On Saturday August 8th Maxed Out Puppetry participated in the annual “Teddy Bear Picnic” at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.  This is our second year at the zoo and we had a great time modifying some of our stories and songs to include Teddy Bears.

The children enjoyed a live performance of our adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Elephant’s Child” with a teddy bear, as well as a version of the Hardware Store, with an ice cream loving Teddy Bear.

After the show, Ollie stuck around to chat with the kids for a little while and we all had a lot of fun.  We also got to see some of the new babies at the zoo, including the baby orangutan, the snow leopard cub, and the baby giraffe.

We are sad to say, however, that this was the final performance of Maxed Out Puppeteer Caitlin Shirts.  Caitlin is moving to Connecticut to enter a Masters Program studying Puppetry.  Thanks Caitlin for all your huge contribution to our troupe!

Thanks to Cagney Smullin for inviting us to return for the Teddy Bear Picnic again this year and we look forward to additional performances at the zoo in the future.