Featuring: the children and volunteers from La Biblioteca Interactiva de Banos Tungurahua, Ecuador
Connie Smith and her incredibly talented husband, Chris (left and right in the photo), came to us from Toronto Canada and together with our imaginative and flexible volunteers and the children of La Bib created, rehearsed and presented an amazing three ring puppet circus in just six weeks!
Putting together a puppet circus was lots of challenges and lots of learning and lots of fun! The show consisted of two stories, ”Sailing to Galapagos” and the “Great Kapok Tree” taken from books in the children’s library which depicted different areas of Ecuador.
These were performed in a shadow puppet theater with puppet actors manipulated by the children. The stories were intermingled with various circus acts also performed by a variety of puppets.
Andy Dunning and his Kazoo Band of Renown, ”The Tiny Tooters”!
Caitlin practicing with “medusas”. Broken umbrellas were magically transformed into jellyfish puppets!
PUPPETS, PUPPETS, PUPPETS
For six weeks our world was submerged in puppets. We learned how to make them small, medium and large using recyclables. Thanks to Connie’s imaginative approach, we began to see puppets in everything….they permeated our lives, penetrating our very dreams!
Every child in La Bib got to make his or her own puppet to take home, here’s a few fun samples, aren’t they great?
MEETINGS, MEETINGS AND MORE MEETINGS
Weekly volunteer planning meetings, marketing meetings…that’s right, our team of multi-talented volunteers even included a Marketing Team, lead by internationally recognized,(having worked on practically every continent in the world) our own professional puppet publicity person that would be Just Rob Grant at (at the head of the table)
Children from La Bib
Enlisting the help of the children from La Bib, hundreds of pennant brochures and posters were hand colored and distributed all over town by roving bands of puppets accompanied by kazoos!
The Marketing campaign included two newspaper features with photographs in local papers and a radio interview, which all occurred BEFORE the event……unheard of….Banos will never be the same!
ROVING BANDS HIT STREETS OF BANOS!
REHEARSALS! REHEARSALS! REHEARSALS!
Deb creates Ringmaster costumes
Connie and the voices of the Ringmasters, Caitlin and Marcial.
OPENING NIGHT PREPARATIONS
Kids from volunteer families create the coolest concession stand ever!
And the mothers and fathers of the kids from La Bib do the serving.
The Show Begins
The audience loves it….we ve got a hit on our hands!
Over 440 people (mostly children) were treated to the show in three nights it was performed!
SOME DRAMATIC MOMENTS held the audience spellbound!
Storytellers behind the scenes
The Stars Of The Show
LA BIBLIOTECA INTERACTIVA DE BANOS
Fundacion Arte del Mundo
