An Unforgettable Experience: Center for Puppetry Arts presents RAINFOREST ADVENTURES

Prepare for a wild adventure beneath a Brazilian treetop canopy, courtesy of toucans, anacondas, sloths and more! Playing January 23-March 4, Rainforest Adventures is an up-close look at a day in the life of animals living in one of the most amazing, mysterious places on earth. Explorers of all ages will experience Brazilian-inspired music as they come face-to-face with more than 30 exotic plants and animals that inhabit the Amazonian ecosystem. A mischievous howler monkey leaping from tree to tree, bats beating their wings in a glorious evening ballet, a keen-eyed harpy eagle searching for its next meal and pink river dolphins playfully exploring the waterways create a vibrant escape to the tropics as the Amazon Rainforest comes to life!

Co-written by the Center's Artistic Director Jon Ludwig, with Stephanie Kaskel Bogle and Raylynn Hughes, Rainforest Adventures features numerous puppets performed in a Czech Black style by puppeteers Brian Harrison, Jake Krakovsky, Emily Marsh, Tim Sweeney and Anna Claire Walker. As part of the Czech Black tradition, puppeteers dress in black from head to toe and manipulate puppets in a tight curtain of light in front of them, ultimately allowing them to disappear behind the light. Hidden from sight, puppeteers are able to create dazzling, complex movements of all kinds with the puppets and props, sometimes with three or four puppeteers working together to execute a single movement. The scenery as well as all of the puppets were designed and built by the Center; and many of the puppets were built to scale, making them the same size as their counterparts in the wild.

Recommended for ages 4 and up, Rainforest Adventures is presented in the Mainstage Theater, January 23 - March 4 with reduced-price previews on January 23 and 24 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

On Sunday, January 28, Girl Scouts are invited to participate in a series of activities that will allow them to be eligible for all four STEM patches in a single day. Scouts will explore the science of the rainforest ecosystem, technology behind puppet performances, engineering used to design some of the puppets in the Worlds of Puppetry Museum exhibits and the math skills utilized to build a puppet in the Create-A-Puppet Workshops. Activities will take place from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Center for Puppetry Arts will continue its dedication to programming for patrons with ASD on Sunday, February 11 with sensory-friendly modifications to the performance as well as in the Museum and in the Create-A-Puppet Workshops. The Center will also provide a quiet room, social stories, noise-reducing headphones and fidget toys for guests who need those resources. For details, visit http://puppet.org/asd.

Regular show times are as follows:

• Tuesday-Friday: 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
• Saturday: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• Sunday: 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Tickets are $9.75 (Members) and $19.50 (nonmembers). The Family Series All-Inclusive Tickets include admission to the performance, Worlds of Puppetry Museum (with the largest collection of Jim Henson puppets and artifacts in the world as well as a Global Gallery) and the Create-A-Puppet Workshop, where guests can make and perform with their own Pink River Dolphin marionette.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.puppet.org or by calling 404.873.3391