Wednesday, April 9, 2014

More Animal Adventures at Puppet Showplace!

"Animal April"
Series of puppet shows featuring animal characters and nature themes continues with...

“Raccoon Tales” 
by Paul Vincent Davis, Artist in Residence Emeritus
performed by Brad Shur, Artist in Residence
Apr 10 & 11 (Thu & Fri) | 10:30am
Apr 12 & 13 (Sat & Sun) | 1 pm & 3pm


BUY TICKETS

If you look carefully among the trees and bushes of the forest, you might see a creature peeking from behind the leaves! Meet a trickster raccoon, red coat bushy-tail fox, timber wolf, and brown bear in "Raccoon Tales," a collection of Native American tales from the Seneca tribe of New York. Join us for an exciting week of trickster tales staring the cleverest raccoon around!

Red Coat Bushy-Tail Fox
About the Show:

Get transported into the forest with the trickster Ring-Around-His-Tail Raccoon as your guide! The animals in the forest are always getting into trouble playing tricks on each other. Will they ever learn their lessons? "Raccoon Tales" features three humorous vignettes inspired by the Native American just-so-stories of the Seneca tribe: "How the Fox and the Raccoon Trick Each Other," "Why the Blue Jay is Blue and the Gray Wolf Isn’t" and "Why the Bear has a Stumpy Tail." The show is performed with hand-crafted glove puppets made by Paul Vincent Davis.

About the Seneca tribe:

Seneca is pronounced "SEH-neh-kah." It comes from the name of one of their villages, Osininka. In their own language, the Senecas call themselves Onandowaga, which means "people of the mountain." The Senecas originally lived in New York state.  Many Seneca people still live in New York today, but others were forced to migrate to Oklahoma or Canada.

There are lots of traditional Seneca legends and fairy tales. Storytelling is very important to the Seneca Indian culture.


About the performer:

Brad Shur is a versatile puppeteer who has created and performed characters made of everything from pixels to papier mache. As the Artist in Residence at Puppet Showplace Theatre he performs different shows each year in multiple puppetry styles. He also teaches puppetry classes to students of all ages, Pre-K to adult. As protégé of master puppeteer Paul Vincent Davis, Shur trained extensively in the art of glove puppetry and currently performs two of Davis’ classic shows, "Raccoon Tales" and "Clown Circus," at venues across New England.

Prior to becoming the Artist in Residence at Puppet Showplace, Brad toured the country as a performer with Big Nazo (Rhode Island), Wood & Strings Theatre (Tennessee) and The PuppeTree (Vermont). As a builder, Brad has designed and fabricated puppets for American Idol, Dollywood, Avenue Q, and the U.S.S. Constitution Museum. Brad is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Paul Vincent Davis with Brad Shur, and Robin character from Brad's new glove puppet show, "Robin Hood"

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