Beth Peterson Puppet designer for "The Night Fairy"

Flory (Emily Yetter) admires Hummingbird (Catherine Adell) and her babies in The Night Fairy.

Whether it’s a four-person operated raccoon, the brightest-of-blue hummingbird, or even a giant spider, Beth Peterson, puppet designer, has taken on the challenge of making these characters and others come to life in The Night Fairy, South Coast Repertory’s Theatre for Young Audiences show.

Peterson has been creating puppets, masks, pageants, and parades for almost 25 years. She takes great care for the specific functions and appearance for each puppet she creates. We sat down with her during a rehearsal break and asked her more about this amazing art form.

How did you first become involved with puppets and why do they appeal to you?
I made puppets as a child, but as an adult what brought me into puppetry is the ability of puppets to share stories—very challenging and very wonderful stories—in a way that people can connect with them. And maybe help people hear stories in a way that they wouldn’t normally through a conversation and or through just actors alone. I also love the colors and the forms and the personalities and the life that emerge from the process.

Flory (Emily Yetter) and Bat (Jonathan C.K. Williams).

What’s the process like to make puppets?
Really grasping whatever its role is in the story helps determine how a puppet needs to move, its size and scale, its personality and purpose. Those are all can that be reflected in the form that it takes. Part of what I do is listen and read the story and talk with the people involved with the play so that I understand the movement that’s required. Then I work to find a good form to fit that vision. For example, in The Night Fairy, the spider is in its web, and there are lots of strings, so it seemed to be a good match to make that role a marionette because of all the strings, webs and legs.

Working at SCR has been amazing! We had two workshops with actors and puppeteers and that really helped the design process because let me see what would work and what could even be a stronger way of sharing the characters’ stories.

What is the most challenging part of puppetry?
For this production the most challenging was that everything character to be really BIG, which is an unusual size for these animals. So I needed to keep in mind how to adjust the size and still give the puppeteers ability to operate the puppets.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Well, on days like today, I love being able to see these things that are objects and ideas start coming alive and emerging with the personalities of all of our puppeteers. The work of the director and sound and lights and all these people has come together to create something beyond what just one person could ever imagine.

Skuggle (Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper) and Flory (Emily Yetter).

What excited you the most about bringing these characters from The Night Fairy come to life?
I really like this story for many reasons. When Flory first meets every creature, they’re very odd and strange to her. But whether they’re scary or cute or beautiful, she grows from seeing a stranger to building a relationship. I feel like that’s a journey that every kid and every adult goes through; we all move through situations that feel strange and then find our way and find friends. This play is a wonderful way to share this journey through these incredible animals.

If you could be any puppet, describe what you would be and why!
I love all the puppets and really don’t think I can choose one! The puppets all have their own personalities and I end up spending so much time with them because it takes hundred of hours to build them with many people involved. I really appreciate everyone who has helped to bring the puppets to the stage.


I hope people come to see The Night Fairy and enjoy the story and the characters. ”Hopefully, a few people will say, “WOW! I can go home and make my own puppets!” That would make me very happy. All of the puppets you see are made out of very simple ingredients, everyday things that anyone can find. It just takes some imagination, engineering and creativity. Anyone can make a puppet!

Magical First Night at "The Fantasticks"

Carnival music greeted First Nighters as they stepped onto the “midway” for the final Cast Party of the season.

The curtain had fallen on The Fantasticks (to a standing ovation) and the onstage carnival had closed down.  Now it was re-opened on Ela’s Terrace—brighter and more colorful than ever, with red and white flags waving in the breeze, balloon centerpieces overflowing with taffy and whirly lollipops, hot dog and pop corn stands and, of course, a strolling magician.

Party-goers cheered* the cast and thanked the underwriters as they sipped cotton candy martinis and nibbled sliders, fries and mac & cheese bites provided by Anders Catering.  The jovial mood continued through the evening and into the next week as reviews appeared, echoing the audience praise:

“Astonishing!” –Los Angeles Times
“Ingenius!” –Orange County Register
“Magical!” –Huffington Post

*By the way, our Honorary Producers, Joan & Andy Fimiano and Bill & Carolyn Klein, were the first to cheer:

"Delightful, exciting or in a word...'Fantastic!'" – Joan and Andy
"Very creative, blending the SCR stage with original performance!" – Bill and Carolyn



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Technology Comes Alive in "Eternal Thou"

At the heart of Matthew McCray’s Eternal Thou is the notion that we can give “life” to something; more specifically, McCray uses the production to dig into how humans relate to technology—in essence, giving it life—and, in particular, how people relate to the Internet. McCray is the founding artistic director for the Son of Semele Ensemble and is directing Eternal Thou as part of the Studio SCR series, June 6-9. He recently talked about how he developed the work.

A vision of HAL from Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey comes to mind when I think about technology that’s “alive.” What’s at the core of Eternal Thou?
HAL is a great reference! Or "Johnny 5," from the movie Short Circuit, or even R2D2 from Star Wars. We've been giving robots life for a long time. The notion that man can bring something alive is at the heart of my play. The genesis for the Eternal Thoucame from my own interest in exploring my relationship with the Internet, and how technology has reframed our discussion about enlightenment. The Internet has woven its way so deeply into my daily life that it's difficult to imagine a day without it. In these little cables—originally phone lines—all over the world, our various interactions and relationships live. That was the original idea for the play: looking at the evolution of telecommunication over the decades.

What are some of the issues that you address in this work?
At a certain point in the creative process, it became clear to me that I needed to entirely redo the framework of the play and set it "inside" the Internet itself. The play originally took place in the world with people tapping into the web in a realistic way, just like how you and I access it. But I wondered what would happen if I flipped the reality on its head and put the play inside the Internet and had "beings" tapping into the outside world instead. So the concept is that technology is a living, breathing force and that, in a way, we are its puppets. The idea is that technology has taken the reins and we are now passengers on its journey, rather than the reverse.

What has been your creative process with this work? Eternal Thou began through devising workshops with friends and associates, but due to a lack of funding I was unable to pay people adequately to get them to dive in. S at a certain point, I took what we had developed collectively, which was essentially a few scenes, and I began to write the play. Almost none of what we had originally was used, but of course we had the beginnings of an idea that is somewhere deep in the play's identity. But things like the words and situations are all mine. During the two years of writing, I presented a few little scenes here and there in Los Angeles and I also held a few informal readings so that I could get feedback. Then in 2012, I produced the play independently.

How has this work evolved—from your original concept to what we’ll see at SCR?
There are two pieces of information that were essential for me to discover. I accidentally tripped upon them while writing Eternal Thou and they became central to the play. The first is the philosopher Martin Buber and his book I and Thou. The central conceit of I and Thou—and I'm really reducing here, so don't hate me if you are a fan of Buber!—is that God can be found only through relationships with beings and things here on Earth. Since the play is about connections in the modern age, Buber’s philosophy became an important part of the play's core. The second piece of information that was essential to the play was the concept of "The Singularity," which is about the future of technology's advancement and humanity's place once we become obsolete. These two ideas land very centrally in the play and impacted nearly all the rewriting over the past year.

What makes the cast you’ve assembled the perfect choices to bring your vision to life?
I love my cast! Almost all of them were referred to audition for me, so I had not worked with any of them prior to the world premiere in Los Angeles in 2012.  For Studio SCR, we have four of the original five actors returning. The newest actor to join the cast is equally as incredible! Look, with sci-fi, you must have fearless actors. And for Eternal Thou, I needed incredible performers. As playwright and director, I have to be able to say to someone, "Look, it's simple: move that desk over there to create a portal into the virtual world. Then tap into the system with your hand, hone in on the signal you are about to enter, and slowly step into the transmission, which should begin to alter your body and voice. As you are taken over by the corruption, your entire code has been rewritten and you've become a virtual-persona, while still aware of your original identity." It sounds crazy, but literally these are the kinds of conversations we have had when working on the play! Think of any sci-fi movie you've seen, and you know that the actors do insane things and the special effects make those things feel justified; but on the set, I'm sure it must have seemed over the top. The same is true here: the Eternal Thou actors are going above and beyond with their extremity of choices and the show's tech will justify those bold choices.

What do you want people to come away with having experienced it
I'd love for the audience to think about their own relationship to technology and specifically the Internet. Many people have never heard of 'net-neutrality' and the idea that this play is helping to get the word out about the importance of preserving network neutrality is very satisfying for me. In that way, the play becomes somewhat political. But, more often, the play is a media-saturated thrill-ride. One audience member wrote me something interesting after seeing Eternal Thou, saying it’s a "fever dream about communications/relationships in the Internet age and it is honest-to-god one of the most thrilling theater experiences I've had as an audience member." That’s one person’s experience and I really enjoy hearing from people after they see the show. I'm very excited to hear what the SCR audiences take away from the play!

Learn More/Buy Tickets

Flory, the Fearless Night Fairy

by Kelly L. Miller

About the Author

Laura Amy Schlitz (book author, The Night Fairy) has spent most of her life as a librarian and professional storyteller. She has written several books and won the 2008 Newbery Medal for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village.  She lives in Baltimore, where she is currently a librarian at the Park School.

Author Laura Amy Schlitz

Schlitz has also worked as a playwright, a costumer, and an actress. She has written several plays for young people that have been performed at professional theaters all over the country including Stage One (Louisville, Ky.), Pumpkin Theatre (Baltimore, Md.) and Children's Theatre Association (Baltimore, Md.).

Author Laura Amy Schlitz, on her interest in fairies:
“I have always had a soft spot in my heart for fairy stories. When I was a child, I stared at pictures of fairies with rapture and fascination. I could imagine my way into these pictures, making myself small. I know that there are children who can still do this, because I work in a school library and little girls come to me every week, asking, ‘Do you have a book about a fairy?’ They don’t want a fairy tale; they want a story with a fairy as the main character. They want to gaze at fairy pictures and think themselves small, alive in a dewy jungle of flowers.”


Learn more about the book, The Night Fairy and its author.

Have you ever met a fairy without wings? Or one who could not fly?  Flory is a young night fairy, who loses her beautiful, gossamer wings one night after an encounter with a ferocious bat.  Dropped into a strange land—a garden, tended by a mysterious human “giant”—Flory must learn quickly how to survive and fend for herself. 

Flory is tiny, but she’s fierce.  And she sets out to collect food and enlist animals in the garden to help her. Determined to live as a day fairy, Flory makes a wren’s house her home—then strikes a deal with Skuggle, an irascible squirrel who’s always hungry.  She promises him food in return for rides across the garden—to help her befriend a beautiful, mysterious hummingbird.

All the while, Flory practices her magic.  Night fairies are born with the seeds of magic spells in their minds.  Spells that come to them when they need them most—“stinging” spells to fight off danger and “seeing” spells to find things.

But Flory will need more than magic to defeat the vicious predators who threaten to harm her.  She’ll need compassion, kindness and the help of her newfound friends if she ever hopes to fly again.

Playwright John Glore adapted The Night Fairy for the stage from Newbery Medal-winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s beloved book of the same title.  Director Oanh Nguyen is employing an exciting mix of puppetry, projections and sound design to create the giant world of Flory’s garden and animal friends on stage.

Nguyen has assembled a wonderful cast of actors/puppeteers for The Night Fairy including Catherine Adell, Sol Castillo, Moira MacDonald, Nicholas Mangiardo-Cooper, Jonathan C. K. Williams and Emily Yetter.  His stellar design team includes Sara Ryung Clement, sets and costumes; Matt Schleicher, lights and projection design; Dave Mickey, sound and projection design; Beth Peterson, puppet design.

We hope you’ll join us at South Coast Repertory to meet Flory—a fierce and fearless fairy, unlike any you’ve seen before.  Who knows?  You might learn a magic spell or two.

Set design for "The Garden" by Sara Ryung Clement

The Magic of The Night Fairy

An Interview with the Playwright

Playwright John Glore’s adaptation of The Night Fairy is a fun, magical, theatrical story for kids and adults, alike. With rehearsals underway, we asked him a few questions about Flory, the fairy, and his favorite magic—both onstage and off.

What was it about The Night Fairy—and Flory—that inspired you to adapt it for the stage?  What grabbed you and wouldn’t let go?

Two things about this story made me want to adapt it for the stage.  My imagination went wild thinking about what the world would look like to a tiny fairy.  Everything would be huge—the plants, the animals, the lady in the house.  I started thinking about how we might create those giant animals using various kinds of puppets, and that was an exciting idea.  But also, I love that the story centers on a small, lonely, vulnerable girl (Flory, the fairy) who finds the courage and the intelligence to survive against terrible odds.  And she learns some things about friendship along the way.

Magic spells come to Flory as she grows older—a stinging spell, a seeing spell.  If you could have one magic spell, what would it be?

I think I’d like to have a magic spell that would make time slow down, or even stop.  I never seem to have enough time to do everything I want to do and to spend with the people I want to be with.

Raccoon puppet

There are so many exciting bits of theatrical stage magic we’re using to create the world of The Night Fairy—puppets, projection, and sound.  What’s your favorite, so far?

I’m excited about all of it, but especially the spider and the raccoon puppets.  The spider is big and a little scary-looking, but it’s also beautiful.  And the raccoon’s head is as big as the front end of a Volkswagen.  It takes four people to work the raccoon puppet, because he’s so big.

What is it about writing plays for children that brings you the most joy?

I love writing plays for kids because I like remembering what used to entertain me when I was a child.  The secret about adults is that most of us are still kids inside, and we still like a lot of the things we liked when we were children.  So when I’m writing a play for young audiences, as long as I entertain and amuse and thrill the kid inside me, I can be confident I’ll do a good job entertaining the kids in the audience (and the grown-ups who remember what it’s like to be a kid).  Also, kids make for a very honest audience—they let you know right away if they’re bored, by getting restless, fidgeting in their seats, even making little noises, and you know they’re NOT bored if they’re sitting still, on the edge of their seats, listening to every word and eagerly waiting to see what will happen next.  And there’s nothing better than hearing kids laugh at something funny.

John Glore has also adapted The Stinky Cheese Man and A Wrinkle in Time for SCR’s Theatre for Young Audience series. When he’s not writing plays, Glore is working as SCR’s associate artistic director.

"Alice vs. Wonderland" Rocks!

Assistant Director/Music Director Brianna Beach, a longtime member of the Players ensemble,
has appeared in almost every show, and in A Christmas Carol (twice!)

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SCR’s Teen Players will present Alice vs. Wonderland, directed by Hisa Takakuwa with music direction by Brianna Beach, in the Nicholas Studio over the next two weekends.

And Lewis Carroll would drop his monocle if he chanced to pop in during the run.  Not only is the story updated by Brendan Shea in what he calls a “re-mix,” with seven-year-old Victorian Alice now a teenager in a psychodelic world, it’s filled with culture that’s pop and music that’s rock—right off the charts.

Chosen by Hisa and Brianna, the play list will blow you away—and so will the show, in which Alice goes through six stages of adolescence, comes of age and learns who she really is.  It’s a compelling story of teenage angst, performed with vitality and verve.  Check it out.