In honor of World Puppetry Day the Orange County Public Library will host a puppet show and offer puppet making sessions and puppet play stations Sunday, March 10, from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Carrboro Branch at McDougle Middle School. The event features Orange County-based Puppet Show Incorporated, and is free and open to all ages. Reservations are required and can be made 919.969.3006.
Puppet Show Incorporated is the brainchild of Kathie Guild, whose love of puppetry began when she was an elementary school counselor for the Department of Defense Dependents School in Gelnhausen and Budigen, Germany.
After retiring from 25 years with the Chapel Hill Carrboro City School, Guild launched Puppet Show Incorporated to bring educational puppet programs to diverse audiences at low, and in some cases, no cost. The group presents monthly puppet shows at the Orange County Main Library in Hillsborough and the Carrboro Branch Library.
“Puppets offer children a non-threatening opportunity to express themselves giving them an opportunity to develop social-emotional skills important to their academic success,” Guild explains. “We received grants from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Strowd Roses Foundation to reach diverse communities with our puppet shows, and we’ve found libraries to be a perfect fit for this work.”
Each performance engages the audience in learning an important life lesson or social skill, and often includes a story time and art activity, such as making paper puppets. At the Carrboro Branch Library event, attendees will make a scarf marionette and a cat clothespin marionette. The cat is the official mascot of the 2019 World Puppetry Day Celebration.
Every year around the globe organizations inspired by UNIMA, the Union Internationale de la Marionnette, celebrate the magic of the puppet. “The puppet can be found in every genre of the contemporary performing arts. In theatre, film, celebration, ritual, education, and healing, like each art, it is a means of bringing peoples closer together and of fighting against intolerance and violence.” (www.unima.org). More info about World Puppetry Day can be found on its Facebook page.
More information about Puppet Show Incorporated can be found here.
The Orange County Public Library has three locations to serve residents. The Main Library is located at 137 W. Margaret Lane in downtown Hillsborough. The Carrboro Branch is located inside McDougle Middle School, 900 Old Fayetteville Road in Chapel Hill. The Cybrary is located at The Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro Street, Carrboro. Free parking is available at all library locations. For library hours of operation and complete service and program information, please visit www.OrangeCountyLibrary.org