Sesame Street Live goes green in show

February 6, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

“elmo’s green thumb”

Considering recycling and environmentalism are the buzzwords of the new millennium, the Sesame Street Live gang is thinking conservation with its latest production “Elmo’s Green Thumb” coming to Youngstown on Tuesday and Wednesday at Powers Auditorium.

“It’s kind of a ‘Sesame Street’ take on teaching kids about the environment and learning how to help protect it,” said former Tour Performance Director Amanda Sutliff, calling from Wooster, Mass. “Our economy is going green and saving the Earth, so that’s what we’re trying to teach the kids in a different way – conserving water, cleaning up trash, learning about nature. And it’s all to help Elmo’s new friend Sunny the Sunflower grow. Elmo and his friends have decided he’s getting too big for his pot, so they have to find him a new place to live. So they want to plant him in the garden and they need to find the perfect spot with soil, sun and water.”

For 30 years, Sesame Street Live has been bringing preschoolers’ favorite characters such as Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Zoe, Telly, Oscar and more around the nation with its educational-entertainment fun. For Sutliff, a Philadelphia-area native, her job is basically quality control of the touring production. That means every time the show is staged, she’s in the audience watching to ensure continuity from one city to the next. Perhaps the real question is how does she keep her sanity?

“I have been working with Sesame Street Live for about seven years, so I just think it’s kind of in my brain and I’m used to it,” Sutliff said. “Also, I enjoy it because it’s for the kids. Although there has been a lot of hustle and bustle with traveling, once you see the kids’ faces and how excited they are that they’re seeing these characters they watch on TV in the morning, it’s just really exciting and rewarding.

“But, yes, I do watch every single show. I was there from the beginning of the show and I’m there to make sure the show looks exactly the same when it started a year and a half ago. That nothing changes, that the characters are in their right spots at the right time, that the lighting cues are going at the right time, that the set pieces are moving when they’re supposed to be moving and things like that.”

Having so many shows under her belt, Sutliff says she’s seen it all, including scary moments where cast members fall off the stage. Among the funny things that Sutliff has witnessed is how the cast repeatedly targets unsuspecting and often uninterested dads in the audience for crowd participation.

“A lot of the characters like to involve the audience, and sometimes they’ll pull up a dad who may not seem to be into the show,” Sutliff said. “A lot of times they’ll pick the one that’s on the cell phone, someone who during football season is checking the score. At least they’re there and not sitting at home, but still it’s like you brought your kids to enjoy the show and if they see you not enjoying it, it’s kind of hard for them to enjoy it.

“So when dads are pulled up to dance, they kind of have to go, put a smile on, suck it up and have fun. And then the kid sees this and says, ‘Oh my gosh, my dad got to dance with so-and-so.’ In the end, it’s more exciting for the kids, too.”