WPLN News Archive; Anansi the Spider (Rebecca) 4 14 99; News Archive 4/2/99-5/7/99

it's friday morning in the auditorium of the downtown library is jam packed with kids most are sitting on the floor scrounge together in a wall of all mosaic of brightly colored t shirts and heroines a few are coupled up in the laps of parents lucky enough to score a chair along the back wall all are eagerly awaiting the beginning of a very special this and nancy the spider is the new production by the library's talented performing arts bryan hall at lambert and pat mcgee and i do mean brand spanking new the city's new the puppets in marionette certain and the music is new and the script is theirs it's the result of a grant the library received a stage two new shows as library public relations manager pam reese explains we knew we wanted to do no showers and we knew we needed to reflect the diversity in nashville so we approached the state with this project and they thought it was a fabulous idea and fully

funded and which got the job done completely anonymously the spider was written by bryan hall program specialist with the library the grant stipulates that there are two productions one with an african american team and one with an hispanic thing i was sort of interested in doing something more urban setting more modern some the folks at mission in icy tales so it actually ended up with a combination of the two the announcer tales are great and the great thing about it is we can do more shows the same puppets and that's another good reason why when it was chosen and indeed it would be a shame not to use these creations again for they are really quite baffling the three african american characters are beautifully detailed hamdan rod puppets which are controlled from below the clever animal figures the nuns into spider crazy bird hornet snake and the lion a marionette which are controlled from above this meant the set had to be both a puppet stage and a marionette stage a slick trick skillfully worked out by brian holland and lambert their urban nashville set

transforms mid way into an african jungle only to change back into a city street by the programs end the public hears use music to entertain the audience and to set the mood while the transition is taking place although based on the african folk legend of announcing the trickster and this capture a wasp and a snake to please the lion king right hold it put his own spin on the story usually he catches the snake first and then the horn i read it that way but was so anti climactic after help scary that snake is and how difficult it is and how the snake is very threatening to aspire to just basically for a little record in the box that i switch those scenes around and heads of the build up to and so that became our own special version and audience reaction has been everything the library had hoped for the turnout has increased and increased and we begin your letters comments and it's a fun show to do and i think that's why we think it works so well because we're even having fun backstage and they get it

they listen that audiences of them very attentive and fact last friday a large culturally diverse and normally wiggle some group of children was totally absorbed and the antics of announcing and his sidekick raise uber i'm a writer pam reed's also views the show was a great success fortunately brian eno are incredibly skilled at making a little money go a long way although the state gave us seventeen thousand nine hundred dollars to get two new shows marian ads are very expensive to produce so mary nets were a good part of it but we were also able to stretch the money to buy books to back up these marionette shows with the kids can see a show that can take on the book in this case we bought extra books about the announced details and about both langston hughes zora neale hurston who appear in the show in the form of children for the next planned production which is tomas in the

library lady will be blind eye has been in materials too performances of a non see the spider will continue throughout the month of april tomas in the library lady will premiere this fall to reserve a spot in the audience call the children's department and the ban was public library for nashville public radio i'm rebecca bain has been the peaks theme