Mock Turtle – Marionette Theatre

Shadow Stories with Balinese music at the IceHouse

Join us on Saturday, March 17th at 10 AM at the Charles Brown IceHouse in Bethlehem for Shadow Stories, featuring three shadow puppet plays and live music performed by Gamelan Mekar Sari, an ensemble comprised of Valley devotees of Indonesian music. The program will include the premiere of Mock Turtle’s new shadow play, The Grumpy Gecko, accompanied by Balinese gamelan music played on drums, gongs, cymbals and metalophones.

Also a part of our shadow puppet program will be two of the theater’s most popular shadow productions, Travels to Tondo, a story from Africa, and the Legend of Sung Low, a Chinese shadow tale.  Shadow Stories will be followed by a free workshop/demonstration of the gamelan musical instruments and the shadow puppet theater.

Tickets are $5 for the show and workshop combination.

Contact Mock Turtle Marionette Theater for details, directions and reservations at 610-867-8208 doug@mockturtle.org and our website at www.mockturtle.org.

The Charles Brown IceHouse is located at 56 River Street, on the Lehigh Canal, Bethlehem.

Puppet-making at the IceHouse!

Join us on Saturday, March 10th at 10 AM at the Charles Brown IceHouse for Tinker, Tailor, Puppet-maker, a show all about making puppets and the excitement of working with your hands.  Featuring a fine cast of marionette characters ranging from rabbits to rock musicians, the play is much more than a story about the craft of making puppets.  It is a pep talk for all children to learn how to make and do things from puppetry to air planes; from baking a cake to kicking a field goal. The show culminates in a puppet-making workshop where everyone gets to make their own fire-breathing dragon puppet!

After our puppet-making session, we will offer scouts a special workshop on puppet performance designed to help scouts earn badges and engage in community service projects. This program, presented in partnership with our regional Boy Scouts of America, is offered at a discount price of $6.00 per scout.  Siblings are welcome at the same rate.  Tickets for the general public are $5 for the show/ $7.50 for the show and workshop combination.

Contact Mock Turtle Marionette Theater for details, directions and reservations at 610-867-8208/ doug@mockturtle.org

Mock Turtle Marionette Theater presents “Magic Day” at the IceHouse

Join us on Saturday, February 4th at 10 AM as Mock Turtle Marionette Theater presents Magic Day at the Charles Brown IceHouse in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Internationally known magician Joe Keppel will present a magic and vaudeville performance followed by a hands-on magic workshop. Keppel’s show entitled, Magic, Mayhem, and Motion, will combine his performance of magic and comedy with lots of audience participation.

Joe Keppel has performed his magic in over 40 countries and 35 states. He works annually in over 100 schools with his educational school assemblies on the subjects of Reading and Geography. Performance artist Bruce Ward will be guest starring with Joe Keppel. Bruce and Joe well recreate some classic Abbott & Costello and Marx Brothers routine as part of their comedy magic schtick. Bruce is well known in the valley as “Clarence the Clown” but will be performing without his makeup for this performance. Besides their regular performances Both Bruce and Joe were members of  the groups “The Pasta Brothers” and “Magic, Mayhem, and Motion”.

Also joining us for this year’s Magic Day, will be Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Lehigh Valley.  Come and learn about their programs and meet members of their team!

Tickets: $5 for the show/ $7.50 for the show and workshop combination

Contact Mock Turtle Marionette Theater 610-867-8208 or doug@mockturtle.org

for details, directions and reservations.

Saturday June 18th with PA Sinfonia

Grab the kids! Tell every parent and grandparent you know.

Large, elaborate puppets who “play” musical instruments (together with their human handler) will be on stage at the Ice House in Bethlehem on Saturday, May 18 in a 3:00 p.m. performance that creatively shows how numerous ethnicities and cultures have contributed to great classical music.

The “Museum of Music” is an entertaining show for children and their families, to be followed immediately by a puppet-making workshop and refreshments. The project is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra and Mock Turtle Marionette Theater, with artistic director Doug Roysdon.

We have almost entirely COLLEGE YOUTH making this happen as actors and stage directors (except for the professional musicians). Doug Roysdon is operating the puppets and, of course, wrote the show. A youth show with YOUTH INVOLVEMENT! The musicians are PERFECT. Simon Maurer as the violinist is in his heaven- he can improvise, play classical, Hungarian gypsy music PLUS jazz and even gospel/bluegrass. He can ham it up plus play many styles of music .. even true fiddle music. Michael Toth on piano is doing the same thing and Christa Warda is really looking forward to being the opera “DIVA”

Tickets: Students under 17, $7.50. Adults, $10.

Limited seating! Call to reserve: 610 434-7811

Allentown Public Theatre Presents Drama Workshop Based on Latino Stories

 Join us at 10AM on Saturday, June 25 at the Charles Brown IceHouse on Sand Island as Mock Turtle Marionette Theater presents The Allentown Public Theatre’s creative drama workshop on the ancient Caribbean tale, La Murcielaga.  Children and adults alike, are invited to actively participate in the creation of characters and story-telling based on this Taino tale about the Bat who was offered feathers through the generosity of the birds only to lose them again out of ingratitude.  The 90-minute workshop includes drama and visual art activities.  Children love it!  And families enjoy it, too.

General Admission to The Ice House Saturday Series is $7.50.  All are welcome. 

For more information on the workshop contact Doug Roysdon at 610-653-3462.