Western News Staff
Master Puppeteer Bernd Ogrodnik returns to Children’s Showcase this Sunday with a production of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s musical, Peter and the Wolf.
Music and storytelling combine to enchant audiences of all ages and some lucky spectators may even get to be part of the show. This award-winning production premiered at the National Theatre of Iceland in 2008 and stays true to the original story and music created by Prokofiev in 1936 to familiarize young people with the instruments of the symphony orchestra.
Peter lives at his grandfather’s home in a forest clearing, but one day, he goes out leaving the garden gate open. Peter’s grandfather scolds the boy for being out in the meadow, and tells him a wolf might attack. When Peter says that he is not afraid of wolves his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate.
Soon afterward a wolf does indeed come out of the forest. Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree and catches the wolf by its tail, when hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, come out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf to a zoo.
Ogrodnik was last in the Okanagan in 2009, when he brought his hugely successful production Metamorphosis to the stage at Cleland Theatre for the Children’s Showcase. A puppeteer, puppet builder and designer with formal training in classical music, fine woodworking, and movement arts, Ogrodnik has been a prominent figure in the world of puppetry since 1986 and has toured around the globe as a performer, lecturer and director at international theatre festivals, universities and conferences. His exquisite marionette and puppet creations are frequently featured in film, TV, museums and theatres around the world.
Figura Theatre is based in Iceland, where Ogrodnik serves as the master puppeteer for the National Theatre, and is both co-founder and artistic director of the Icelandic Centre for Puppetry Arts.
Peter and the Wolf is suitable for ages three and up, and takes place on Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. in the Cleland Theatre. Tickets are $12 at the door. For more information about this program or Children’s Showcase, call Jacinta Ferrari at 250-493-0475. The Children’s Showcase Society is a non-profit organization which has been dedicated to making quality live performances accessible to Okanagan families for 30 years.
