Ready your horses, Riders of Rohan…
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Influences & Inspirations Part Deux
Shakespeare or Space Wars opens in less than a week! As the Players put the finishing touches on props, costumes and scenery… and even our script… we want to share an inspiration that has had a big influence on those essential elements of the play: Little Monster’s Mother Goose by Mercer Mayer. It’s a children’s book that features monster-creatures putting on a play — not unlike the Players!
Little Monster’s Mother Goose was published in 1979, meaning it was just in time for Madame D’s childhood bedtime reading list. And it must have had an impact… Little Monster must be convinced to put on a play, and how the play happens — including what happens in the audience — is more interesting than the nursery rhymes themselves.
In fact, it’s almost impossible to read this book in any sort of linear or methodical fashion — visual and word puns are scattered about, and the pleasure in reading it is seeking them out and finding something you hadn’t seen before.
What’s more, none of the characters can let an opportunity for a comment, question, or delicious opportunity to lap up spilled milk pass them by.
The audience is having a great time, too — even if they’re not behaving “properly.” 🙂
We hope you’ll be part of our audience for Shakespeare or Space Wars September 10-24!
Just a few days left to Kickstart Aesop Amuck!
We have shows through August 23 — four more performances — but just a few days left to pledge your support for Aesop Amuck via Kickstarter.
As of this moment, we need just $555 to reach our goal, and we have until Monday night, August 17, to do it. Can you help?
Your support helps keep FluxWagon in her finery, transports her to each performance venue, ensures we’re insured at each location, provides pay for the Peripatetic Players — and keeps our performances *free* to the public.
We’re so grateful for your help and have some sweet surprises for our supporters. Please give if you can, and come on out to see a show!
Character Profile: Frogs!!!
How did this frog get so big? Through her own folly, I’m afraid…
She’s from The Frogs and the Ox, and she’s trying to make herself as big as an ox. It doesn’t turn out well.
In fact, the frogs always seem to be coming up with bad ideas… Like, for instance, in The Frogs Who Wished for a King or The Frog and the Mouse. Unlike the mice, who come up with bad ideas after a lot of thought and deliberation in their mouse councils, the frogs just don’t seem to think things through. Naturally, this leads to plenty of mishaps for the frogs.
The frogs are also scared of everything, perhaps with good reason considering all the misfortune that befalls them. They run for their lives in The Hares and the Frogs and The Boys and the Frogs.
What with all that running in fear and being prone to mishaps, we see some great opportunities for slapstick. That might be why the Frog sections of Aesop Amuck are some of the most hilarious to rehearse.
Character Profile: Mouse Council
With a ton of fables featuring Mice, you can be sure that Mice will have a starring role in the Peripatetic Players’s Aesop Amuck!
The Mice in Aesop’s Fables always seem to be having councils. They have a lot of important decisions to make, like how to get away from the Cat, or to better organize their mouse armies. And of course there’s songs to be sung… But we’ll let that be a surprise.
Stay tuned for more character profiles, and more fabulous drawings from Mr Bertken (a.k.a. Meekins)!
The Peripatetic Players 