National Day of Puppetry 2005

by Marty Richmond, CAP Vice President of Everything Else

This year the Columbia Association of Puppeteers presented three events celebrating the Puppeteers of America’s National Day of Puppetry.

All on Saturday, April 23rd, in venues throughout the Portland Oregon area.

First up was our regular monthly April CAP meeting at Steve Overton & Marty Richmond’s Olde World Puppet Theatre shop in Portland.

Dennis Strachota presented the Tendrak Theatre production of The Swan Prince.

It is the story of a young prince who is about to be killed in order to keep him from succeeding his father as king. A court magician saves him by transforming him into a swan.

The spell can be broken only if a beautiful princess will marry him in his form of a swan.

Of course, such a princess becomes enamored with the swan and desires to marry him.

Thus the prince is saved and the kingdom is restored to order.

We served hot dogs, potato chips, and soft drinks to all who came.

Second, Kathy Korbo’s !Hay Caramba! presented Los Tres Javelinas at two libraries in Portland: at 1:00 pm at the St Johns Library, 7510 N Charlston Avenue and at 3:30 pm at the Northwest Library, 2300 NW Thurman St.

The Third: Jason Ropp’s Dragon Theatre Puppets presented shows for the City of Gresham’s Earth Day Celebration at Gresham City Hall.

Rumplestiltskin was up first at 11:30 am

The king is lonely and decides to have a talent show to help him decide who will
become his queen. The miller's daughter is said to be able to turn straws into gold so
the king puts her in the dungeon with a room full of straws.

She cannot complete thetask until she is given help by a strange little man. He will do an exchange for her first born child but the princess just cannot give up her baby. The little man then decides to give her three days to guess his name or he would take the baby forever.

A classic tale with a twist of humor for all ages!

The story is about the cowardly knight Sir Cans-O-Lot, who must prove his
knighthood and a dragon that must show the village that he's nice. With the help of a
shepherd boy they have a fake fight to fool the village into thinking that the knight
heroically tamed the dragon.

This wonderful show was the first ever produced by Jason Ropp for Dragon Theater Puppets. Using colorful rod puppets and latex hand puppets this show brings to life a very silly version of the Reluctant Dragon. The knight's armor is made of tin cans, the dragon reads poetry and the poor shepherd boy's sheep leap into the air!

All in all, a good representation of the art of puppetry spread about venues in the greater Portland area.

Marty Richmond

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