People, Places and Things
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As we travel around the country visiting and performing at various venues, we come across some interesting people, places and things. We'd like to share some of our recent discoveries...
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High school gym in Norway, Michigan.
One entire wall was used to paint a mountain scene mural by a high school art class.
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"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
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| "Merlin" presents a sampling of what the Melikin Puppets are all about. |
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| Set up in front of our stage the Melikins (Mel & LaVerne) field questions from inquisitive students. (One comment was: "You can make a living doing this?") |
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Once again, on April 29, 2010, the Melikin Puppets participated in the annual Career Awareness Fair held at the Technology Center of DuPage.
In ten sessions over the course of the day, nearly 100 seventh graders from 10 area schools learned what it takes to work in the field of "Educational Puppetry".
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| Builta Elementary School, Bolingbrook, IL |
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| Students Ana, Ally and Katie get to meet the "Dream Peddler", the lead character from the production. |
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On May 26, 2010, The Melikin Puppet Theatre presented their show based on poetry, "Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax".
It was the culmination of a study of poetry by three second grade classes at Builta Elementary School in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Teacher Ms. Maren Lipe organized the day.
Here's an interesting note: Ana (pictured on the left in above right photo) is the grandaughter of Mr. & Mrs. Melikin (Biske) and the Daughter of Neal Biske, who is also a Melikin Puppeteer and worked the show that day.
After touring and performing for many, many years the Melikin Puppets had to travel only one block for this appearance!
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| Last Summer The Village
of Tinley Park presented a program involving local artists called
Benches on the Avenue, "America The Beautiful!" Over 21 benches were
decorated each with a special theme. Puppeteer Jeff Biske decided to
rest on a (what else?) Muppet bench after a performance at the Tinley
Park Park District.
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| The Central Citizens Library Youth Department in Clifton, Illinois was transformed into a castle by Childrens’ Librarians’ Kerry and Jessica seen here with Mr. Melikin, Jeremy Jester and Merlin |
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| Jeremy and Merlin were taken aback by a life-size Merlin stationed to greet young readers. |
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The Detroit Institute of Art sponsored a Youth
Theatre Show on the Road program for over twenty-five years. The Melikin
Puppets were a part of their touring and in-house programming for twenty-five
of those years. Due to lack of funding the program was dropped. Recently the
program was re-started on a limited basis involving puppet companies from
around the Mid-West to join in on Family Sunday Afternoons.
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| Pictured here is the Melikin stage set up once again in the 300 seat auditorium ready with their production of "Dragon Feathers!"
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The Glen Ellyn Library used photos from the Melikin website to advertise our production of "The Sword in the Stone" on closed circuit video screens throughout the library. Our stage was set up in the community room near one of the screens. Getting the word out made for a filled room.
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| Kindergarten Teacher Jennifer O'Sullivan of Tonti Elementary School in Chicago, pictured here with her kindergarten class after a Melikin presentation of "Fractured Fairy Tales" on June 13, 2011.
What makes this special is that Jennifer remembered The Melikin Puppets when she was a student at St. John Fisher Elementary School. She contacted us after receiving full funding for a class visitor project from a website called DonorsChoose.org. Three other classes were invited to attend as well.
Thank you Jennifer for remembering us!
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Second grade teacher Mary Neylon got her students at Roche-a-Cri Elementary in Wisconsin into the spirit of our presentation, "Totem Tales". Under the direction of Art Instructor Mike Turok, they created not one, but two Totem Poles which were proudly displayed near our puppet theatre stage.
Great Job Kids!
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| “Going Green”
While on the road to
the Fossil Ridge Library in Braidwood, Illinois we came across this patriotic tribute to America and our
troops. Spare parts a pieces of scrap metal welded together and painted displays
creativity and imagination.
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Interpreters Nicol
Low and T’Neal Kulsea keep pace with the Melikin Puppets during a presentation
of “Dragon Feathers!” at the Antigo East Elementary School
in Antigo, Wisconsin.
Scripts were provided two weeks prior to our performance to acquaint the
“signers” with the story line. Then Nicol and T’Neal assumed the roles of
separate puppet actors working in a conversational delivery so all the students
can enjoy the show.
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| The Kindergarten Class of Pleasant View Elementary, Antigo, WI - They were a GREAT theatre audience! |
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| Making good use of
study guides sent prior to our performance of “Dragon Feathers !" ,
Kindergarten Teacher Cynthia Tyler copied the picture of the dragon on the
cover and used it as a class project. Each student colored the dragon, cut it
out. The montage was proudly displayed in the performance area for all to see.
We saw it! and what a great tie-in to prepare students for our performance at
the Pleasant View
Elementary School in Antigo, Wisconsin.
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