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Description
This is being uploaded about six months late... These are photos taken of the shadow puppetry from the show Tales Beneath the Baobab Tree. I designed the shadow puppets, and performed them in a three month run at a place called Wolftrap in Vienna, VA (Very close to Washington D.C.). There's just too many puppets in the show to do a photo of each, and that doesn't give the best illustration of what they're like in action anyway.

At the center top we have Kamba the tortoise and Fisi the hyena talking, in a scene where Fisi asks where all the other animals got their colors (Kamba the tortoise painted them). In the very center is the image for the song at the beginning of the show. There are colored gels to slide across the projector for the first verse, so that the sky goes from a very dark blue slowly into the reddish orange you see here. In the second verse there's a flat piece that slowly slides away to reveal the animals beneath the tree. To the left of the song image is the giraffe before she's painted, and to the right is the elephant receiving a tree to plant. The elephant and giraffe each have hinges at the shoulder that allow for extra movement. The other colorful animals ranged all around are from the celebration scene, where they dance around to a lively drumbeat to celebrate the colors. Those are totally people in the top right. People. Human beings. The kids always yelled 'monkeys!' when those came out. The celebration scene was by far a favorite, because the audience would always, completely unprompted, start yelling out what the animals where as they came across the scene. My favorite commentary, heard from my hiding spot behind the tree, was when the flamingoes came out and some bright kid shouted 'flamingoes!', to which another kid replied 'No they're not! They're birds!'
The show was aimed at three to five year olds, and while I performed the shadow puppets from behind a tree-shaped tent with a hole in the middle for the screen, there was a drummer seated to one side and a woman who carried a 'drum' with a shadow puppet hyena inside it. She also performed a few three-dimensional puppet/costumes. I did the voice of Kamba the tortoise, while the other two perfomers did most of the script, interacting with the kids. Kids are scary. I felt safe behind my screen.

Description
This is being uploaded about six months late... These are photos taken of the shadow puppetry from the show Tales Beneath the Baobab Tree. I designed the shadow puppets, and performed them in a three month run at a place called Wolftrap in Vienna, VA (Very close to Washington D.C.). There's just too many puppets in the show to do a photo of each, and that doesn't give the best illustration of what they're like in action anyway.

At the center top we have Kamba the tortoise and Fisi the hyena talking, in a scene where Fisi asks where all the other animals got their colors (Kamba the tortoise painted them). In the very center is the image for the song at the beginning of the show. There are colored gels to slide across the projector for the first verse, so that the sky goes from a very dark blue slowly into the reddish orange you see here. In the second verse there's a flat piece that slowly slides away to reveal the animals beneath the tree. To the left of the song image is the giraffe before she's painted, and to the right is the elephant receiving a tree to plant. The elephant and giraffe each have hinges at the shoulder that allow for extra movement. The other colorful animals ranged all around are from the celebration scene, where they dance around to a lively drumbeat to celebrate the colors. Those are totally people in the top right. People. Human beings. The kids always yelled 'monkeys!' when those came out. The celebration scene was by far a favorite, because the audience would always, completely unprompted, start yelling out what the animals where as they came across the scene. My favorite commentary, heard from my hiding spot behind the tree, was when the flamingoes came out and some bright kid shouted 'flamingoes!', to which another kid replied 'No they're not! They're birds!'
The show was aimed at three to five year olds, and while I performed the shadow puppets from behind a tree-shaped tent with a hole in the middle for the screen, there was a drummer seated to one side and a woman who carried a 'drum' with a shadow puppet hyena inside it. She also performed a few three-dimensional puppet/costumes. I did the voice of Kamba the tortoise, while the other two perfomers did most of the script, interacting with the kids. Kids are scary. I felt safe behind my screen.