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Doggie and Mathilda at Mystic Open Studio

the bouncy house!
Taking Turns
neighbors

I hope you’ll join me and Marina Strauss this Saturday at 10 am for a fun puppet show, hands-on puppet play — and the joy of creating a puppet with Marina!

“Taking Turns” features two neighbors who don’t want to take turns, and a lot of gentle humor. It’s best for families with children ages 3 to 8. Registration for the show + puppetmaking package is $15: https://www.mysticopenstudio.com/service-page/puppet-play-and-make-your-own-2-8-10?referral=service_list_widget

Mystic Open Studio, 785 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington MA

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“The Ice River: A Monkey King Story” with Bu Dai Xi and Chinese Folk Music

 

Temple Master and Monk Tang

Temple Master and Monk Tang
Buns offered to the Monster King
Monkey King and Monster

 

A wily river monster is causing  a lot of trouble. He demands that villagers put all their food into two giant buns for his delight, and he won’t let the Monk Tang and disciples cross his river.  Can the Monkey King and fellow disciples banish the monster and continue their journey? I hope you’ll join me for this action-packed episode of Journey to the West performed with acrobatic Bu Dai Xi puppetry. I’ll be performing with Galapagos Puppets and the Jimmy Zhao Chinese Folk Music Ensemble.

February 1 at 10 am, Acton Memorial Library, free performance : https://actonmemoriallibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/journey-to-the-west-puppet-show-hold/

This performance was made possible with the generous support of Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council, a local agency of Massachusetts Cultural Council.

January 25 – 26, Puppet Showplace Theater, Brookline, MA: https://www.puppetshowplace.org/calendar/2025/01/25/the-ice-river-a-monkey-king-tale-by-galapagos-puppets

 

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Winter, Winter

Badger Meets the Fairies on Saturday, December 14 at 3:45 pm, Wonder Yoga, 1305  Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington

There’s a lot of holiday cheer at the Arlington Heights Holiday Stroll. Come join me for a gentle tale of Mr. Badger, who helps the fairies with a building project. Then it’s complicated: the fairies won’t use cement and Mr. Badger wants to learn to fly. A 35-minute show, so you can get to the tree lighting on time!  Admission free, best for ages 4 and up. 

MORE SHOWS COMING UP:
The Ice River, a Monkey King story with Jimmy Zhao Music Ensemble, Puppet Showplace Theater, January 25 & 26,

 

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“Growing Things” at LexFarm

Growing things takes a lot of sunshine, rain — and time. Puppet shows grow best with support, helpful ideas — and time. Over the past year I’ve been an Artist-in-Residence at Lexington Community Farm, working with Education Director Rachel Curtin to create “Growing Things,” a Cow and Mouse fable about sustainable growing. Rachel patiently shared her work teaching children about how plants grow. And her daughter contributed a plot twist that kept the show interesting: Cow plants hay, while his friend Mouse plants cheese.

At our first programs in May at LexFarm and at Fox Library,  I presented the first 3 scenes. Children planted seeds with Rachel. In summer, I performed the second section, where the cheese still hasn’t sprouted, at LexFarm.  Children picked cucumbers and tomatoes with Rachel. At each program I got to hear a lot from the audience about what was funny, what was interesting, and what needed to be trimmed.

The children’s reactions helped build the show we were happy to present in full in the LexFarm garden on October 19th. Thanks to Peter Lehman for  lively mandolin accompaniment, to Pam Shanley for performing a wicked funny Cousin Rat, and to EVERYONE at LexFarm.

This puppet show was created with generous support from Arlington Commission on Arts & Culture Grants Committee, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and we are grateful.

 

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Summer Shows

Please join me and my performing partners for these summer shows:

Alice, or the Red King’s Dream based on “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass, performed by Dream Tale Puppets on: July 12 at 5pm, Woods Hole Community Hall ($10); July 16 at 1pm, Chatham Public LIbrary, free.  More: https://dreamtalepuppets.org/shows/alice/

The Trolls and the Tree: An Environmental Fable, featuring Ann Wynne as Squirrel, me playing trolls and fairies, and Peter Lehman on lute. July 18 at 3pm, Medford Public Library, free. More: https://medfordlibrary.org/event/the-trolls-and-the-tree-ages-4/

The Ice River: a Journey to the West story performed by Madeleine Beresford and me with Bu Dai Xi puppetry, and live music by the Jimmy Zhao Chinese Music Ensemble. July 29 at 7pm, Puppet Showplace Theater, free.

Planting Time: Cow and Mouse in the Garden, August 14 at 5:30, Lexington Community Farm. Join me and LexFarm Education Director Rachel Curtin to find out if the cheese has grown in Mouse’s garden, and for a fun hands-on garden activity.

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Puppets and Planting, April 27 at Arlington Ecofest

Puppets and Planting on Saturday, April 27, 3:30 pm at Fox Library

Join me and Rachel Curtin, Lexington Community Farm Education (LexFarm) Director for a free Ecofest program where puppets plant new seeds — and so can you. As this year’s resident artist at LexFarm, I’m working on a new show featuring Cow — who wants to plant hay — and Mouse, who plants her favorite food. I will perform a part of the new show, Rachel will lead planting, and we’ll have time for children to try out puppets.

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Public Show and Events, Spring 2024

Jimmy Zhao and Kai-syin Hou improvising music for “The Ice River”

“The Ice River,” an Episode of Journey to the West, Saturday, March 9 at 2pm

Malden Public Library,  36 Salem Street

A dream come true! I’ve always wanted to perform Bu Dai Xi in the traditional way, with musicians watching the puppets and creating rhythms and melodies for them. In “The Ice River”, our puppets’ movements are powered by musicians Jimmy Zhao and Kai-syin Hou on traditional instruments. Madeleine Beresford and I perform the story with choreography learned with Taiwan’s master, the late  Li Tien-lu . Best for ages 5 and up, free to the public. Sponsored by Chinese Culture Connection with generous funding from the Malden Cultural Council, a local agency of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Rehearsing! Madeleine Beresford and Margaret Moody
The Dragon Princess in the Purple Bamboo Forest. Puppet by Sandra Pastrana
The mighty pig Ju Ba-jie and the River Monster King face off. Puppets: Pig by Li Chuan-tsain; Monster by Margaret Moody

Puppets and Planting, Saturday April 6

Lexington Community Farm,  Lowell St, Lexington MA. Rain date April 7 TIME TBA

Join Lex Farm Education Director Rachel Curtin and I for a program about how plants grow.  I’ll perform a vignette from a new story we are developing at Lex Farm:  “Cow and Mouse in the Garden.” Cow wants to plant hay, while Mouse plants cheese, her favorite food.  Then Rachel will lead songs and show everyone a good way to plant a seed. All children are welcome. $15 per family.

“Puppets and Planting” is funded by a generous grant from Arlington Cultural Council, a local agency of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

More Puppets and Planting dates at Lex Farm: 5/18 (rain date 5/19); Saturday October 19 (rain date October 20)

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Fall Shows

December 9: Monkey Makes Mischief in Heaven, 4pm, Wonder Yoga, 1305 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, as part of Arlington Heights Holiday Stroll.

The Chinese Monkey King soars into the heavens and delights in his new job in the Heavenly Peach Garden. But when he  is left out of the Jade Emperor’s Peach Blossom Banquet, Monkey flies off to make mischief in the Heavens. This  episode of the epic Journey to the West features traditional Bu Dai Xi puppets and choregraphy, which I studied with Taiwan’s I Wan Jan Troupe. Best for ages 5 and up.

November 12: The Trolls and the Tree (11:15) and  Badger Meets the Fairies at Arlington Open Studios, 20 Academy Street, Arlington

Join a lively bunch of fairies and trolls for a show at a wonderful Open Studios day! Ann Wynne and I perform puppets; Peter Lehman brings rich accompaniment with lute and mandolin. All shows are free, best for ages 4 and up.

Cow and Mouse were happy to be invited into the lovely barn at Mack’s Apples in Londonderry, NH on September 8th.  A fun crowd of people watching, and some sweet sheep in the yard outside.

On October 14, I’ll be in the Greenwoods Puppet Festival in Norfolk, Connecticut,  performing  Bu Dai Xi in “The Ice River” with Madeleine Beresford of Galapagos Puppets; and appearing in “Alice in Wonderland(s)” by Dream Tale Puppets.  The festival goes all day and everything is free, with the support of the Norfolk Library and the Battell Foundation. More here: PuppetFestival 2023 final

 

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What Puppets Do After School

Gallery

The puppet characters I’ve seen created in my “Puppet Pals” ACE class at Arlington’s Brackett School don’t flop on the couch. After acrobatics at the skate park, they go home to their dog and eat everything on the raspberry bushes. And they love to pose!

When we made moth and butterfly puppets last week I wondered what those puppets would do besides fly. It turned out that my kindergarten and first grade students knew the outline of their creatures’ life cycle. Puppets flew, drank nectar, injured a wing – -and healed it –before landing in a tree and laying eggs. Which became caterpillars who gobbled and spun chrysalises before flying away.

 

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“The Trolls and the Tree” at Fall River Library

On July 13, Peter Lehman’s lute music brought the peaceful sense of a fairy woodland to the Elm Street tent outside Fall River Library.  Children gathered on a rug, ready to meet fairies, squirrels . . . and trolls! In this interactive show, Peter, Ann Wynne and I want our audience members to have opinions — but we were surprised at how strongly they spoke to Skimpa the troll. “No, you can’t push down the tree!” “But I need space for my beautiful new chair,” she whined. “NO!” the children said.

 

When the trolls persisted in knocking over the tree, our faithful audience helped them plant a baby tree for distraught fairies. And, after trolls, fairies, puppeteers and our amazing musician took their bows, the children arrested the trolls! We know they will take good care of trees in the future.

Fall River Children’s Librarian David Mello with his own tree puppet.

THANK YOU, FALL RIVER CULTURAL COUNCIL!! This show was supported by a grant from the Fall River Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. And thank you to librarian David Mello for his incredible support of children and those who perform for them.