Bringing great puppet performances to the San Francisco Bay Area since 1999

Coming to Palo Alto, California in 2007:

• January 26, 27 & 28: The Pilgrim's Progress by The David Simpich Marionettes (Colorado Springs, CO)

• March 24: Rapunzel by Paul Mesner Puppets (Kansas City, MO)

Paul Mesner Puppets Present a Whacky Vegetable Version of:

  RAPUNZEL

Enchanting, classic hand-puppet theater! Two performances only! From Kansas City, Missouri!

The award-winning Paul Mesner Puppets present a veggie wonderful love story about two avid gardeners, Okra and Romaine, who meet, marry, and have a beautiful daughter named Rapunzel. But alas! Long ago the Evil Witch forced Romaine to promise that he would give up his first-born child. And now the Witch has returned to claim the lovely child for her own. Poor Rapunzel is taken away to live in a lonely tower, and her future looks bleak.... But then the Prince arrives! Rapunzel hatches a plan to escape her evil captor and leaf happily ever alfalfa.

Saturday, March 24 * 10:30 AM & 4:30 PM

First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto
1140 Cowper Street (at Lincoln)
Palo Alto, California

$12 adults; $10 children & youth (tickets available at the door)

For Advance Reservations & More Information:

Mary Decker
650-361-1310

Recommended for ages 3 to 103. Performance is 50 minutes long.

Puppet construction by Caleb Fullam, set design by Shelly McKnight, musical arrangement by Steven Dillman, costumes by Wendy Harms, and script by Paul Mesner.

About Paul Mesner

During the last 15 years, Paul Mesner has become a fixture in the Kansas City theater and arts scene, and in the national community of puppeteers. Every year he produces a full season in Kansas City and logs 30,000 miles in travel while performing for more than 100,000 children and adults in schools, community centers, festivals and theaters across the country. Paul Mesner collaborates frequently with the Kansas City Symphony, the Kansas City Ballet and many other arts organizations.

Paul Mesner has received numerous awards for his work, including the Citation of Excellence from the American Center of l'Union Internationale de la Marionnette. The Company has received many prestigious grants, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Jim Henson Foundation.

Paul Mesner's audiences are life-long fans of his hilarious enterprise. An avid reader, Mesner has made a name for himself reinterpreting classic and contemporary juvenile fiction or, as he says, "presenting fiction like a juvenile." He prefers the classic repertoire of tales and myths because they offer life lessons intertwined with engrossing stories. He incorporates slapstick humor and a break-neck performance pace to make stories simultaneously entertaining to children and amusing to adults. "Averting imminent disaster is what theatrical production is all about," says Mesner. "Kids know this, and I like to keep them thinking things are about to fall completely apart at any moment. This way, I slyly trick them into paying more attention." http://www.paulmesnerpuppets.org

Puppet Showcase -- Mary Decker -- 650-361-1310