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| Burt and Company |
In 1968, while a college student, Burt Merriam, now Director of The Hill School Center for the Arts, made a life-altering discovery. To defeat his own boredom during a lonely college break, Burt presented puppet shows at local schools in West Virginia. His idea resulted in a life-long passion for creating puppets, sets, and stories that have fed both his creative and entrepreneurial sides ever since. In his touring production, THEATRE TO GO, Burt and his life-sized, two-dimensional puppets interact together on stage, to dramatize stories that have evolved from legends, folktales, and theatrical improvisation. With the help of his audiences, and relying on his own fertile imagination, Burt has pieced together a unique form of entertainment. He presents traditional and original tales in a “storyteller’s theatre” format, dramatizing a story as it is being narrated, often in the third person. Dialogue intermingles with narrative and Burt leaps quickly from one character to another to create a highly charged production that can be presented almost anywhere children can gather. Burt’s favorite dramatizations include the ever popular tale of STONE SOUP, Hans Christian Anderson’s story of a wanderer who can make soup from nothing but a stone and a little help from a reluctant Burgomeister and his wife. Another audience favorite is JOHNNY AND THE BILLY GOAT, a clever adaptation of a Welch folk tale in which the puppet characters of Rabbit, Fox and Wolf try unsuccessfully to chase a billy goat from a turnip patch only to be bested by a humble bumble bee. If you are interested in learning more about Burt’s presentations he can be reached at 610/326-1000, extension 7352 or by e-mail.