Puppeteers in training work with Eulenspiegel

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Matt Ryerson/The Hawk Eye
Morning Sun Elementary students put on a puppet show for their classmates Friday while being directed by Monica Leo at the Morning Sun Elementary School gymnasium. The show was organized by the Louisa County Conservation Department, which made it possible to hire the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre out of West Liberty to organize the show and teach the children. Sixth-graders pictured from left, Colton Hinkle, Madison Dean and Christopher Richardson and fifth-grader Arthur Brown.

Morning Sun Elementary fourth-grader Jeffrey Cooley and others put on a puppet show for their classmates Friday while being directed by Monica Leo at the Morning Sun Elementary School gymnasium. The Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre out of West Liberty organized the show and taught the children to work the puppets.
Matt Ryerson/ The Associated Press

By DARCIE HOENIG

dhoenig@thehawkeye.com

MORNING SUN -- Morning Sun Elementary School students gathered in the gymnasium Friday afternoon for a performance by a professional puppetry troupe and some puppeteers in training.

After rehearsing for three days, 15 Morning Sun Elementary students joined Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre Company to present "Portraits of the Prairie" to their peers, parents and teachers. The 25-minute show told the history of the prairie, from the Ice Age to present, with puppets, singing, sound effects and movement.

To tell the tale of the evolution of the Midwest landscape, Karen Minnis' fourth-grade class and honors students from third, fifth and sixth grades worked with Eulenspiegel puppeteers Monica Leo and Peggy Fitzgerald. While Leo and Fitzgerald took on the main roles, an artist and squirrel who narrate the story, the students used piles of puppets to provide the visuals while standing behind the rolling hills of the set.

The students began practicing with Leo and Fitzgerald Wednesday, spending several hours each afternoon learning the story, songs and techniques of puppetry.

Learning to handle the puppets, many of which were made with rods and string to create movement, was a chore for some students.

"Some pick it up really quickly, others need lots of help," said Leo, who founded the company in 1974.

Sixth-grader Madison Dean said keeping upwards of eight puppets organized was her biggest challenge.

"It took a while because we had to learn the order to put the different puppets up," the 11-year-old said.

Ten-year-old Candace Moore said the only part she struggled with was keeping some of the puppets up, since some scenes require them to be in view for several minutes.

"It's hard to keep holding something up in the air for a long time," said Moore, a fourth-grade student.

While students from Morning Sun Elementary often travel to West Liberty to see the troupe perform, they were able to join in the storytelling this year thanks to grants from the Community Foundation of Louisa County, the Iowa Arts Councils and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Keck Memorial Library and the Louisa County Historical Society also provided assistance in bringing the troupe to Morning Sun.

The puppetry workshop originally was intended to be a summer public program and nature camp by the Louisa County Conservation Department, but plans fell through because of flooding and low participant numbers. Instead, the department offered up the grant-funded program to local elementary schools, and Minnis' class was awarded the opportunity to work with the Eulenspiegel group.

Since there are only 10 students in the fourth-grade section, Minnis recruited five honors students to help with the production.

Besides working with the 15 performers, Leo and Fitzgerald also spend an hour each day helping third-grade students create their own papier-mache bird puppets.

Ron Hillis, a musician with the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre, also worked with fifth- and sixth-graders during music class Friday. Hillis showed students instruments like the fiddle, mandolin and ukulele and taught students how to make whistles out of acorn caps.

For more information about Eulenspiegel Puppets, visit www.puppetspuppets.com.