Circus opportunity for Trike Families!

Trike teaching artists had a chance to work with some of these Circus performers last summer. They are great, very inspiring, with a unique approach to circus arts and story telling. I plan on seeing the performance and bringing back ideas to Trike. Click here to watch a video of a Sweet Can Circus performance.
http://tickets.waltonartscenter.org/production/view.asp?id=4121&x=12&y=1

Join Sweet Can Circus for a FREE workshop at Gymnastics Joe's!
Wednesday, July 29
9am – noon
FREE and open to the public
Tell your friends! Participants will explore circus arts with the Sweet Can Circus cast and test their mettle with apparatus including aerial silk, trapeze, rolla bollas and juggling equipment. No gymnastics or tumbling experience required. Best for ages 10 & up.
For more information, please call the Walton Arts Center Box Office at 479-443-5600.

Come see Sweet Can Circus LIVE - $5 off! *All tickets $15.50 with this discount!*
Thursday, July 30, 7pm
Friday, July 31, 7pm
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2pm & 7pm
in Walton Arts Center's Starr Theater
Experience the thrill of circus arts - up close and personal in our small, black box Starr Theater. Walking as easily on their hands as on their feet, the Sweet Can Circus intertwines trapeze, aerial silks, slackrope, juggling, acrobatics, humor and live music in their production Yes Sweet Can. Best for ages 7 and up.
To order tickets, go to
www. waltonartscenter.org
SIGN IN using promo code *GYMNASTICS*, then click on "Tickets and Box Office" to browse to the show.
Or, call the Box office at 479.443.5600.

Can't get enough Sweet Can? Bring the whole family!
Open Circus Studio for Families
Three chances to participate: July 27, 28 & 29
6-7:30pm in Walton Arts Center's Starr Theater
$5 per kid, parents free!
To purchase tickets call 479.443.5600 for more information.
Discover circus arts! Join Sweet Can Circus to observe an aerial rehearsal, ask questions and test your skills with circus apparatus including aerial silk, rolla bollas, and juggling equipment.
*Best for young people ages 7 and up and their adults.*

Catching up!

Friends, please forgive my absence. I didn't realize that it was in January when I last blogged. Since then, Christa and I have been busy planning for our 2009/10 season, recruiting new board members, hiring summer teaching artist staff and interns and dreaming up performance opportunities. I'm happy to report that a lot has been accomplished.

• Virginia just finished a successful 1-week comedy Spring Break camp with 11 academy students! The students learned the ancient art form of comedia dell arte and peformed a play For the Love of Three Oranges.
• This summer, we will 3 new Teaching Artists joining us for the summer Drama Academy Camps: Jenny Guy (MFA - Acting from UA and currently acting professionally in Ohio - she played Chester in TheatreSquared's production of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Sher Kahn in Jungalbook), Kris Stoker (MFA - Acting from UA and currently acting professionally at Ohio Shakespeare - acted in T2's productions: Jungalbook & My Father's War) and Jason Suel (MA-Acting - recently moved from England where he was teaching & acting for art centers)
• We will have summer college interns! I'll introduce these lovely folks in my next blog.
• We're producing A Lion, A Witch and a Wardrobe in June - a 2 person show acted by Jenny, Kris, Jason and one other actress. We will run the show at the Trike and then take it out into the schools in 09/10.
• We are an AIE Rostered Artist with the state of Arkansas - which means that schools, non-profit organizations can write grants to have us teach workshops with their students.
• We will be developing a new touring play for students 3rd-5th grade based on Arkansas History. Commissioned by Walton Arts Center, the piece will tour into a couple of schools next year and be available for public school tours in 2010/11.
• We're planning an end-of-the-year celebration with all of our Trikesters - honoring our Founding Families (donated over $1000 this year) and corporate/small business sponsors as well as giving folks a peek at the Lion/Witch/Wardrobe performance.
• Christa and I just got back from a national Theatre for Youth symposium in Indianapolis where we saw a bunch of new plays for youth and I lead a workshop in creating theatre for the very young (under 5). I'll write more about this path for Trike in the future. Needless to say - there will be a few "playdates" with our national friends where we will gather educators, child development specialists and artists and figure out a performance that sparks the interest of 3-5 yr olds.
• Learning, learning, learning.

I'm teaching at the University of Notre Dame this week and will be back in full force on Monday. I hope your week is going well. Make sure to come out and see our reading of A Laura Ingals Wilder Christmas - this Friday, April 3 7pm. Pay-what-you-can. It's written by a professional playwright and good friend of mine Laurie Brooks. I think it will be a moving production for December '09 - more info about that soon.

Munchkin Radio Interview on NPR

Click on the title above to get to Ozarks at Large webpage and listen to our interview. We had so much fun in rehearsals and performances for Wizard of Oz. The kids gave 110% as did their parents. All 8 shows at Walton Arts Center were sold out. Each ticket holder recieved a program that contained a half-page insert with this photo and blurb:

Tricycle Theatre for Youth (The Trike) is a regionally focused theater for youth offering professional productions, creative learning activities for our youngest actors, teacher and business trainings, and a Theatre Conservatory for 3rd through 12th graders. The company is located in historic Downtown Bentonville, AR. Learn more about school year acting classes and performance-based camps (Spring, Summer, Intersession) at www.triketheatre.org.

Great press!!! The last time I directed kids in a professional production was Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse for TheatreSquared. I loved working with them and already am dreaming of our first fully produced production in the Trike space. It will be set in one location (a bedroom, a back yard, etc.), the entire black box will look like the space so when the audience enters, they will be inhabiting the environment with the characters. I've got three plays I'm thinking of right now (2 of which have roles for both adult and young actors), so the next step is to create a budget, raise money to support the production and the produce the show. We all want to move into this next phase of Trike programming, so let me know if you're intersted in helping make it happen.

Munchkin Cast

Munchkins!!

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.