Just So Stories on 1/2 and 1/3

We are performing Just So Stories at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art this coming weekend on 1/2 and 1/3. Here are the details, hope you are able to join us!

January 2, 2016
11:00am and 1:00pm 
January 3, 2016
1:00pm 
Tickets $5 ($4.50 Museum Members)

Call 413-658-1126 to purchase tickets.

Just So Stories

Enjoy these three tales of mischief and magic that tell how some of your favorite animals came to be. Join us for silly adaptations of How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhino Got His Skin, and The Beginning of the Armadillos.

Little Red Riding Hood and Pied Piper Performances this Week!

We are excited to have several shows this week!

First, we will be performing Little Red Riding Hood on Weds. 7/29 at 11am at the Springfield Museums.  This performance is free with admission to the museum! Visit the museum's website for more info: http://www.springfieldmuseums.org/
- Note: There is an error on the museum website calendar that lists our performance as 7/30, but it is on 7/29. 

Little Red Riding Hood's anxious mother sends her off into the woods with some treats for her dear old grandmother, but to get home safely she and her grandmother will have to outsmart the Big Bad Wolf.  Are Little Red and Grandmother in trouble, or has the wolf bitten off more than he can chew? Join CactusHead Puppets for their modern adaptation of this classic story, told with hand puppets and shadow puppets. 

Then we will have performances of The Pied Piper of Hamelin at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art on Sat. 8/1 and Sun. 8/2! Here are the showtimes and ticket info for those dates:

August 1, 2015
11:00am

August 2, 2015
1:00pm and 3:00pm

Tickets $5, call 413-658-1126 to purchase.

The town of Hamelin has a rat problem, and there's only one person who can help! CactusHead Puppets bring the story of the Pied Piper to life with a cast of colorful characters in this comedic adaptation of the traditional folktale. Not only does the town find a musical solution to pest control, but the kids of Hamelin also teach the grownups a lesson about generosity. In the end, the townspeople all come together in celebration. Join puppeteers John and Megan Regan as they present this classic tale, told with multiple puppetry styles, and plenty of dancing rats!

Bremen Town Musicians Photos!

Our new show, The Bremen Town Musicians, opened today! We had two great audiences today, and we have six more performances this week if you'd like to come and see the show. Its a fun show that uses both shadow and rod puppets, and it's full of singing and dancing animals!

As a little preview, here are some pictures from the show.

The shadow animals

The rod puppet animals

The shadow robbers

The rod puppet robbers (or rod-bers as we like to call them)

Hope you enjoy the photos, and ticket info is below if you're interested in seeing the show:

Performances at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA
Wednesday, April 23 through Friday, April 25
11:00 am and 2:00 pm
Saturday, April 26, 2014
11:00 am and 1:00 pm
$5 (Members $4.50); Museum Admission extra

Order tickets by phone at 413-658-1126. 

Aug 2-4 Performances of Just So Stories

This week, Friday Aug. 2 - Sunday Aug. 4, we will be performing Just So Stories at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA! On Friday and Saturday show times are 11am and 1pm,  and on Sunday they are 1pm and 3pm. Tickets are $5 each, and you can purchase them at the door or over the phone at 413-658-1126. 

Our show includes silly adaptations of three of the classic stories by Rudyard Kipling, How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhino Got His Skin, and The Beginning of the Armadillos. We also use three types of puppets, hand puppets, rod puppets, and shadow puppet, so you get to see a great mix of puppets in this show. Here are a few pictures to give you a little preview:

You can also check out this post from when we were building the show.


Looking forward to seeing you at the show!

July 21st Performances of Little Red Riding Hood

We will be performing one of our favorite shows, Little Red Riding Hood, this Sunday, July 21st, at 1pm & 3pm, at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. Tickets are $5 each, and you can purchase them at the door or over the phone at 413-658-1126. 

Here are a few pictures from the show. We do our own silly adaptation of the story using hand and shadow puppets.

Hope you are able to come! A puppet show and visit to the museum is are great ways to spend your day when its too hot to be out.

Photos by Kristin Angel

Tickets for Dec.'s Just So Stories now on Sale!

Tickets for our performances of Just So Stories at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA are now available. The shows are Dec. 27th and 28th at 2pm each day. Tickets are $5 each, and you can purchase them by calling 413-658-1126. It is a fun show, and a great idea if you are looking for something to do during the winter vacation!

Here is a little more info and pictures from the show.

Just So Stories

Enjoy these three tales of mischief and magic that tell how some of your favorite animals came to be. Join us for silly adaptations of How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhino Got His Skin, and The Beginning of the Armadillos.




Hope to see you at one of the shows!

Little Red Ridding Hood Show Pictures

Our Little Red Riding Hood performances went very well! It is a very fun show to perform, and our audiences really enjoyed it too. We have a few pictures taken during the show to share, so that if you missed it you can see what the puppets look like in action. We are also adding Little Red Riding Hood to our list of touring shows, so please contact us if you think you would like us to come perform at your location!



Little Red with her basket.


Mom on the phone with Grandma.


Red meets the Wolf for the first time.


Red discovers the Wolf in Grandma's house.


Little Red and Grandma set their trap.


Then they capture their wolf!

Photos by Kristin Angel

Little Red Ridding Hood Sneak Peek!

We are excited for the opening of Little Red Ridding Hood on Monday, and thought we would share a few pictures of the puppets in the workroom to give you a little preview!

Here is the hand puppet version of the wolf:

and here he is as a shadow puppet:


This is the hand puppet Little Red and Grandma:

and here they are as shadows with Red's mom as a shadow too:

The show runs Aug. 8-13 at 1pm each day at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA. Tickets are $5, and you can pre-order them at 413-658-1126. Hope you get a chance to see the show, and check back here later this week for more pictures from the show!

Just So Stories Performance Pictures

Last week's Just So Stories performances were a big success! We had a great time performing, good audiences each day, and we really enjoyed answering questions and sharing how the puppets worked after the shows. We have several pictures from the show to share with you.


How The Rhino Got His Skin






The Beginning of The Armadillo




How the Camel Got His Hump



Hope you liked the pictures, and check back soon for news about our next new show and upcoming performances this summer!

Just So Stories Sneak Peek!

Our performances of Just So Stories at the Eric Carle Museum start next week! The show runs April 18-22 at 1pm each day, and tickets are $5 or $4.50 for museum members. Tickets may be purchased at the Admissions Desk or by calling (413) 658-1126.


We are currently hard at work putting the final touches on the show, and thought it would be fun to share a few pictures from the workroom of puppets we made for the show.


Here is the Djinn from How the Camel Got Its Hump


This is the Hedgehog shadow puppet for The Beginning of the Armadillos.




This guy is the man from How the Rhino Got His Skin.


Hope to see you get a chance to see the show next week!

Puppets and Costumes for Beauty and The Beast

For the past several weeks we have been hard at work making shadow puppets and wolf costumes for the upcoming production of Beauty and the Beast at OH Platt High School in Meriden, CT. The students have also been hard at work rehearsing the show to get ready for their performances on 3/24-3/26 at 7 pm each day. It should be a great show, and if you are close enough to see it, you really should. More information about tickets is at the school's website. We will be posting pictures of the shadow puppets and wolves in action soon too, so if you can't make it to the show you can still get a little sneak peak.