Building a puppet theater

Just over a week ago the Coffee Queen, the Little Scoot and I went to the Guthrie Theater's 50th anniversary celebration.  We were invited by some new friends from church: Nathan, Amy, and their son Micah who are originally from Tasmania and are living here for a couple of years (Nathan is a post-doc at the U of M and you can read his perspective on American life here).  The Guthrie had all sorts of activities going on, including the opportunity to tour the backstage areas which we all enjoyed.

Outside the Open Eye Figure Theatre pup on a small puppet show for kids.  The show was somewhat lacking in anything resembling a storyline, but the Little Scoot loved it.  He was quite taken with the puppets (especially the skeleton) and decided he wanted a puppet theater.  Well, what are dads for if not to turn these dreams into reality?  He also spent the next week asking for a "Daddy Day" so on Saturday we went to the hardware store and came home with a pile of wood and assorted hardware that I turned into this:

The assembled framework of the puppet theater

The original plan was that the Little Scoot would "help."  He was very excited to get his own pair of safety glasses, and he watched from a safe distance while I cut the wood with the power saw, but after that he decided it was more fun to chase the dog around the yard.  Oh well, it probably went faster this way. :-)

The Little Scoot talked about the puppet theater all week and what kinds of puppets he wants.  He wants a skeleton as well as "Old Monster Zebedee" (which he came up with), and yesterday he created "Dr. Beaks" who is apparently a bird..  The theater is now ready for the decorating crew, a.k.a. Mom and Grammy, and the plan is to put some kind of proscenium arch over the middle section.  The Little Scoot and I will then see about coming up with a play.  Our neighbors are already asking when opening night is going to be!

I love that the Little Scoot is old enough to get excited about projects like this and I know we're going to have even more fun when he's old enough to actually help with the construction, under Dad's supervision of course.  Yes, somehow I have become the "responsible adult."  When did that happen?

The Coffee Queen and the Little Scoot outside the Guthrie