Columbia Marionette Theatre: The Little Mermaid

On the third Monday of each month, the Columbia Marionette Theatre has a 10:00 show complete with a Q&A following the show as well as a back stage tour.  This is an outstanding opportunity for children (of all ages).  I took the Cool Yule to see The Little Mermaid on August 2011's steamy, hot third Monday.

We found The Little Mermaid and The Prince simply exhausted back stage after the show.

They simply could not entertain us any longer.......
  Notice the jelly fish behind the Prince, these puppets -- strange up close -- are absolutely perfect during the show.  They're so creative.  I think they said these were the last of their hand-made wooden puppets, but I'm not positive about that.

On our back stage tour, John Scollon, the son of veteran puppeteer Allie Scollon demonstrated how the puppets operate.

Allie Scollon, retired, started out near my hometown in Syracuse NY on the Bar J Ranch TV show.  Her fame spread and she was later awarded the Puppeteers of America President's Award, the same award that Muppets Creator, Jim Henson also won.

The Scollons have a list of accomplishments, but another interesting one is that they debuted the Keebler Cookie Company's Elves.  Fun, huh?

To the right is the wicked mermaid puppet as well as the "paparazzi" puppet -- the brown crazy one.

When the paparazzi puppet first made an appearance in the show, I was perplexed.  Slowly, I figured it out.  It's a bunch of reporter-types all merged together as one blur of hands, feet, cameras and mics.  Very creative.  I had to get a close-up shot of that.

After the show, my favorite part...... the kids got to try out some puppets!  That was a blast.  I think it was Puppeteer Cooper Leigh Hill that assisted my group of kids and gave them some tips on puppetry.

Previous visits to the Cola. Marionette Here and (my favorite) the 7 Dwarfs Here.
Twitter.com/ColaMrntteThtre