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Press Release
For Immediate Release
January 22, 2003
AWE CONTACT:
Lisa Becker
Executive Director
(414) 933-3877
HUMBOLDT PARK SCHOOL
Dan Harwood, FAVE teacher
Eugene Vlies, Vice Principal
(414) 294-1706
Student Puppet Show Teaches ‘Mighty Fine’ Lesson
MILWAUKEE, WI – Rhyming not only makes things easier to remember,
but it also makes learning more fun. Just ask the sixth grade
students participating in the FAVE program (Fine Arts Vocational
Education) at Humboldt Park School who are developing a musical
puppet production incorporating all rhyming dialogue. Assisted
by two visiting artists, Max Samson and Ian Tewes of the Mask
& Puppet Company, the FAVE students have been building puppets,
a stage set and props for “Nine-in-One”, a play based on a traditional
folktale from the Hmong people of Laos. Featuring the musical
accompaniment of a Qeej (a Hmong instrument made from bamboo),
a glockenspiel, and paddle drums, the play will be performed
for parents, staff and the student body on January 29, 2003.
The project is sponsored by Artists Working in Education, Inc.
In “Nine-in-One” (also called “Why there are not so many tigers today”) the character of First Tiger seeks out Shao, the God of the sky, to inquire how many babies she will have. Shao, a 12-foot puppet worn on a harness by one sixth grader and voiced by another, tells First Tiger that she will have nine tigers every year, but only if she can remember the equation. Employing the mnemonic device of rhyming, First Tiger invents a song to help her remember, “nine-in-one, mighty fun.”
The other animals, fearing that tigers will overrun the earth if she remembers Shao’s words, conspire to trick First Tiger into forgetting her song by singing “one-in-nine, mighty fine”. In the end, the compelling explanatory myth accounts for why there is a balance in the number of tigers sharing the earth with the other people and animals. “The play is a statement of how beautiful the world is as it was made”, says Max Samson. Samson and others working with the students hope that the lesson won’t be easily forgotten.
Rehearsals for the play will be in progress from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on January 22 and January 27 in the Humboldt Park School auditorium. There will be two performances on January 29, at 2:00 p.m. and at 2:45 p.m. in the auditorium.
Humboldt Park School is a K4-6th grade MPS Elementary School located at 3230 S. Adams Ave. in Bay View. Humboldt Park is an academically-oriented school with high achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. Humboldt Park students are taught to communicate effectively, welcome diversity in people, and appreciate and participate in the arts.
The Mask & Puppet Company was founded in 1972 by Max Samson after he concluded a residency with the Bread and Puppet Theater of New York. The Mask & Puppet Company have performed their multi-cultural, mixed-media pieces at Summerfest, Winterfest, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and other festivals and public venues around Milwaukee.
Artists Working in Education, Inc. (AWE) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide youth in the Milwaukeearea with arts enrichment programs to enhance human potential, advance learning and cultivate community.
AWE’s programs are supported in part by The Windhover Foundation, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin, Inc., Matrix Foundation, City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Wisconsin Arts Board, Forest County Potawatomi Community Foundation, Herbert H. Kohl Charities, Jewish Community Foundation of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Manpower, Target, Orion Corporation and Meridian Industries Inc. For more information contact Lisa Becker, AWE Executive Director, (414) 933-3877.
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