Tears by the River, Krystal Puppeteers (Kenya/Ghana)
All ages
40 minutes
Thursday, Sept 15, 9am and 11am, Latchis Theatre
Sunday, Sept. 18, 5pm, Bandwagon Series

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As a festival special event, Kenya’s Krystal Puppeteers will do one performance of their show Tears by the River as part of Next Stage Arts Bandwagon series. Krystal performers, Fedelis Kyalo and Chrispin Mwakideu will enliven the outdoor stage with their music, dance, storytelling, and unique puppetry. This performance is for audiences of ALL AGES. In keeping with the Bandwagon ticket policy, children under 12 are free and Adults pay $18. Don’t miss this joyful performance!

Tears by the River is a musical folktale about courage in relation to the modern-day themes of migration.

Traditional theater in Kenya is distinguishable by its masks, drums, chants and narratives. The Giriama people of the east coast of Kenya often perform with gigantic wooden figures. Turkanas, Maasai and Kamba tribes use fertility clay and wooden dolls called ikideet or gnide dressed in leather and decorated with coloured glass beads and costume jewelry. All of these elements can be found in Tears by the River, a contemporary puppet theater show that unfolds through images, sound and movement. Celebrating the oral traditions of Africa, these kinds of traditional stories are meant to prepare young people for life, and so, each story teaches a lesson or a moral.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION:
Krystal Puppeteers is a dynamic, innovative and creative theater company that uses puppetry, participatory educational theater in life skills promotion, community education and cultural communication to engage people in interactive discourse. It was founded by a team of puppet theater practitioners for the purpose of harnessing puppetry and folk media theater experiences for socio-economic and environmental change. Krystal Puppeteers helped to establish puppetry as an artistic and cultural medium in Eastern Africa.

Krystal Puppeteers was founded 1995 by Fedelis Kyalo and Chrispin Mwakideu, as a theater company that exists to contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods of the youth and the larger community through promoting, performing and addressing issues like HIV/Aids, Gender based violence, Girl child education, Conservation and Corruption. The Members through Kenya Institute of Puppet theater have created projects for community involvement, awareness, growth and development. One of the member of Krystal Puppeteers- Fedelis Kyalo is also the Head Puppeteer for Kenya’s favorite political satire The XYZ show.

CREDITS:
Performed and created by Fedelis Kyalo and Chrispin Mwakideu