Live in the Children’s Village… the Penny Theater Puppet Show
by Karen O’Keefe
The Penny Theater puppet show is coming! The Penny Theater puppet show is coming!
This year’s festival-goers – both children and the adults who tag along with them — are in for a treat.
If you live near the Quince Orchard Public Library in North Potomac and have any friends with preschool age children, you probably already know the Penny Theater. It’s one of the most popular and longest-running stage shows in the community – with three performances on the third Thursday of every month, September through April. It’s been around so long that the earliest audiences are almost old enough to return with their own preschoolers!
As they undoubtedly will.
At 4:05 p.m., ten minutes before the 4:15 curtain, on a recent Penny Theater Thursday, at least 20 three- to six-year-old children milled about the library lobby, accompanied by a generous number of younger siblings, including babies. Also present in significant numbers were adults, for this particular library is most frequently accessed by people in automobiles (and hardly any preschoolers drive). Many of the children, obviously experienced Penny Theater patrons, kept an expectant eye on an activity room door that would soon open to the stage within.
So popular is the Penny Theater at the Quince Orchard Public Library, that reservations are required. Many of the children watched expectantly and some nodded knowingly, as a Penny Theater volunteer with a clipboard circulated in the lobby, speaking quietly to their respective adults, and checking names.
As the minutes slipped by, a sense of suppressed excitement intensified. There was even a tiny outbreak of impatient jostling among the theater-goers, but for the most part, they kept themselves well in hand. As everyone who has ever been to the theater knows, this is quite an accomplishment for any group of people waiting for a concert or show – and even more impressive among three-to-six-year-olds.
When the door opened, the audience entered the activity room. Preschoolers were directed to sit in a special area on the floor before a small wooden theater – and they did. Adults and babies arranged themselves, nearly invisibly, in a row of chairs on the back wall of the room.
Penny Theater is an actual theater, constructed of polished wood with a stage two feet wide. The plays presented are based on children’s books. The puppets and many of the other items that appear on stage are hand-made cardboard figures, attached to rods and manipulated on and off-stage from the sides of the theater by two volunteers.
Penny Theater plays are scripted from children’s books and today, some in the audience clearly knew the two books shown them by Penny Theater coordinator (and volunteer) Marilyn Green as she introduced the show. When Green announced the day’s first show would be the Chinese folk tale, “Two of Everything,” from the book by Lily Toy Hong, a ripple of excitement spread through the audience and some children could not restrain their enthusiasm.
“I have that at my house!” called on excited boy, rising to his feet and pointing at the picture book Green was holding.
At that, other children piped up as well, with several jubilantly identifying the volume as a “library book.” There was no doubt about it – a very literary pre-school bunch crowd was in the house for today’s show.
Penny Theater’s Green expertly calmed her audience, encouraged them to retake their seats – and even squelched a couple of potential show spoilers who had begun to recount quite audibly the “Two of Everything” plot before the performance could get underway.
When, some time later, Green displayed a copy of the old Scandinavian folk tale, “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” excitement bubbled over again as die-hard “Gruff” fans self-identified, and a spontaneous, animated discussion about trolls sprang up for a few seconds before people settled back down.
According to Green, “Penny Theater is designed to encourage children to read books and to introduce them to the concept of theater.”
It definitely seems to be successful on both counts.
When the curtain rose on the first performance, the children were a silent audience, captivated by the unfolding story of elderly Mr. and Mrs. Haktak, humble Chinese peasants who found a magic pot buried in the garden and… you will have to read the book to learn more of the plot.
The Penny Theater experience was a magical one. For this grandmother/reporter, it was moving to watch 21st century children, held in thrall by a story enacted by puppets (an art form thousands of years old) in a theater design that was popular in England in the 1800s.
After all, the children in this audience are members of a generation who played games on touch-screen tablets before they could speak in complete sentences. These preschoolers attend 3-D animated movies and stream home entertainment on flat screen TVs.
And today, at the Quince Orchard Library, these children are spellbound by simple, hand-painted cardboard puppets sliding on and off-stage on rods manipulated by two volunteers who stand on either side of the theater.
After the show, the children gathered, still fully-engaged, around the theater, to gently touch the puppets and props — and exclaim once again over the books.
If you are interested in previewing a Penny Theater performance before “Halley Came to Jackson” (book by musician and author Mary Chapin Carpenter) appears at the May 17 Gaithersburg Book Festival, see “Frog and Toad Presents – The Garden” (book by Andrew Lobel) and “Titch” (book by Pat Hutchins) on March 20; and “The Magic Pumpkin” (by Bill Martin Jr., et al) and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (by Eric Carle) on April 17 at the Quince Orchard Library. Call 240.777.0200 for reservations.
And if you can’t make it over to Quince Orchard during the week, don’t worry. You can catch the Penny Theater at the Gaithersburg Book Festival!