It’s Guy, Guy Hank — our NEWEST Peripatetic Player!

July 15, 2015July 26, 2015marlenefrances Leave a comment

Why hello there faithful followers! Here is our latest installment in our “behind-the-scenes/meet our players” special: Guy Hank

Guy Hank himself:

Joining the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players has really changed my life . . . who knew? Certainly, not me. Whew! It gets me excited just thinking about it. Let me just get right down to it. My whole life I had dreamed of performing one day on the stage. When I was younger, I saw a show that had been put up in our small town of Georgia, California. I. Was. In. Awe. Just dazzled by the magic of the story. I believe it was a production of “The Princess and the Pea” and what was just a story I glanced over in my children’s books became alive before me on the stage! I was pulled into the story. I was “bit”, as they say, by the “theatre bug.”

I just never got the chance to aspire to these dreams of mine. My Dad insisted I learn the auto mechanics trade and help build his business. I thought perhaps my dream was ridiculous and worked with him in his shop. I did, however, secretly work on my acting craft in my room reading wonderful plays and stories from around the world. I learned their lingo too – words like “blocking” and “props” and “inner monologue”. Another good thing was that since Georgia, California sees a great many travelers and tourists on their way to the beautiful sites of this Golden State, I was able to meet so many great people and hear their stories. I found that they trusted me to help get their autos to the next destination and it filled me with joy seeing them wave as they happily left our service station. Moments after they left though, I would get that sad though wishing I could travel with them.

At last, the day came when the Peripatetic Players pulled into our station on their way to their next show! They needed some minor service repairs and I jumped at the chance to work on the “Flux Wagon” and was in awe that it could transform into a magical stage to share stories from. In a casual conversation to Thumper about the troupes “props”, I relayed to her my dreams and get this – she told her brother, Samuel Peaches, about my dream, my secret studies, and petitioned on my behalf to help join the troupe! Seeing that I may come in handy working on the Flux Wagon, he invited me along!

My favorite story I’ve performed with the troupe to date has to be “Wind & the Sun”! Thumper and I get to compete with Samuel and Meekins (as the Wind) to see who can get a young chap (Princes Gwen) to take of her coat. There is movement and sound and it really takes off. However, I am dying to play the lion in the upcoming Aesop stories (Fables, I meant “fables”). I’ve been working on my roar, the Flux Wagon is running in top notch shape, and I am ready to take my acting to next level.

My favorite person to play with is everyone in the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Player troupe! You put me with any one of those guys and I instantly come alive. Their creativity is mind boggling – it instantly gets my own creative juices flowing. Although, I have to say, Thumper and I have really good chemistry. She just gets it, you know? She has an uncanny ability to tap into whatever is happening right at that exact moment.

I would like to see the Flux Wagon pull into Georgia, California again someday so we could perform for the town. Perhaps, I could invite my Dad out so he could see what an amazing life this is! So he would know that my dreams were not ridiculous – that following your heart is the only way to go especially when you don’t know what is gonna happen. Perhaps he would be inspired by one of our stories or the morals they contain.

I knew I made it with the troupe – meaning I was “in” when after weeks of rehearsal and months of only being allowed to work on the Flux Wagon, Samuel Peaches asked me to lead a story. It has only gotten better since! I can’t wait for this show to tour near YOU, our wonderful audience! May you be dazzled and delighted and maybe even inspired!

Your Guy,

Guy Hank

Thumper Gets Interviewed!

July 13, 2015July 26, 2015marlenefrances Leave a comment

Good Morning All! Here is our third installment of our “behind-the-scenes/meet our players” special: THUMPER!

Samuel Peaches managed to tear Thumper away from making the trapdoor on Flux Wagon to give this interview:

HI! MY NAME IS THUMPER. I WONDER WHAT YOUR NAME IS.

I DIDN’T HAVE TO JOIN SAMUEL PEACHES PERIPATETIC PLAYERS BECAUSE I’M SAMUEL’S SISTER, AND I STOWED AWAY IN HIS TRUNK.

SAMUEL, I HAVE A QUESTION…SAMUEL…SAMUEL…

PERIPATETIC MEANS WANDERING.

HI! MY NAME’S THUMPER. MAYBE YOU’LL TELL ME YOUR NAME AT THE SHOW!

MY FAVORITE FABLE IS CALLED THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE…

MY FAVORITE FABLE IS THE ONE WITH A LION, A WITCH AND A WARDROBE…

MY FAVORITE FABLE IS THE ONE WHERE A LION, A WITCH AND A WARDROBE…

WHAT, SAMUEL?

OK, SAMUEL.

SAMUEL JUST TOLD ME THERE IS NO FABLE WITH A LION, A WITCH AND A WARDROBE IN IT. I THINK THAT WOULD MAKE A GOOD STORY THOUGH.

HI! MY NAME IS THUMPER! YOU ALSO HAVE A NAME!

MY FAVORITE PERSON TO PLAY WITH IS THE TRAP DOOR, WHICH IS NOT ACTUALLY A PERSON, BUT A TRAP DOOR. IF I HAD TO CHOOSE SOMETHING THAT IS A PERSON, I WOULD CHOOSE PRINCESS GWEN AS PRINCESS GWEN, GUY AS GUY, SAMUEL AS MY BROTHER AND MEEKINS AS A FROG. I ALSO LOVE THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. NONE OF WHICH ARE PEOPLE. WELL, MAYBE THE WITCH. BUT SHE WOULD BE A MAGICAL PERSON, WHICH ISN’T ACTUALLY A REAL PERSON. AND THE WARDROBE IS DEFINITELY NOT A PERSON, LIKE THE TRAP DOOR.

WHAT, SAMUEL?

OK, SAMUEL.

SAMUEL WOULD LIKE ME TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THERE IS NO FABLE CALLED OR ABOUT OR STARRING A LION, A WITCH AND A WARDROBE IN THIS PLAY.

HI! MY NAME IS THUMPER! MAYBE YOUR NAME IS ASLAN?

I WOULD LIKE SAMUEL PEACHES PERIPATETIC PLAYERS TO PERFORM THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE.

WHAT, SAMUEL?

I KNOW WE’RE DOING AESOP AMUCK.

I AM JUST SAYING THAT THERE IS A LION IN MANY OF AESOP’S FABLES, AND I ACTUALLY THINK HE WOULD NEED A WARDROBE TO GET DRESSED IN THE MORNING. AND, A WITCH TO MAKE THE WARDROBE MAGICAL. LIKE MY TRUNK. I DO NOT HAVE A MAGICAL WARDROBE, BUT I DO HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK. I KNOW IT IS MAGICAL BECAUSE WHEN I WENT IN IT TO STOW AWAY, AND THEN I GOT BACK OUT, I WAS IN A WHOLE NEW WORLD.

I LOVE YOU TOO, SAMUEL.

I KNEW I MADE IT IN SAMUEL’S TROUPE WHEN I GOT TO WEAR THE PITH HELMET AND TELL THE STORY OF HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT ITS SKIN IN OUR FIRST SHOW, O BEST BELOVED.

THE PLURAL OF RHINOCEROS IS RHINOCEROS.

Thumper with the Rhinoceros Diorama in last year’s production of O Best Beloved.

Hello There from Meekins!

July 11, 2015July 26, 2015marlenefrances Leave a comment

Hi everyone! Here is the second installment of our “behind-the-scenes/meet our players” special: Meekins!

From Meekins:

Oh boy! Well, uh, I guess… Oh, come on, get it together, Meeks! How hard is to tell your own life story? Well, in my case, as a man who has traveled from coast to coast, sea to shore, polar ice cap to polar ice cap, I can say with total certainty: life can be a real doozy, altogether dark sometimes, unfortunately, but the happiest I’ve ever been was when I was brought in by good ol’ Samuel Peaches and his performing troupe. Ever since then, all the misadventures with Mole People, unnecessary abductions while lost out in cornfields, and head-to-head battles with mother sea lions are a thing of the past! Now, I just PRETEND to get in fights with animals, and I couldn’t be happier for it.

Oh, here I go, rambling again. The way I joined the Samuel Peaches’ Peripatetic Players was straightforward enough: tasked by a mysterious witch doctor to return a crystalline skull that would presumably imbue with great power, I was kidnapped by headhunters along the rushing Amazon River. There, it seemed, they aimed to make a sacrifice to their elder gods, and had me fully trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey! It wasn’t looking good for ol’ Meeks just then, I’ll have you know (although, I have escaped from much gnarlier situations)! Right about that time when I was beginning to maybe start saying my prayers, out of the brush came bounding the same wagon you see before you today, and atop it, seemingly having lost control, was the man himself- Samuel Peaches! He grabbed hold of the rope that I was strung up to try and stop the catastrophic caravan and ended up freeing me in the process. Of course, I was ever so thankful, and even though he wasn’t too sure, I eventually won him over with my ardent, repeated pleas for help, just like my momma taught me!

Since then, I’d have to say my favorite story has been, without a doubt, the Crow. Nothing bad ever happens to him! He just dances around in a very safe manner and makes little rhymes that are of insult and harm to no one, including himself! Surely, you see the appeal? Another great thing about playing the Crow is that I get to play with the ever-so-beauteous Princess Gwen! Sure, she steals the tasty cheese I was planning on saving for myself, but she’s so nice and and strong that I’m happy to relinquish it on a daily basis at our performances.

If I’m being perfectly honest with you, my dream destination for a Samuel Peaches’ Peripatetic Players performance (woo, mouthful!) would be any sort of sterile room with padded walls and ceilings where nothing is hidden and there are no noxious fumes in the air! I can’t think of anything safer than that.

My fondest memory that isn’t related to an actual performance is certainly the time when Samuel Peaches finally made me a full-time performer. Up until then, I had just been chasing the caravan across desert, mountain, ocean- you name the biodome, I crossed it chasing that wagon! Finally, he stopped the wagon to do a show and I was able to meet everyone in the cast. After the show, I stowed away and pestered him with notes from my hiding place on the wagon that read, “Please please please let me be in the show please please please I’ll do anything pleeeeeaaaaaase,” until he finally sent me one back that said, “Yeah, okay, whatever.” That’s when ol’ Meekins was finally able to graduate to an actual spot inside the wagon itself.

This sure wins the cake for the best thing I’ve done in my life! Cheers!

Meekins as The Mariner in How the Whale Got Its Throat, in last year’s production of O Best Beloved.

Greetings and salutations from Samuel Peaches!

July 9, 2015July 26, 2015marlenefrances Leave a comment

Hi everyone! We are doubley delighted to present to you our Peripatetic Player’s mini-autobiographies! The first up in this “behind-the-scenes” special is Samuel Peaches himself!

In his own words…

Samuel Xavier Peaches from the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players was born in England to parents richer than the king and queen combined. Groomed to be a doctor of science and law, his family was terrified he would follow in the footsteps of Thumper, his older and impractically creative older sister, who was determined to make whirligigs instead of a decent living. When Mr. Peaches discovered the female kind midway through university he suddenly realized he had been building a life he didn’t even want remotely! Mr. Peaches, keeping it a secret from his family, dropped out and left for the adventure of the new world: America.

Upon reaching the new world and his fresh start, Samuel Peaches discovered his sister had stowed away on his flight from pretentious English academia journey. He saw nothing but opportunity; Thumper, a technical and mechanical genius, could provide Samuel with anything and everything needed to further his adventures… They didn’t get very far…

Then, down on their luck, on a late night in a dimly lit, unknown establishment deep in New Orleans, Peaches and Thumper met the beautiful and talented Blueberry Starshine. She gave them the Just So Stories by Kipling, Thumper in one single night of intense focus, built the flux wagon and the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players were born.

Sadly after many glorious years and too many adventures to count, Blueberry left the troupe to pursue her own interests… Unfortunately taking with her the Peripatetic Player’s rights to perform the Just So Stories.

Peaches favorite story to perform has always been The Camel’s Hump (as he got to work closely with Blueberry in fantastical characters) but will most likely shift to the Race of the Tortoise and the Hare for this new adventure in the lands of Aesop. Peaches favorite players to work with are Thumper and Meekins due to the random and highly excitable energy of both performers. Samuel Peaches is both terrified and anxious to perform back at Port Costa. The memories of Blueberry are strongest there.

Mr. Peaches simply invites you, his beautiful audiences, to dream, to delight, and to dare!