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By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
Puppeteer Sparky Davis was ready to entertain her audience on Wednesday, July 24. The Needham Library’s Community Room was filled with excited children and parents, waiting to see three short puppet plays. This show focused on stories featuring outer space elements: “A Trip to the Moon,” “The Wind and the Sun,” and “A Mysterious Visitor from Outer Space.”
To start, Sparky asked for some volunteers to help her with some elements of the show. From the audience, Sparky picked Jack, Nora, Julie, Luca, and Jason. Then, she launched into the first portion of the show.
“Today, we’re going to take a make-believe adventure onto the moon,” she said. The story began with Snowball, a white cat, who wanted to go to the moon to get her mom the perfect present. Snowball then asked for all of the volunteers to come up and give her imaginary supplies for her journey, including mango salsa and some juice. She retrofitted an oatmeal box with aluminum and flied up, up, until she finally reached the moon - and she did her research to make sure she could make it. “I also consulted Wikipedia, though I know it’s not always accurate,” she said, earning some laughs from parents in the audience.
Once she reached the moon, Snowball met with the Man on the Moon, who began to ask her to make stuff for him. Just a few moments after their meeting, Snowball went to a local moon inn where she met the suspicious innkeeper. As Snowball continued to keep making things for the Man on the Moon, her supplies kept disappearing. “Did the innkeeper switch my stuff?” she asked, after realizing the stuff in her bag was not hers. After confronting the innkeeper, Snowball’s things were returned to her. Finally, she gave her mom her presents: a magical table cloth to make food, a magic box for income, and a magic wand for “fun.”
The last story, “Visitors from Outer Space,” featured Dr. Placebo, an MD and scientist who wished to contact some aliens with problems that need to be solved. When he did, the alien he met was not what he pictured, or even somebody he wanted staying in his house. “I come from the planet High Anxiiiiiieeetttyyyy,” said the alien. His problem was easily fixable; Dr. Placebo gave him a stress ball to use until he fell asleep. “I feel very calm. It is what it is,” said the alien. Then, a new alien came: a robot with circulosis. Once again, Dr. Placebo had an easy fix. With a press of a button on his back, the robot returned to normal.
The final visitor was the most troublesome. “I’m Tooko-tooko,” said the blue alien. This alien was determined to stay. In exchange for living at his house, Tooko-tooko was asked to help clean. However, Dr. Placebo told him never to touch the green noodle maker. Tooko-tooko couldn’t resist, took a peek, and tried to use it when the doctor wasn’t looking. The result was a giant mess of noodles. When Dr. Placebo discovered this, he made Tooko-tooko eat all of the noodles, making all the kids in the audience laugh.
The stories had Sparky’s audience laughing at the absurdity. Together, each of these wonderful tales made for an entertaining puppet show that brought its viewers out of this world.
