'Playful' puppeteers 'dazzle' Ironwood Theatre audience

By ALISSA PIETILA

[email protected]

Ironwood - The "Dazzling and Playful" Puppeteers final showing of "Marionettes and Live Actors" drew a good size crowd at Theatre North at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The two shows on Saturday brought in 81 people and Sunday's show had 45 in attendance.

The puppeteers, Angelina Jarvela, Jennifer Murray and Julie Mead, each played many parts.

The show included recreations of the plays "The Princess and the Pea" and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff."

The puppeteers also led the crowd in singing "Bingo," "If You're Happy and You Know it," "The Shark Song" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."

The last performance, which included sock monkeys and Murray cast as a doctor, made one small child very happy, as a "Yay!" was heard from the back of the room.

When the show was complete, Jarvela, Murray and Mead invited the audience down to see and play with some of the marionettes and puppets and thanked everyone for coming.

The shows were made possible by a grant that that was received from State Farm this past spring.

"The nice thing about the grant ... is to be able to offer something like this for the families free of charge. It's amazing," said Mary Hansen, director of the newly formed Awkward Stage Drama Club.

Though the show was free of charge, donations for the two days still totaled near $200.

Hansen was also happy to have director Gemma Lamb donate her marionettes and skills to teach the three girls about this kind of performance.

"Gemma is just a gift with the puppets and teaching it," she said.

When asked about the shows, and if she was sad they were over, Lamb said, "It's kind of bittersweet." Lamb also said she was proud of the girls for doing such a great job.

The drama club hopes to do more performances like this, especially because "it introduces young kids to another genre," Hansen said.