Coming to Brigham Young University as part of the Performing Arts Series, Scotland’s Puppet State Theatre will present a multi-sensory theatrical adaptation of Jean Giono’s “The Man Who Planted Trees” in the Pardoe Theatre Thursday and Friday, Sept. 27 and 28, at 7 p.m. with a matinee performance Saturday, Sept. 29, at 11 a.m.
Tickets for the event are available through the Fine Arts Ticket Office at (801) 422-4322 or online at byuarts.com/tickets. General seating tickets are $8, with discounts available to students and children. The show is also part of the BYU Performing Arts Series and artsPASS season ticket packages.
The environmental classic tells the inspiring story of a shepherd who plants a forest, acorn by acorn, transforming a barren wasteland.
“I wrote this story to make people love trees, or more precisely to make people love planting trees,” said Jean Giono, the author of the story, in 1957. “Of all my stories it is one of the ones of which I am most proud. It has never earned me a penny and for that reason it has accomplished the very purpose for which it was written.”
Founded by Richard Medrington in 2002, Puppet State Theatre Company is one of Scotland’s leading theatre companies. “The Man Who Planted Trees” has been touring extensively since it began in May 2006. The production received funding from the Scottish Arts Council and has toured Scotland, England, Ireland, Bermuda, Malaysia and the United States.
Puppet State Theatre has performed this piece over a thousand times in venues as diverse as tents on windswept hillsides, tiny village halls on remote Scottish islands, the Lincoln Center Institute in New York and the Sydney Opera House. They have earned numerous awards and accolades for the performance, including the 2007 Eco Prize for Creativity, the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Total Theatre Award—Story Theatre, the 2009 Manchester Evening News Theatre Award—Best Studio Production, the 2009 Brighton Fringe Festival—Best Children’s Show and the 2009 IPAY Showcase, Cleveland, Ohio—Victor Award Winner.
The cast and crew includes Ailie Cohen, puppeteer, director and designer; Richard Medrington, writer and puppeteer; Rick Conte, writer and puppeteer; Elspeth Murray, lighting designer; and Barney Strachan, sound designer.
Learn more about Puppet State Theatre at www.puppetstate.com. For more information about the performance, contact Ken Crossley at (801) 422-9348 or ken_crossley@byu.edu.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
