Just finishing a 12th Year on Tour! Now on CD!
There’s a giant manatee, a wisecracking seagull, a huge
Sand Tiger Shark and more in Rainbow’s most successful show ever.
"The Amazing Adventures of Chessie the Manatee" is a
fast-paced program featuring songs, dance and delightful effects. It’s all
presented in bunraku, a Japanese-style of puppetry where puppeteers are
completely visible while manipulating large puppets — some almost five feet in
length!
The show represents a unique
collaboration between Rainbow Productions, the Virginia Aquarium and Young
Audiences of Virginia. The aquarium
is one of the top ten attended marine science and aquarium facilities in the
country. For 50 years, Young Audiences of Virginia has been educating children
in the state through the performing arts.
"The show is a true blend of art
and science. Its multidisciplinary aspect crosses all curriculums and many grade
levels," says Lynn Clements, the aquarium's director.. "Children can
learn about the Bay animals and their habitats, as well as an important
conservation message."
It’s based on the true story of
Chessie, the Florida manatee who wandered into the Chesapeake Bay. In this
story, he meets Seemore D. Bay, a seagull who leads Chessie on a tour. The play
features over forty puppets including a bottle nose dolphin, a loggerhead
turtle, star fish, a school of Lookdown fish, sea horses, moon jellies, blue
crabs and more.
The show was written by Rainbow Puppet
Productions founder David Messick. The
musical score features ten new songs including Crabis the Blue Crab’s
"I’m So Blue" and "There are Two Moons Out Tonight" which
is performed by moon jelly puppets which glow in the dark.
Speaking
of the songs, the stage voices were created by many Rainbow veterans.
Tim Tharrington sings “I’m So Blue.”
He was Hansel in Rainbow’s 1980 tour of “Hansel and Gretel” as well
as a principal countless other Rainbow shows.
Other
voices include wife and husband team Chris and Don Bartlett , Kenny D’Auria,
and the late Frank Mailander as Percy the Brown Pelican.
According to Messick, “Frank was the first actor I recall seeing in a
live theater production. I was maybe seven or eight at the time and he was hilarious.
I was thrilled to later get to work with him on many of our
productions… he’s considered
something of a local comic legend so through pre-recording his work, it’s
great to hear him onstage again in a really funny role.”
Show
creator David Messick is the voice of Seemore the Seagull.
His other credits include producing voices and characters for Chuck E.
Cheese. He has worked on
development projects for the Disney Channel, FOX TV, and Paramount Pictures.
He has also worked with such legendary performers as Mickey Rooney, Carol
Channing, and at the New Orleans World’s Fair with the late Jim Henson.
Additional
puppets are by Chris Frank, Cambrai Hayes, and the late Helen Spaetzel.
“This show was one of those rare times
when everything works together to create a magical experience,” says Messick.
“While in Tampa, Florida, I found the Tarpon Springs Puppet Arts Center
and a beautiful set of life-sized sea creature puppets created by master
puppet-maker Frank Lakus. My mind immediately imagined the show I might create if I had
puppets like that. When I returned
home to Virginia, I mentioned the puppets to the staff of Young Audiences.
At the time, they were hoping to create a program for `the Virginia
Aquarium. A meeting was set and
within a few weeks, I was writing the show.
“Since that time, it has become our
most performed show… being seen by literally hundreds of thousands of children
across the country. But the story
doesn’t end there… in one of the songs, Seemore the Seagull sings of putting
on a musical show, ‘like Mickey Rooney.’
Well, while I was in Toronto, Canada a few years later, I met Mickey
Rooney in person and gave him a cassette of the program and told him how much we
loved his work. Soon after that, we
convinced him to star as the Master Toymaker in our production of
‘Toyland.’” Most recently we performed the program at the
Smithsonian. See us above right with Senator Patrick Leahy who joined us
onstage after the show.
"Chessie" has been performed for:
