Two weekends ago, we went to see The Very Hungry Caterpillar show at The Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland. I was actually very surprised by how truly well done it was. Eric Carle’s most popular books were brought to life on stage with beautifully constructed puppets, props, and lighting. The smooth transitions from scene to scene kept the interest of both children and adults. They started with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, then embarked upon a journey with the 10 Little Rubber Ducks (one of my son’s favorite), moving onto to The Lonely Firefly, and ending it with of course, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Eric Carle is 90 years old now. He has illustrated over 70 books and still working. In order to reserve his energy, he has kept his distance from the public eye and contacts. However, you can learn more about him and his work through his website.
So, how does he does actually create those exquisite and colorful pages in those legendary books?
“I begin with plain tissue paper and paint it with different colors, using acrylics. Sometimes I paint with a wide brush, sometimes with a narrow brush. Sometimes my strokes are straight, and sometimes they’re wavy. Sometimes I paint with my fingers. Or I paint on a piece of carpet, sponge, or burlap and then use that like a stamp on my tissue papers to create different textures.
These papers are my palette and after they have dried I store them in color-coded drawers. Let’s say I want to create a caterpillar: I cut out a circle for the head from a red tissue paper and many ovals for the body from green tissue papers; and then I paste them with wallpaper glue onto an illustration board to make the picture.” (excerpt taken from The Official Eric Carle Website)
He truly is an amazing artist and educator. I am so happy to be sharing his work of art with my child.
Here are the books that were performed on stage:
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
- 10 Little Rubber Ducks
- The Lonely Firefly
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Something for the food lovers:
Did you know that the Very Hungry Caterpillar had a piece of sausage on Saturday? I have never been excited about eating a sausage. If it’s in front of me and it looks okay, I will try a bite. However, I recently tried a sausage from Trader Joe’s, that was amazingly delicious! ‘Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Sausage’! Make it how you like it, but all I did was boil it and then sautéd it in olive oil till it was slightly brown. Enjoy!