Leonardo! A Wonderfully Scary Good Time At Children’s Theatre Company

MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) -- A beloved children's book will come to life next year in the form of a puppet show. The Children's Theatre Company (CTC) will perform "Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster."

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Sarah Fornace is the director and co-adaptor and says she was approached by author Mo Willems and the Kennedy Center about doing the adaptation in 2019:

"And so we were absolutely thrilled and we read the first book and then once we read it we said actually could we adapt the sequel as well which is "Sam The Most Scaredy-cat Kid in the Whole World" because we loved not just Sam and Leonardo but also Kerry and Frankenstaller the two characters who get introduced in the second book."

She says they incorporated both books into one big show with Leonardo:

"It's kind of like a nesting doll, so we start with Leonardo, which is the name of the show, and then after we meet Leonardo we meet Sam and get his story and after we meet Sam we meet Kerry and Frankenstaller in the back half of the show so by the end of the show there's two scaredy cats and two monsters."

She says the play uses hundreds of puppets to bring the characters to life and the audience gets to see behind the scenes as well during the performance.

Fornace says with so many puppets things can be a bit hectic both on stage and behind the scenes:

"So the whole cast starts the show on stage and ends the show together and it really is like being on a NASCAR team. We're like all running a race together because everybody is doing something the whole time to make the show come to life in front of the audiences eyes."

She says they want the puppet show to feel special and inspire kids to make their own puppet shows and movies. "Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster" is running from January 8th to March 9th on the Cargill Stage at CTC.

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