In honor of 2023’s Summer Reading theme, “All Together Now,” Piccadilly is putting the spotlight on two of our shows that bring together stories and folklore from all over the world: Wish Tales and Cat and Mouse! These shows each feature multiple tenets of ELAGSE and are the perfect way to get kids excited about stories, reading, and working together!
Thank you, Fayette County Library for hosting!
Today we are connecting with libraries and educators at the Fayette County Public Library Performer’s Showcase. Make sure to keep Piccadilly Puppets in mind for all your summer entertainment and education needs!
Can the power of wishing unite folklore on a global scale? Will cats and mice ever learn to work together? Find out when you book these delightful shows today!
We’ve had a busy couple months at Piccadilly! In October, we moved into a new storage unit. We’ve been taking inventory and sorting decades’ worth of puppets and supplies, streamlining our roster and beginning the process of updating our existing shows as we round out the year.
We’re in the midst of preparing a full show update of Butterfly Ballad, our show with a bilingual option. If you want to support this effort, and Piccadilly Puppets, consider making a Giving Tuesday contribution here! All donations are tax deductible and will go directly to making puppetry accessible and affordable to children across Atlanta and the Southeast.
ATLANTA, GA September 19, 2022 – Atlanta’s touring puppetry company, Piccadilly Puppets, has selected a brand-new Artistic and Managing Director. In support of the company’s mission to provide puppetry experiences of high artistic quality to young audiences, The Piccadilly Puppets Company (PPC) is excited to move forward with new leadership.
Incoming Artistic and Managing Director Rachel Frawley is an Atlanta based actor, writer and producer. She holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Michigan State University and is an apprentice company graduate of the Atlanta Shakespeare Co. In addition to acting, she has narrated over 30 audiobook titles, and was a producer for the Weird Sisters Theatre Project for their 2017 and 2018 seasons. She has taught and directed acting camps, classes and master classes for theatres and studios across Atlanta. Rachel has worked and continues to train as an intimacy professional, and is enrolled in courses with the Association of Mental Health Coordinators. Currently she is writing, directing and producing a new children’s puppet musical for Synchronicity Theatre’s Stripped Bare series.
Veteran puppeteer Nancy Riggs has led the company for the past eleven years. She has endeavored to continue and grow PPC’s commitment to making puppetry accessible, interactive and affordable to underserved communities. At her recent decision to step back from the role of Director, she led the search for her successor. “Piccadilly Puppets has been a wonderful part of my life for 25 years, and I hope to continue to be involved as a puppeteer and advisor for the near future” says Ms. Riggs. “However, I am ready to hand off leadership of the company to someone with new energy and vision. Rachel has just the combination of artistic and administrative skills needed, along with a love of children and puppets! I am excited to see how she moves the company forward.”
Rachel Frawley is thrilled to take on this opportunity, and is committed to honoring and expanding PPC’s stellar work entertaining and educating young audiences.
Piccadilly Puppets is a 501(c)3 non-profit touring puppetry company. Since its inception in 1970, Piccadilly Puppets has produced and performed puppet plays for schools, theaters, festivals and a variety of community organizations in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast. Incorporated in 1976, the nonprofit organization has been awarded a Citation for Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from Union Internationale de la Marionnette, the oldest international theatre organization in the world.
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For more information, contact Nancy Riggs, (404) 636-0022, piccadillypuppets@gmail.com
Thank you to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners for funding us through the Fulton County Arts Council! Piccadilly Puppets is headquartered in Fulton County and offers many shows and workshops to county residents. This funding allows us to offer our services at affordable prices.
The Contracts for Services (CFS) provides unrestricted general operating and project support to nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, arts & culture organizations, cultural institutions, colleges and universities, as well as units of government that produce or present ongoing arts programming open to the public. CFS contractors present programs that reflect the cultural diversity of the County, captures the imagination of adults, families and youth, invigorate neighborhood growth, support economic development and provides jobs.This year the Board of Commissioners approved $2.3 million dollars in funding for 190 recipients comprised of individual artists, arts organizations, non-profits, schools, colleges and universities, and municipalities. Awards range between $1,000 and $42,000..The awards represent funding recommended for the Annual Funding opportunity for operating and project support that closed in late January 2022 as well as the Second Round Funding opportunities including the project support, partnership and planning categories that closed at the end of May 2022.CFS award recipients are reviewed and awarded using the following evaluation criteria; artistic merit, service to the community and field, organizational effectiveness, and accessibility. Contractors are selected after a thorough evaluation by an advisory panel of professionals representing all artistic categories. The recipients that were awarded funding are projected to serve more than five million people in Fulton County. Community-based arts organizations throughout Fulton County are encouraged to apply annually for participation in the CFS Program through the Fulton County Department of Arts & Culture. Applications are reviewed by staff, the Fulton County Arts Council, and the Allocations Committee, which provides additional accountability to support the Fulton County strategic goal that “AII People’s Lives Are Culturally and Recreationally Enriched” prior to submission to the Board of Commissioners.The Fulton County Department of Arts & Culture (FCAC) will announce the 2023 Contracts for Services Program (CFS) funding opportunity in Fall 2023.
LeeAnna performing A Shore Thing at the Fayetteville Public Library
We have been so busy this summer that we have neglected to post a lot of our library and park shows, but there are still chances to come see us for free!
In Alabama: Wednesday, July 20 at 10:00 am CST A Shore Thing B. B. Comer Memorial Library 314 N. Broadway Ave., Sylacauga, AL
Sandy Springs: Saturday, July 23 at 3:00 pm A Shore Thing Sandy Springs Library 395 Mount Vernon Hwy NE Sandy Springs, GA
DeKalb County: Wednesday, July 27 at 11:00 am A Shore Thing and a puppet-making workshop N. H. Scott Recreation Center 2230 Tilson Rd. Decatur, GA
Madison, GA: Friday, July 29 at 6:30 pm (2 shows between 6:30 and 8:30) Cat and Mouse Tales Firefly Festival in Town Park, Madison, GA
DeKalb County: Saturday, August 6 at 11:00 TBD show and workshop in another Dekalb park – watch our social media!
Thanks once again to the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs for supporting us through the Municipal Support for the Arts Program. This support helps us reach more children in the city by keeping our prices low and sometimes providing free programs for children experiencing homelessness (for example). They are also responsible for much of the new public art we’ve been seeing in the past few years!
Read on for more information about this wonderful program.
Municipal Support for the Arts
The Municipal Support for the Arts program is the City of Atlanta’s means of granting public funding to the arts. MSA awards contracts related to the production, creation, presentation, exhibition and management of artistic and cultural services in the city of Atlanta. The program recognizes that the presence of artists and non-profit organizations involved in the arts are critical to Atlanta’s cultural vitality. The arts enrich the creative development of the city’s diverse populations and contribute positively to the social and economic well being of Atlanta and the region. The goals of the MSA program are:
To provide support for the existence and excellence of artists and arts organizations in Atlanta.
To assist in the artistic development of the arts in Atlanta so that all citizens may participate in the diverse cultural life of the city.
To develop the contributions of Atlanta’s culturally diverse communities.
To ensure that the arts have broad geographic distribution and reach all segments of the population.
To support a broad range of educational activities in the arts.
To preserve the city’s artistic, cultural and historic heritage.
To enhance neighborhood vitality and economic development through the arts.
Piccadilly Puppets is very grateful to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners for their support in 2021, through the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council!
Like the FCAC, we believe the arts are essential to the quality of life of our citizens and to the economic and social health of our communities – even (or especially) during a pandemic. The mission of the Fulton County Department of Arts and Culture is to insure all citizens’ access to the arts. By supporting us financially, they are helping us bring our educational entertainment to every district of the county. Support from the county helps us to pay our puppeteers, other artists and staff, as well as the costs of traveling from one end of the county to the other, while still keeping our prices low. Funds from the county also subsidize a few shows for other non-profits, so that we can perform for children with disabilities or those experiencing homelessness, for example. Some funds were also used for puppets and props for our new version of Cherokee Tales.
For more information on Fulton County Arts and Culture, including many virtual events, exhibits, classes, please visit their website: http://www.fultonarts.org/
Sequoyah teaches students about Cherokee culture and history, including his famous syllabary. With the help of puppets and audience volunteers, the puppeteer/storyteller recounts Cherokee myths about the creation of Cherokee land and how the brave Spider brought fire to the animals. Then the students learn about the Trail of Tears and more. Optional section about the seven clans. This new version was written by playwright Kara Morrison, an enrolled member of the Waccamaw Siouan tribe and a descendant of the Cherokee Nation.
CHEROKEE TALES– preK-4th grade, 30-45 minutes. Hand and Rod puppets.
2021 was still challenging due to the ups and downs of the pandemic, but there were highlights! (see below)
Preparing for our Fabulous 50th Zoomiversary party!Butterfly Ballad at Thomas Learning Academy on Dress-up DayPaper puppet-making workshop in Jess Lucas Park in AprilSequoyah, the host of our new version of Cherokee TalesCherokee Tales depicts the Trail of TearsPiccadilly Puppets returns to the Aurora Children’s Playhouse in DecemberFounders Julie Thomas and Ken Daniel with the original puppet stage, 1970
Bookings for shows began to pick up a bit. We still did some virtually while increasing the number of indoor and outdoor shows we were able to do in-person. We were able to start doing workshops again.
We celebrated an amazing 50 years of Piccadilly Puppets with our Fabulous 50th Zoomiversary party! Our founder, Ken Daniel, recorded a video of how he got started in puppetry. Nancy put together a Keynote presentation of photos through the decades. Other puppeteers, board members & friends attended and some sent videos or told stories. (We had originally scheduled a party for October 2020 but postponed and went virtual).
Birthday parties came back stronger. It seems that many families wanted at home parties, so we did even more birthday shows and workshops than usual.
We were finally able to perform our revamped version of Cherokee Tales, adapted by Kara Morrison with many new puppets and props by Stephanie Kaskel Bogle. So nice to have kids up on stage with us again. We are looking forward to many more shows of this in the future!
We were also able to perform all three of our Christmas shows this year – again, indoors, outdoors & virtually!
COVID-19 isn’t gone, but neither is Piccadilly Puppets! Hope to see you in 2022!
The Piccadilly Puppets Company 