School Performance: Imago Theatre: La Belle, Lost in the World of Automaton (KCYS)
This performance is part of the Krannert Center Youth Series, school-day performances for public, private, and home schools, grades PreK-12.
Imago founders Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad are physical comedians, theatrical animators, modern-day magicians, and adventurous alchemists. For over 35 years, their Portland-based theatre company has been creating a vast repertoire of boundary-blurring productions that defy categorization. Their newest incarnation, La Belle, is set aboard a 1920s steamship where the refined Lady Rose encounters the ship’s coal stoker, Sam, after taking refuge in the engine room during a storm. Rose discovers a curious collection of trunks and treasures and soon realizes that Sam has constructed the 1740 French fairy tale La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) in the world of the automata (fanciful figurines brought to life by the ingenuity of clockwork mechanics). As they retell the story together, love blossoms in the midst of a whimsical, non-stop, gear-driven, kinetic world featuring over 100 astonishingly detailed automata, puppets, and non-digital dazzling effects.
Connects to Illinois Learning Standards in Fine Arts, Social/Emotional Learning, English Language Arts, Social Sciences, and Science.
Recommended for grades 3-8
Performance length: 75 minutes
