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.

Thanks to Librarian Charlotte Hurley and the Grand County Library, Maxed Out Puppetry had a wonderful time among the stunning scenery of Moab Utah during the first weekend of August.  Despite the blazing summer sun, we were able to visit the natural wonder of Arches National Park.  In addition to the natural formations, thousands of years before puppetry there were Petroglyphs and on Charlotte’s recommendation we went to check out the ancient rock drawings of the Fremont culture as well as even more ancient dinosaur footprints preserved in the rocks nearby.

On Saturday the 1st we performed at the historic Star Hall on Center Street. Star Hall was constructed in 1905 and has served the community for over 100 years. The show went splendidly. We had a great audience and we introduced some great new material. We danced like puppets, Tyson tried to do a magic trick with unexpected results, we got attacked by a giant man-eating snake, and everyone had a blast.

This is the second time we have visited Moab to perform and we look forward to going again. Another big thanks to our favorite Grand Country Librarian, Charlotte Hurley for having us!