Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster

Monsters have one job, and it’s to be SCARY! “Booga booga booga!” However as arduous as he tries, Leonardo can’t scare even a mouse. When the opposite monsters giggle and make enjoyable of him, Leonardo searches for essentially the most scaredy-cat child on this planet to attempt to scare the tuna salad out of him! Manual Cinema breathes progressive life into this beloved story (and its doubly charming sequel), magically utilizing a whole lot of puppets to create a film earlier than your very eyes. Will Leonardo lastly change into the scary monster he goals of being? Or will he uncover one thing even higher to be?

Impressed by the Books Leonardo, The Horrible Monster and Sam, The Most Scaredy-Cat Child within the Complete World by Mo Willems, Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster, premiers on the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) right this moment and runs by March 9.

Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster on the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) (Picture credit score CTC)

Leonardo! A Fantastic Present A few Horrible Monster makes use of a whole lot of illustrated paper puppets, guide pages, two-dimensional props, furry monster puppets, and songs to convey Mo Willems’ books to life. Guide Cinema wished to re-create the expertise of holding one in every of Mo’s guide pages, that are massive, daring, colourful, and stuffed with visible rhythm, with a playful use of scale. Like all Guide Cinema productions, you’re invited to look at the massive display screen like a conventional film, or to look at the artists beneath as they create the story in actual time.

Latino Information Community had the possibility to talk with Maydi Díaz (Stage Supervisor, Dwell Video, Sound and Gentle Cueing), who’s a part of the inventive staff and manufacturing workers.

“I fell in love with the crafts-making of theater. Theater is not only what you see folks doing on stage. One of many objectives that I’ve with doing “Leonardo” is giving children that lightbulb second that I by no means had as a child: a whole facet of theater that might be my job,” Díaz mentioned about displaying kids the work she performs.

Díaz grew up in San Juan, PR, and at the moment resides in Chicago. Her earliest reminiscence of performing is as a dancer in a kids’s manufacturing of “Zorro.” Training introduced her to Chicago. Díaz has a BA in Arts Administration and MA in Theatre Manufacturing. “Rising up, I didn’t know that my present job existed,” she mentioned. “I didn’t know this was an possibility of what I may do. By by no means having met somebody who truly did that for a residing and did that for a job, it meant it appeared out of attain.”

The difference of Leonardo! A Fantastic Present A few Horrible Monster is by Sarah Fornace and Drew Dir, with music, lyrics and sound design by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter. The manufacturing is directed by Sarah Fornace.

Along with Mo Willems, Sarah Fornace, Drew Dir, Ben Kauffman, and Kyle Vegter, the inventive staff and manufacturing workers for Leonardo! A Fantastic Present a few Horrible Monster consists of Liz Breit (Hand & Rod Puppet Design), Mieka Van der Ploeg (Costume & Wig Design), Trey Brazeal with Nick Chamernik (Lighting Design), Megan Alrutz (Dramaturg), and Maydi Díaz (Stage Supervisor, Dwell Video, Sound and Gentle Cueing).

The solid of Leonardo! A Fantastic Present a few Horrible Monster options Karly Gesine Bergmann (Sam, Puppeteer), Leah Casey (Kerry, Puppeteer), Lily Emerson (Narrator, Character Voices, Musician), Kevin Michael Wesson (Leonardo, Voice, and Puppeteer), and Lindsey Noel Whiting (Leonardo, Voice, and Puppeteer).

“It’s in the end a narrative about friendship, which I actually love and speaks to lots of people,” mentioned Díaz. “Friendship, discovering who you’re, making an attempt to grasp who you’re in each stage of your life is one thing we’re all going by continuously, not simply as kids as adults too.”