Oregon Shadow Theatre

My homeschool group went to see the Oregon Shadow Theatre yesterday at the Forest Grove City Library.  The show was Thumbelina, and it was spellbinding!  They had a big screen, and the puppeteer Deb Chase worked behind and beneath it, manipulating some gorgeous puppets!  Imagine my joy when I saw a stag beetle join the cast!  Mike Doherty sat beside the screen, giving voice to all the characters and adding music and mind boggling sound effects.  Occasionally he would turn a light on himself and launch into a few bars of a song while strumming a guitar.  The stunningly gorgeous puppets lead me to expect a serious interpretation of the story.  In fact, it was nonstop silliness.  They incorporated the lyrics of '60s classic songs into much of the dialogue, which had the grownups and the children of us older parents giggling.  Afterwards, they invited the kids to come see the puppets up close and answered questions.  This is something I dearly value in a performance, because it gives the kids a chance to connect with the creative minds behind that they just saw and really be inspired.  Jasper was positively mesmerized by this show.  When we got home he absolutely insisted that I read him the original story (translated, of course, from the Danish). Boy was he disappointed!  (Hans Christian Anderson is not particularly goofy.  At least not intentionally.)  I told him he should definitely take note of how it's possible to take something someone else has created and use it as a starting point to make something magical of your own.   http://www.oregonshadowtheatre.com/