By Barbara Arnstein
Artsapalooza is a free program for younger children, that includes craft-making and a show with a puppet-and-people cast. The two-hour event will be touring eleven rural communities in WNY this summer. According to the playwright, Lindsay Adams, “The goal of the play is to help empower the audience to not just face their own fears but also recognize the power they have to help others”. Plus, it’s all loads of fun!
The two human characters in the play are a boy and girl, Shaun and Jeni, who team up with several puppet characters, including a mime, a dog and a sailor, to make their lives better. They face their fears and help the others to face theirs. The puppet characters are big: the mime’s head is twice the size of an average human’s head, the dog is four feet long, and the sailor is four feet tall and controlled by three people. The villain, Queen Mare, is ten feet tall…but remember that old saying, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”
During the first hour, the children who go to the program can play theatre games, have fun with drums and a ukulele, and make objects they can use later to interact with the show. For example, when the sailors at an ocean, they can hold up fish and lobsters they’ve made. At another point in the plot, giant nets appear, partly formed from paper chains kids wrote their dreams on.
- J. Jacobs, the creator of the puppet characters, said, “Puppetry has so much to it. Designing, sewing, sculpting, painting, performing and lighting.”At a family gathering he was able to wield the most impressive part of puppetry, the illusion of life small children sees in them, like a super power. “When I was at a family barbecue”, he said, “my half-brother, then age three or four, was running around and I thought, ‘He’s not going listen to me, but I guess he’ll listen to a puppet’. So, I brought out a puppet and he was totally engaged for over an hour, playing with him. It took him that long to notice I was moving it, because, in his mind, he had totally ‘removed me from the scene’ and thought he was alive!”
“Sometimes even adults will talk directly to puppets”, he added. T. J. performed at the recent Art Crawl in Springville, with a big orange puppet, and was involved with mask-making for children. His work was recently featured in the New York State Puppet Festival’s Puppet Slam in Perry, NY.
Lindsay Adams, the playwright, said, “One of the most exciting things about writing this piece is all of the opportunities for really meaningful interaction with the audience. Artsapalooza wants to allow every person there to express their own creativity. Before the show, the workshops and crafts all connect to the themes and the events of the performance. We also have a lot of audience participation during the performance.”
“My goal for it is to really bring the audience into the world of the play, which is a kind of dreamscape. This is great subject matter for a family friendly play because everyone knows what it’s like to have bad dreams. It explores nightmares and fears, and how we learn to handle them and not let them control us. I love making the communities part of the art and bringing them into it.”
The program, including the interactive play, entitled “Lay Me Down to Sleep” (from the first line of the classic prayer, which goes, “Now I lay me down to sleep…”) will be reaching four counties. It is presented by the Springville Center for the Arts, and the actors, musicians and visual artists in it are part of a summer residency and internship program.
The Artsapalooza tour dates are: Batavia NY, Sat. 7/2, 10:30am and 1:30pm as part of the Ramble festival; Cuba NY, Wed., 7/6, at 6pm, Willow Bank Park, Randolph NY, Wed., 7/13 at 6:30pm, Weeden Park, Cattaraugus NY, Thurs. 7/14 at 6pm, Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, Arcade NY, Fri., 7/15 at 6pm, Arcade Village Park, Warsaw NY, Sat., 7/16 at 6:30pm, at 75 South Main Street as part of Valley Fest, Gowanda NY, 7/20 at 6:30pm at St. James Park; Springville NY, 7/22, at Fiddler’s Green, 6:30pm, Hamburg NY, Sat. 7/30 at 6 pm, Memorial Park, SNI Cattaraugus Community Center, Mon., 7/25 530pm and at North Collins NY, Tues 8/2 at Marion Fricano Park, 6:30pm.
More detailed information on the event can be found at springvillearts.org.