y=14

See you at the theater!

Jason and the Argonauts at Walton Arts Center

When we decided to open The Trike, we knew that we'd have to build slowly and start with the Academy classes and events for the first year. During this first year, we hope to earn the trust of our families, the community and raise the money to produce professional Theatre for Youth in our Trike Playhouse season. We expect to open the Trike Playhouse in the Fall of 2009.

IN THE MEANTIME...

I want to tell you about a few shows that are coming to Walton Arts Center this year about which I am very excited! I'm going to use this blog to tell you about Jason and the Argonauts coming Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7pm. Tickets are $8.

The show is produced by Visible Fictions, a wonderful Theatre for Youth company out of Scotland. While at Seattle Children's Theatre, I had an opportunity to spend some time with the Artistic Director and director of "Jason" - Dougie Irvine - while Visible Fictions collaborated with us on their production of The Red Balloon. I admire this company a lot. I love the way this the productions respect the audience (young and old alike), transports through well crafted acting and simple stage storytelling (sometimes with puppets or media). Each play is different. Yet all seem to bring bring a sense of humor to the stage and a depth that touches the heart. When we are creating our touring shows for Trike - I will be modeling much of what I do after Dougie's work with his company.

Click on the Blog Title above to go directly to Walton Art Center's website for show and ticket information.

Visible Fictions is one of the United Kingdom’s leading theatre companies. Working with only the finest artistic talent, they create professional performances that are innovative, memorable and relevant to its audience.
In Scotland, they have collaborated with BBC Panorama and co-produced with BBC Scotland for BBC Radio 4. In the United States, Visible Fictions was the first Scottish theatre company to perform on Broadway. They have collaborated with The Seattle Children’s Theatre and The Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles and are delighted to be co-producing with Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company.
The play unfolds through two actors, a handful of action hero dolls and a set that transforms into multiple locations. Douglas Irvine loves a good adventure and Jason and the Argonauts has been one of his favorites since he was young. In order to tell the story using only two actors, Douglas enlisted the help of playwright Robert Forest. Along with the two actors and a set designer, the team improvised moments in the story, wrote a script, improvised some more, re-wrote the script, created a model of the set, improvised again, finalized the script, built the large set, rehearsed for four weeks and the went into performance. You can learn more about the development process and see photos at:
http://www.webplay.org/story_board.php

I will be leading a Family Workshop at Walton Arts Center from 5:30-6:30pm before the show. If you'd like to meet the actors, see back stage, play in the story of Jason and the Argonauts and learn more about the Visible Fiction play development process - please join me. Click on this link to buy a ticket:

http://tickets.waltonartscenter.org/production/view.asp?id=3709&x=10&y=6

Every chance we get - The Trike is connecting our Academy curriculum to shows that are coming to Walton Arts Center. In Story Drama this Fall, I took one class to focus on The Gruffalo (which came to Walton Arts Center earlier in October) and Virginia has been teaching acting principles to our 3rd-5th graders through the Jason and the Argonauts story. We will be doing the same in the Winter/Spring for Walton Art Center's productions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Stellaluna & Magic Tree House - The Musical.

Week 2 Underway!

Virginia's Intro to Acting students practice their concentration skills.

In Story Drama this week, we made Midnight Sky pictures and hung them in our MooSEUM. Then we packed our astronaut bags, built a rocket and took a trip to the moon. Our book was NO MOON, NO MILK.

I'm sitting with Rowan on my lap as I write this blog entry. We've had our second day of classes, our month-long classes during the week-days start this week and our wall will be built by Saturday - Thanks to Rustin & Jake at Mainstreet Builders. We are creating events for each of the Trike Academy age groups: Conservatory: Virginia is beginning to market our Trike Night for Teens (premeiring Oct. 18) a chance for the drama teens in the area to gather, eat and impov - with the intent to perform during Trike Night Live (TNL) on Nov. 2. Marie is working out the details for a Project Play event for the whole family which, in December, will transform The Trike into a Artic Adventure full of kitchens to cook in, snow mounds to climb through, mail boxes to fill with letters and ice holes in which to fish. And I'm planning on leading a couple of interactive family workshops based on some of the Theater for Youth shows coming to Walton Arts Center this Fall. Christa is the managing queen - working her creative talents keeping all of us on track for marketing, development and academy deadlines.

We've got such a great team of people assembled and so many fun things planned! Can't wait for you to come check us out.

First Academy Classes!

Saturday, Sept. 27 was so much fun. We had students signed up in each class and have heard that more will be registering by next Saturday. I taught The Gruffalo in the Story Drama classes (3 1/2 - 4 1/2 & 4 - K) and in the treasure trunk class the students became Adventurers and rescued a piece of the lost map from the sleeping dinosaur.

Here's the students as The mean, horible Gruffalo. & The Adventurers capturing the map from the Dinosaur.

Here are the students as mice looking for nuts in the forest. They don't know that a fox is right around the corner.

Here's a picture of us at the beginning of each class unpacking one of our drama tools: Imagination.

more later...

Giving Thanks!

• With only a few more days until classes start, we have a lot for which to be thankful.
  


• 1. We have a logo and it's whimsical, risk taking, professional and fun. It's us. Thanks to the generous designers who gave us this gift.


• 2. We have had donations this week: 40 chairs, a couch/loveseat/ottoman, desk, and possibly even a wall.


• 3. We had 7 students in our Story Drama open class. Our first students and the class was a hit!


• 4. We have 3 founding families who have donated $1000 so far to support establishing the company - only 7 more to go.

Thank you!

Planning the Party!

As we're slowly moving into the space - I am overwhelmed with a mixture of joy and dread. Joy: that this theatre is really happening, the community is supporting it, folks are slowly registering for classes, we have two board members and performance projects are swimming around in my head. Dread: it feels like the team and I are planning a huge party, activities, decorations, food and do not know if anyone will show up. I guess this is all a part of starting a new venture.
We are in "Getting the Space Ready" mode. We're going to be doing it in a few stages:

Stage One - to be completed by Monday, Sept. 22

1. Clean space (carpets to be cleaned at the end of this week)
2. Activate window space (class description/theatre description/photos)
3. Hang Tricycle outside the space - under the awning
4. Hang colored material/poster board from ceiling to create a boarder in space
5. Define classroom area with tape/chairs
6. Set up lobby with desk/chairs/table
7. Create shelves for storage areas

Stage Two - To be completed by Nov 1? or when we have the money
1. Students paint personal bricks in back Green Room
2. Build wall to define classroom space ($)
3. Hang mirrors on back of wall ($)
4. Hang curtain over mirrors ($)
5. Hang curtain on other side of room ($)
6. Paint walls black (bottom half - chalk board black and upper half- regular black paint) ($)
7. Build stage blocks (wood/labor/paint) ($)
8. Build lighting structure ($)
9. Purchase stage lights and board ($)

What am I missing?

Registration is OPEN!

We've signed the lease on our space and registration is open! Now, we're working on getting the word out to parents in Bentonville, Rogers, Bellavista and the surrounding cities. Our marketing budget is small - so we're looking for the most bang for our buck. Christa, Molly and I got our kids together late last week and took some photos for our Fall marketing materials. It's amazing how creative we can be when push comes to shove. Once we get classes going, we'll have a professional photographer come in an take photos for our marketing materials. Until then, Cat, Hunter, Maeve and Collier will have to act for us (which isn't hard!). Let us know if you have a group that you'd like to send a flyer to. We'll have two - one with all the classes (ages newborn-18yrs) and one with only the Project Play (newborn - 6 yr. and Adult) and Dramatic Play (3 1/2 - K). We're going to have an ad and article in Peek-A-Boo as well as send a message to all the Moms clubs. We've planned a GREAT PARTY!!! - now we just have to get the word out so that folks will come. This is more nerve wracking than I thought.