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Fable Factory visits Dobbins Elementary
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse taught that there is no place like home. The country mouse, JoAnne Santagata (left) championed the wonderful qualities of the country during the tale, as the city mouse, Grace Voulis (right), missed the hustle and bustle of the city.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The tale of the North Wind and Sun taught that gentle persuasion is better than brute force. In a challenge to get a bundled up person to take off her coat, the North Wind, Terry Shears (right) blew powerful winds that only made the person bundle up tighter. The Sun, Grace Voulis (left) warmed the person with her rays and the coat soon came off.
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The Fable Factory brought the famous tale of the tortoise and the hare to Dobbins on Dec. 21. During the fable, the hare Grace Voulis (left) told the tortoise, Terry Shears (right) to speed up his pace. The tortoise said, of course, that slow and steady wins the race.
By SARAH FOOR
The familiar characters of Aesop’s Fables, including the country mouse and city mouse and the speedy hare and steady tortoise, made an appearance at Dobbins on Dec. 21 thanks to Move Over Broadway’s Fable Factory.
Three actors worked to bring eight of the famous fables to life, but first gave some background on the classic form of storytelling.
“It’s very simple — fables are a fictional story and they usually have animals or objects coming to life to teach a lesson. They show how we learn from life experiences,” explained actress Grace Voulis during the show.
With quick costume changes and wacky humor, Voulis, Terry Shears and JoAnne Santagata told Aesop’s tales of the fox and the grapes, the astronomer, the crow and the pigeon, the crow and the fox and the north wind and the sun, among others. Each performance was followed by an explanation of the moral of the tale.
For example, the story of the dog and his reflection showed a dog who had just stolen a bit of meat. Coming to a river, he sees his reflection and wants the food in his reflection as well as his own.
After the dog ends up dropping his treat in the water, Shears explained the lesson.
“Don’t give up what is real for something that is not,” he said.
After seeing the Dobbins students enjoy the production, the group told the kids to explore Aesop further, citing his 656 known tales.
Director Marlene Manaldi Strollo said sharing fables with kids offers Move Over Broadway unique opportunities.
“Our actors grow by working on the fun sound affects and visual style that is great for kids. But mostly, we really enjoy imparting those important moral lessons that Aesop was so great at illustrating,” she said.