Friday Funday has been delighting young theatre-goers for more than 40 years! The shows are often a first theatre experience for 4- to 6-year-olds, with audiences filled with kids and their parents or grandparents, daycare classes, and kindergarten classes.
The February show is a perennial – and often sold-out – favorite: The Mitten. In this
familiar tale, a young child drops their white mitten in the snow and doesn’t realize it’s missing. (Grandma said this would happen if she knitted her child white mittens.) As woodland creatures seek warmth inside the mitten, it magically grows and grows.
Friday Funday at the Des Moines Playhouse shows are:
1. 40 minutes in length
2. Staging of a familiar story or fairy tale,
3. Feature some audience participation,
4. Performed by three actors who use their imaginations to tell the story using
costume pieces and props they find in their Magic Trunk, and
5. Hosted by the program’s mascot, the puppet Edgar Allan Crow.
Kids and adults earn the secret handshake at the start of the show. They are
taught the ASL sign for the word of the day and asked to sign it along with the actors
whenever they hear it during the show.
The Adventure Clubhouse set with its hidden entrances adds to the fun. And, since this is a beginning theatre experience, the lights in the house never go entirely to black.
At the end of the show, actors greet the kids and give each an activity sheet and a Friday
Funday sticker.
Titles in the 2022-23 season include:
The Mitten (Feb. 10)
The Three Little Pigs (Mar. 31)
Snow White (May 12)
Tickets are $6 per person all ages.
Friday Funday Presents The Mitten
10:00 & 1:30 PM, Friday, Feb. 10
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