Shadow Puppet Show Plays To Kids In Mesquite Library

By AMY DAVIS

The Progress

All summer long, the Mesquite Library branch is providing free activities to keep little ones busy. On Wednesday, June 8, the library had special guests, Natalia Tabisaura and Dani Dewar, from the Sunrise Library branch in Las Vegas, come to present an adaptation of “The Three Little Pigs” in shadow puppet form with original music.

Attending these activities can also help children and adults earn points towards the Library’s summer challenge with prizes of free pizza and a chance to win iPads, Golden Knights paraphernalia, Cowabunga Bay tickets and more through July 31.

Coming up with new and exciting ways to provide summer entertainment for children can sometimes be tricky. It can take a lot of brainstorming. Dewar was instrumental in bring this story to life.

Dewar explained that she and a co-worker Cassandra Hugo were sitting at the desk one day throwing some ideas around for productions for kids. “We wanted to keep a fairytale theme but, we thought it would be so fun if the fairytales had rockstars and music,” Dewar said.

Dewar and Hugo then began a cowriting project that resulted in a rockstar version of “The Three Little Pigs.” In this version, the Big Bad Wolf blows houses down with the loud vibrations from his music and results in all the pigs joining his band.

“It was such a fun project,” exclaimed Dewar. “We not only wrote the story, but we wrote our own song as well . Then we got to sing it! We did the voice acting all in branch and then Natalia (Tabisaura) drew all of the puppets and scenery.”

Music inspired this show in every stage of production. Natalia said that, as she was drawing the houses and city for puppet show, she was inspired by Starship’s song, “We Built This City.”
“So when we are idling backstage, in my mind I hear that song and dance along to that beat,” Tabisaura said.

As children gathered in the community room with their parents, the librarians interacted with them by singing songs that used lots of movement. It was an excellent way to get the wiggles out before sitting still for the brief shadow puppet show. Children seemed interested in the storyline and danced along with the music. When the show was over, children were pleased to be invited to look behind the scenes and meet the puppets and see how they worked.

The next local performance of this shadow puppet show will be at the Bunkerville Library on June 29 at 2 pm, and the Moapa Valley Library on July 14 at 11:30 am.
“We have practiced so much, and really put our hearts into this production,” said Tabisaura.
While it may look like a neat and orderly story from the audience, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes to pull off a shadow puppet show. “It is like a little dance back here,” Tabisaura added.

“There is a lot of switching sets and puppets, constantly reaching up and down,” Dewar explained. “We kind of have our own roles in the back so that we can stay organized and so we know exactly what we are trying to put up on the screen.”

From the audience, the puppets and set look quite small. But once you go behind the set, you realize that they are much bigger that they seemed. The children were quite surprised as they got to inspect the set.
“We love showing the kids how things look in real life and then how they look behind the screen and how the light changes them,” said Dewar.

Micki Montanez brought her grandson to see the show. “It was clever and unique,” she said. “I loved the music. The music really kept the kids’ attention.”
“It was kind of fun that the librarians came to present,” said mom Ashley Ellis who brought her two daughters to see the show. “Usually when we have these events, they bring in contracted third parties.

The fact that the librarians wrote the script and created the art and scenery were really cool to me.”
After working so hard to bring a project to life for the children, Dewar and Tabisaura were so pleased with the results.

“We love that the kids enjoyed this!” Tabisaura exclaimed. “When we hear them laugh at our jokes and sing along with us, it makes it for us.”

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Dewar added, “and when they say they want to see it again it’s like, heart explosion!”