Puppeteers bring stories to life for young Lincoln readers

 

[July 28, 2016]  LINCOLN - Lincoln Public Library Youth Service Librarian Melissa Oxborrow likes to mix things up for the Thursday morning entertainment for the library’s summer reading program. She likes to blend ever popular favorites from previous years with new performers. When asked about this week’s show entitled Clothespin Puppets, she said “I don’t know what to expect. They are a new act for us.”

Oxborrow need not have worried. The couple behind the puppetry, Dr. Mike O’Brien and his wife Jenna brought a fun and imaginative program to the library annex that had their young audience captivated.

Mike is a theatre professor at Parkland Community College, and Jenna is a music and art teacher for kids in kindergarten through third grade. They perform about forty shows a year traveling from their home base of Gibson City to libraries and schools in Illinois focusing on family reading and young authors programs.

When asked about the focus on puppetry in their show, Mike explained that he became fascinated with the history of puppetry. “Puppetry has a long tradition all over the world, hundreds of years, but not so much in the US because of our young country,” he said. He became so fascinated with puppetry that he completed a PhD in the subject. “Puppetry is a way of telling a story visually that captivates the audience,” he said.

Clothespin Puppets is a family affair for the O’Briens. Mike and wife Jenna presented the program Thursday morning, but Mike is often accompanied by their daughter Maggie. They also construct all of the sets and the charming puppets.

Mike and Jenna choose eight children’s books for each show and then transcribe the written stories and illustrations to the stage complete with sets and puppets in the image of characters in the books. The dialog comes straight from the books, and the O’Brien acting company does all the voices of the characters. “We are story tellers based on kid’s books,” Mike said.

Their rendition of the fable Repunzel and her long golden hair was filled with fast rhyming that brought the house down, and taught an important lesson about clear communication.

The Clothespin Puppets mark the end of the Lincoln Public Library summer reading program “Read for the Win.”

Now the young readers get to tally up their reading results to determine if they match the goals set at the beginning of the program. This is an exciting time.

The Lincoln Public Library provides the books and entertainment and the young readers provide the motivation to read and the curiosity that can only be cured by reading a book.

[Curtis Fox]