La Follette Park · Chicago, IL
This immersive and interactive experience will uplift nature’s hidden gems through puppetry, music, visual art and performance. Participants will explore our stations throughout the park that highlight and observe the world around us. As folks explore the interactive stations, live music will emanate through the park, with songs where themes are suggested by the participants for example around their favorite tree, park, animal, flower, plant, bug, etc. Each station will invite the park-goer to notice the small things around them and uplift the connection between nature and humans. The stations could include: slow as a snail's race, squirmy as a worm station, flock like a goose (follow the leader with a goose puppet), creating bookmarks with plants and press on paper, storytelling with an animal puppet (hear a tale for a local animal), scavenger hunt for the hidden gem and become a creature at the face painting station. Our artists are performers and facilitators of many art forms, engaging the participants in art making and community connection. Each artist will embody a magical woodland creature or animal that celebrates nature’s whimsy and invites the park goers to explore beyond the human world. https://opera-matic.org/
