ASHLAND – A team of colorful puppets and two creative actors/puppeteers entertained a group of youngsters and their parents Thursday afternoon during a Corner Park performance of “Monsters of Baseball” by Madcap Puppets.
Madcap Puppets is a Cincinnati-based non-profit puppet company that is nationally recognized for engaging and original children’s theatre productions. Thursday’s performance in downtown Ashland was sponsored by the Ashland Public Library.
As the audience sought shade under the Corner Park trees, actors/puppeteers Jordan Gregory and Daniel Annone brought to life the story of Bartley, who worked to rid his mother’s baseball stadium of the monsters who she loathes.
“Monsters of Baseball” combined elements of “Casey At the Bat,” the famous “Who’s On First” comedy routine, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and other familiar elements that made the audience feel like they were really attending a baseball game, complete with shouts of “Charge!”
Gregory and Annone are both recent college graduates who just started working with puppets this summer through Madcap Puppets. Annone said they only had seven rehearsal days before taking the show on the road in June, but they consider each performance like a rehearsal as it gives them the chance to get better and learn.
“It’s been a great learning experience and a lot of fun,” Gregory said. “If you guys ever get the chance to work with puppets, do it.”
Gregory said the duo have done nearly 80 shows this summer, traveling across the country, and the Ashland show was one of their final shows, with just three remaining.
One of the crowd favorite puppets was “Ma,” Bartley’s mother. “Ma” is a humanette puppet, a small-bodied puppet that uses the actor’s head.
“They’re really fun to play with,” said Annone, who portrayed “Ma.”
All the puppets were made by Madcap Puppets. Gregory explained that the puppet’s bodies are made out of sew foam, and the heads are made out of cardboard and duct tape.
“All things you have around the house. So you could make your own puppets,” Gregory said.
‘Once we sew the head and the body together, then we put on clothes, fur, claws, and they’re the puppets you see today,” Gregory said.
