The HOOZITS In King's Yard - Summer 2006

Saturday morning I lie in bed, listening to songbirds in the great old sugar maples outside my window, and hearing/seeing bits and pieces of my new puppet show inside my mind. Friday night I didn't have a show; Saturday morning by 6:30 a.m., I do have just enough of a show in mind to hop up, shower and dress, and start packing my puppets and stage and backdrop and bungee cords and all the rest. The tree! Out to the woodpile to find just the right stick to rig up for Who-Who Hootie Owl to sit in and be wise. Got it. The tarp, afghans for the audience to sit on, tape and scissors and lots of lovely colored scarves, and an orchestra - Ah! The orchestra: pots and pans, wooden spoons, and some jingle bells. And don't forget the flute, for casting a magical spell where all hearts can rest and play in our story.
All right - Hootie and Music Al and the wonderful red-spotted golden stegosaurus whom the children in the audience will later name - all stuffed into their black bag. Oh! The cave - how will I make the cave? Aha - there's that funky little yellow plastic table out on the deck, left over from last week's wedding. I snag it, and discover that the legs come out/off. Perfect for packing in the trunk of my trusty old Nissan. I pack the car, discover I'm hungry, and eat half an avocado. Perfect! Got my jar of water, my hair looks good, I feel right in my puppeteer's black; I'm off!
Downtown in the Village on Saturdays, the Farmer's Market is the big draw. I'm due to perform at 10:30 in the adjacent King's Yard gazebo as part of the YSKP (Yellow Springs Kids' Playhouse) summer festival. Driving over, I have it in my mind that I'll have the perfect parking spot, and that is what happens. I begin unloading my equipment, and have only two trips to make, working my way through the crowded market place to the quieter gazebo area. There I encounter a group of Village music students, playing for donations for the schools' music programs. I explain to the directors that I've got a show scheduled, and we work out a time-share agreement for the space. These are some of the same kids who were in the "Borchestra" which accompanied Music Al's BIG SHOW earlier in the year. We appreciate each other.
Michelle, a high-schooler who's a YSKP intern, is there to help me set up the stage area. We get busy attatching tarp backdrop to gazebo with bungee cords, and then weighing down the bottom of the tarp with stones because of the breeze. I set up the stand with my new cardboard box theater atop it, and the little yellow table-cave next to that. Then Michelle and I get busy with my black cloth and a roll of tape, covering the stand and turning the table into the cave. It works! There's just enough cloth for the desired effect. We use more tape positioning Hootie's tree. Then we tape up the title of the show: Carolion and the Hoozits present TREASURE IN THE GLEN.
It's time for the school musicians to go to their next location, as Michelle and I spread the afghans and tell curious passers-by there'll be a show starting in a few minutes. Ready at last: Hootie is in her tree, the Stegosaurus in his cave, well hidden, and Music Al is behind the stage, preparing for his entrance. I've got the treasure map in my pocket.....And soon there are a group of us drumming and whacking pots and pans as our prelude to the show. Then....Ahhhhhhhh. I just fall into my very comfortable storyteller mode, setting the stage with words about the treasure map, and getting some audience particpation as children and parents become trees waving their branches in a dance to the music of my flute. The actual trees bordering the gazebo area begin to dance as well, as the breeze plays with all of us - and we believe, we believe. The floating colors of the scarves add more magic - I keep naming the colors wrong, and my audience corrects me, and one after another lovely floaty scarf gets tossed aside. We're looking for gold, so the treasure map can be right. We need gold. Ah, at last: the big yellow scarf and the smaller orange one become the famed Yellow Spring in the nearby Glen. That's gold. The green scarf gets tossed up into Hootie's tree to be leaves, and so we discover our wise owl, who is sitting in the branches.
Music Al makes his entrance, following me....He's always "late" because I pull him on a string...We sing Al's song because we always do; then we ask our audience members to hold the treasure map, which depicts a tree with an owl in it, a pool [the yellow spring], and a cave with a big X. I carry Music Al, playing "walking music" on his six-note xylophone spine as we walk off the stage and around the audience [through the Glen]. It's a tiny area, so I stop every few steps. "Are we there yet?" I ask. Our audience messes with us, telling us we ARE there, and every single time I look around and say, "That's not a cave - that's somebody's mom!" Giggles and more giggles. Finally we get back around to the stage, and the audience is pretty sure there's a cave. Hootie has already hinted that the treasure might be a golden dragon. Music Al isn't too sure about going into the cave...Finally, though, it's time to try.
I lift up the scarf covering the cave, and am immediately overwhelmed by children rushing up to touch the red-spotted yellow stegasaurus! I go with the flow - how not? They adore him! He tells them he's really not a dragon, he's actually the "last of the dinosaurs." Wow - not only do we have a Glen and a Yellow Spring here at the edge of our Village, but we also have a mysterious cave with the last of the dinosaurs. Wow again! The children decide his name must be "Dragon." So it all works out. They resume their seats so the show can go on.
I tell the children that it's very good luck to have a dragon fly over you. So they and I together are not surprised when Hootie volunteers to carry Dragon, to be his wings, since he doesn't have any of his own. Of course! How not? Dragon must fly. The children lie down, and Hootie/Dragon fly over them pouring good wishes and beauty into their hearts. Well, now! The story has ended just right, and we all truly played it together. It happened through us. Music Al and I sit down to sing and play a little goodbye song, and everyone joins in.
The show's over - though the audience was very small, suddenly there's a crowd and people taking pictures as children ask to pat Music Al and play a few notes on his spine. Someone even asks if I might do the show again, but no - not today, I say. Another time. Maybe in the library. A very little person takes a long time looking and looking at Music Al, and finally tiptoes up to touch his head, and then, at last, to play a few notes.
Time to wrap. Michelle, and now Melissa from YSKP help me make fast work of the tear-down and packing and toting-to-the-car. I'm happy. I'm high. Oh, this is the kind of puppetry I love to direct, and now am developing for myself. Improv makes me happy, that's all there is to it. I love to play.