Pinocchio public performance Dec. 9

Release Date: 11/9/2006. Expired: 12/9/2006

The ageless story of a wooden puppet who yearns to be a real boy comes to the stage of The Renaissance Center when the Mind Enriching Theatre series presents the musical Pinocchio for field trips this fall and in one public performance on Dec. 9.

Pinocchio will be available for school groups visiting The Renaissance Center Oct. 17-Dec. 15. Tickets are $4 per student. The musical will be presented in one special performance at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, as part of the center’s daylong Christmas Festival. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and children under 13.

The MET series is presenting the Prince Street Players’ version of Pinocchio, which is a musical written by Jim Eiler based on Carlo Collodi’s original 1880 story. Founded in 1965 by Eiler, the Prince Street Players began as a repertory company in New York that grew to include several touring companies presenting family oriented theatrical productions.

Collodi, who was born Carlo Lorenzini but adopted the name of his village in Tuscany as his pseudonym, began the story of the puppet who becomes a real boy as a newspaper serial and the first English translation was published in 1892.

The musical tells the story of Geppetto, who creates a life-sized puppet he names Pinocchio but longs to have a real son of his own. Known for helping those less fortunate, Geppetto’s wish is granted by the Blue Fairy who brings Pinocchio to life but warns him to always be good and do what his father tells him.

Pinocchio becomes a huge success performing as a living puppet but falls in with unsavory street urchins who convince him to skip school and run away to the Land of Toys. But the boys and Pinocchio learn they have been tricked when they are turned into donkeys.

Geppetto searches for Pinocchio and is swallowed in his boat by a whale. Pinocchio, turned back into a boy by the Blue Fairy, is despondent over not being able to return to his home and flings himself into the ocean, only to be swallowed by the same whale.

Geppetto and Pinocchio escape the whale by building a fire and making it sneeze and as a reward for saving his father, the Blue Fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy.

Pinocchio is full of wonderful songs, colorful costumes, exciting adventures and exotic locales, including the sinister Land of the Toys and the inside of the whale.

The MET series production of Pinocchio is directed by Hal Partlow, managing director of the Renaissance Repertory Company and manager of the MET series.

To schedule a production of Pinocchio for a field trip, call (615)740-5533. To purchase a ticket for the Dec. 9 public performance, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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