A PERfect party for trees
Video by Zack Ramadan
An outdoor promenade Theatrical experience
Trusty Sidekick has been crafting worlds for neurodiverse audiences and their caregivers for nearly a decade. For the first time, we have created a story for this audience that is designed to be experienced outside of a theater.
A Perfect Party for Trees takes audiences on an outdoor promenade adventure as we join The Bear, The Beekeeper and Ms. Branch in their quest to create the perfect birthday party for the forest.
As featured in the New York Times, “perhaps the greatest gift this new play offers its audience is intangible: the freedom to be themselves.”
The show features an original score of acoustic music, multi-sensory activities and a cast of puppet sidekicks. Our party hosts will lead families through nature as we create a gentle and playful space for our audience to dig like a badger, sing like a bird, and sit quietly like a tree to become a part of the forest itself. With no wrong way to celebrate, it will be the perfect party every time.
Past Performances
September, 2022 - Little Island, NYC
September, 2022 - Brooklyn Bridge Park
June, 2023 - NY Puppetry Festival, Autism Nature Trail
Photo by Hyphen Photography
Book a classroom performance of A Perfect Party for Trees!
Our two party hosts will lead your classroom as we create a gentle and playful space for our audience to dig like a badger, sing like a bird, and move like a tree to become a part of the forest itself.
Audience Size: 10 Young People (recommended age 5 +)
Audience support materials provided (social story, character guide, post show materials)
Now booking for the 2023 / 2024 school year!
Fill out the form above if you’d like more information on residency opportunities!
DID YOU GET YOUR INVITATION? MEET THE CHARACTERS
A PERFECT PARTY FOR TREES CREATIVE TEAM
Project Lead/Director: Leigh Walter
Project Lead/Writer: Marty Allen
Project Lead/ Associate Director: Andrew M. Duff
Puppet Design: Eric Wright
Puppet Fabrication: Rose Labarre
Costume Design and Fabrication: Natalie Loveland Prop Design and Fabrication: Rowan Magee
Composers: Jesse Greenberg and Naeemah Z. Maddox
Lyrics: Marty Allen, Jesse Greenberg and Naeemah Z. Maddox
Cast:
Jesse Greenberg as The Bear
John Rankin III as The Beekeeper
Naeemah Z. Maddox as Ms. Branch
Swing/Understudy: Andrew Duff
Forest Friend/Audience Support: Marty Allen
Line Producer: Amanda Joshi
Production Manager: Carly Levin
Production Stage Manager: Aoife Hough Assistant Stage Manager: Taryn Uhe
Assistant Director: Stella Hu (Twig)
Graphic Design: Sara Moncure
Special Thanks and Acknowledgements
Special Thanks to The All Stars Project Inc. , who generously provided rehearsal spaces for the project throughout its creation.
Special thanks to Theater Arts Teacher, Michael Pantone and his classes at P721K in Brooklyn for helping us in the development of our show, the generous spirit of its teachers and students were the seeds from which Perfect Party grew
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A Perfect Party for Trees was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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We gratefully acknowledge the Aurand Harris Grants and Fellowship
Aurand Harris Grants and Fellowships are made possible through an endowment
established by the late Aurand Harris and administered by the Childrens Theatre
Foundation of America. Aurand Harris, one of this nation’s most published and
performed playwrights for children and youth, enormously enriched the literature of
American children’s theatre. Plays such as “Androcles and the Lion,” translated into 10
languages, “The Arkansaw Bear.” “The Toby Show.” “Rags to Riches.” and “To Ride a
Blue Horse.” are but a few of his plays that fill stages in this country and
abroad. Harris’s writings, informed by his studies in Kansas and at Northwestern
University and by his teaching initially, in the Gary, IN school system, and subsequently,
for over thirty years at Grace School in New York, have captured the spirit and interests
of children for generations.
Harris had a deep concern for artists, particularly playwrights, who devote their careers
to creating quality theatre for young audiences, and for theatres who produce theatre for
children. Through his foresight and generosity, the Childrens Theatre Foundation of
America has been able to establish Aurand Harris Fellowships for artists serving young
people and grants for small and mid-sized theatres throughout America.
We congratulate Trusty Sidekick Theater for being an Aurand Harris 2022- 2023 Grant
recipient.
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We gratefully acknowledge The John Golden Fund