The Object: To reach out to children in our Community
This energetic program was developed by
The Storytelling and guided by Guild President, Verdell Coleman and Children's Librarian, Myra Getchell.
In 1969 in endeavors by the Storytelling Guild to "bring stories and reading readiness to children" we began an Ed by and highly effective storytime project. At that time there were no kindergarten classes in our public schools and we were aware of the need to develop a literacy campaign for pre-school aged children.
This is how we proceeded:
We sectioned off the City of Medford, Oregon into 16 neighborhood locations for storytimes to "happen" each Monday Morning for a period of eight weeks April and May, 1969. Eight storytellers were selected each week.
The storytime locations were negotiated with homeowners in each of those neighborhoods. The host neighbor would hang a STORYMOBILE BANNER in the trees . Children would gather on the lawn in anticipation of the arrival of the storylady. The storylady would drive up the street in her own car, ringing a bell, stop at the appointed place, hop out with her picturebooks, flannelboards, puppets, etc. She presented a 20 to 30 minute program. The storylady also brought along quality paperback picturebooks to loan to the children until she came back the following week with more stories and more books. These picturebooks were purchased by the Storytelling Guild and were just like the hard back copies that could be borrowed from the public library. These books were loaned on an honor system and most were returned.
The Storytelling Guild members continued this Storymobile program until the public schools began including Kindergarten in their curriculum in about 1973. When that happened, we saw a great drop off of attendance in our neighborhood Storymobile stops. A survey was conducted that told us that younger children were not being sent up the street to the neighbor's yard for storytimes but rather kept at home. Disappointed but undaunted members of the Guild determined to reach the younger children in another way by creating a traveling wagon theater that would attract parents with younger children to a story program.
In 1974, with the aid of grant funding in the amount of $5000. from Boise Cascade, a traveling wagon theater which we named "The Pied Piper Theater" was designed by Pat Blair and constructed by the Mann Corporation.
The Pied Piper Theater was constructed much like a travel trailer but had unique features. The wheels were set back further in order to accommodate a fold-down stage door. This fold down became a stage platform which allowed performances to be presented from the stage. The platform was raised and lowered using crank-wenches. Stage drapes and lighting were installed as well as backdrops and spotlights. The public address system operated on both AC and DC power. The open stage area could be converted to a large puppet stage.
We drafted an acting troupe of "Pied Piper Players" from the membership of the Medford Storytelling Guild to present stories adapted from children's folktales such as, Who's In Rabbit's House, The Gunniwulf, The Bremen Town Musicians, Snow White and Rose Red, etc . Actors in this troupe also performed puppet plays.
The Pied Piper Theater appeared every summer at THE CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL where thousands of children were introduced to puppet plays and stage performances for the first time.
Not only did the troupe perform at The Children's Festival, the wagon theater traveled throughout Medford and Jackson County, Oregon. Sites were:
The Medford Center, Jackson County Fair, Medford City Parks, and library locations in Medford, Ashland, Applegate, Butte Falls, Central Point, Eagle Point, Gold Hill, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Prospect, Rogue River, Ruch, Shady Cove, Talent and White City where we promoted Summer Reading programs.
Pied Piper Players were: Pat Blair, Margery Boyer, Gail Caperna, Alice Grimes, Janet Hannaford, Sharon Knight, Ilma McKern, Mickey McNee, and Marian Vincent Barker.
Later, when the Storytelling Guild no longer wished to operate the theater, it was refurbished with funds from a Library Services and Construction Act grant administered by Jackson County Library. The stage platform door was converted to two panel doors that opened to reveal the puppet theater. It was operated at that time by Francine Conner-Coash as a Jackson County Library program, "Taking It On The Road".
The Pied Piper Theater was retired after fourteen years of service and four years of sitting in White City storage. It was sold as surplus material by Jackson County. (The last sighting of the Pied Piper trailer was in Shady Cove, Oregon where it had been converted into a Lion's Club See's Candy sales trailer in about 1997.). STILL PROVIDING SWEET MEMORIES!
