Great Arizona Puppet Theater last summer performance @ the Cortez Public Library

Friday, July 26, 2019

Time
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Venue
Cortez Public Library, Cortez, CO, 81321
Price
Free

Great Arizona Puppet Theater is coming to the Cortez Public Library for the last performance of the summer Family Entertainment Series. They will be performing "Peter Rabbit" on Friday, July 26, at 2:00 p.m.

The puppets in this version of Peter Rabbit are called hand-rod puppets and rod puppets and were made by the puppeteers at The Great Arizona Puppet Theater ( GAPT). All of the rabbits are hand puppets (sometimes called glove puppets). Hand puppets are mostly made out of fabric and sewn together but sometimes their heads are carved out of Styrofoam or another hard material with a hole left inside the neck of the puppet. Hand puppets are controlled using only one hand that goes up inside of the puppet. The puppeteers' index and middle fingers control the head while the other fingers control the puppet’s hands. The puppets in this show were influenced by the Chinese style of hand puppetry called pocket puppets and a master Chinese puppeteer coached our puppeteers on movement.

In this show, Farmer McGregor is a hand-rod puppet. The puppet’s head and arms were each carved from Styrofoam and covered with paper mache. The main rod goes up through the middle of the puppet and supports the body and the head; this is what the puppeteer holds on to below the stage to control the puppet. A string is used to open the puppet’s mouth. The puppeteer uses their own hand in a glove attached to the puppet’s arm to operate the puppet’s hand. This show is told entirely to music with no dialogue or speaking at all. The music in the show was composed by one of GAPT’s founders, Nancy Smith.

To create the show Nancy read Beatrix Potter’s story and decided what scenes she wanted to keep in the puppet show. Then, she composed the music to tell the story. Nancy worked with her team of puppeteers to create choreography for the puppets. At the end of the process, the music and the puppet movement comes together to tell the whole story of Peter Rabbit.

This FREE event is brought to you by Golden Dreams, under Onward! a Legacy Foundation.

The library is located at 202 N. Park St., Cortez, CO. and may be reached by calling 970-565-8117.

Please come join us!

Venue

Cortez Public Library
202 N. Park St.
Cortez, CO
81321

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Dates

The event runs from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM on the following dates.
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