From Tracie: Leslie And Lolly Make Stuff Up

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Leslie And Lolly Make Stuff Up

We spent Saturday morning visiting a new show at the Orlando Repertory Theatre - Leslie And Lolly Make Stuff Up starring Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and Lolly Lardpop. It was amazing and so very funny. Leslie's name might sound familiar to you, because she is the Emmy-nominated voice and puppeteer behind Abby Cadabby on Sesame Street, but this weekend's show was all about Lolly.

Lolly is a candy-obsessed five year old. She has a huge imagination and an even bigger heart. Imagination is important to this show, because, as the title promises, Leslie and Lolly spend 50 minutes with the audience making stuff up. A fully interactive show, the kids are invited onto the stage to participate with singing, dancing, and creative ideas.

Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and Lolly Lardpop

During one of my favorite parts of the show, Leslie brings out a poster board and has one of the children write a number on it. From that number, she draws a character, while singing a song. It starts, "Have you ever drawn a blank while staring at a blank piece of paper? Gone into despair as you stare at the nothing that is there?" and continues with encouragement to draw on your inspiration to allow yourself create something that might just be great.

Leslie Carrara-Rudolph Art
Singing the poster board, and giving a pep talk about
imagination and creativity, after the show. 

As a writer, I completely related to the scary feeling of looking at a blank piece of paper (or as is often true in my case, a blank screen), and not knowing exactly where to start. I know that the cure to not having the perfect words is often to get all the imperfect words out of the way, and this was a great reminder for me. I know it is technically a kid song, but it is seriously going to be my new go-to song when I have writer's block.

Back to Leslie and the show, after drawing on the poster board, she lets the audience give ideas for names and other details for her drawing, and a story is born. That is what Leslie and Lolly Make Stuff Up is all about - imagining and believing. It is also full of very silly moments that had everyone laughing.

Tracie and Katarina with Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and John DeHaas
Katarina, Tracie, Lolly Lardpop,
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and John B. DeHaas

Carrara-Rudolph and Lolly were accompanied on the piano by John B DeHaas during the performance. In between classic Lolly songs like, Meat Cookies, and one of the best two minute recaps of The Wizard of Oz (complete with voices) I've ever heard, other characters puppetted by Leslie came out to play. One of these characters, a lizard named Slax, is created from a dryer hose, a slipper, some gloves, a pair of pants, and a lot of imagination. It was great fun to see Leslie change from herself, into this jazzy, lounge lizard.

One of my favorite puppets was Granny Dot who, at almost 100 years old, is the oldest puppet character I've ever seen. On the way home from the show we were talking about how puppets are so often little kids, which is great, but it was nice to see a puppet who was an older character interacting with the kids from the audience. She even sings a song about embracing her age, and talks positively about the wrinkles on her face, calling them the map of her life. It was a great message of accepting and loving yourself exactly as you are, and Granny Dot even gives out some words of advice born from the wisdom of her years.

Katarina has grown up with Lolly's songs, but there were a lot of new ones in this show. Knowing her affinity for candy (something we most definitely have in common with Lolly), Katrina brought Lolly a rainbow loom cupcake with sprinkles, which Lolly immediately ate.

Leslie And Lolly Make Stuff Up with cupcake
Are you loving Leslie's Mr. Rogers t-shirt as much as I am?
It rocks my face off!

We first met Leslie about six years ago, when Katarina was five years old.

Katarina with Lolly Lardpop and Leslie

Our special friends Jason and Mary Hunt introduced us, so it was perfect to experience her show with them this weekend, and spend some time with them and Leslie after the show.

Jason Hunt, Mary Thompson Hunt, Katarina Nall, Lolly Lardpop, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and John B. DeHaas
Jason Hunt, Mary Thompson Hunt, Katarina,
Lolly Lardpop, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and John B. DeHaas

Leslie And Lolly Make Stuff Up is a great show for any age. There will be another performance on Sunday, July 26th at the Orlando Repertory Theatre as part of their 12th birthday celebration. You can find Lolly Lardpop on youtube, twitter, and facebook, where you can follow along with her adventures, and hopefully you can also catch her in a performance near you this year.

31 comments:

  1. Emma totally used to,love Abby Cadabby and even made a cake from a cake mold in the shape and decorated her to look just like her a few years back. But I had no clue she did these other puppet characters, too and truly enjoyed learning that here today. So thank you so much for sharing :)

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    1. That is so fun!! I need to see pictures of that cake.

      Leslie is super talented. She has lots of great characters and ideas - so many, that there wasn't even time to bring all of them out during the show.

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  2. I think this kind of puppet fun is great for kids and adults, as well.

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  3. I love puppet shows! I think puppet shows are a great way to teach children and even adults important info in a very interactive friendly way! I would love to see this!

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  4. When I see puppets I think back to when my eldest daughter would only communicate via a hand puppet

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  5. This looks like so much fun, I used to love puppet shows when I was a kid!

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  6. That sounds like such a fun show!! My kids would love it.

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    1. I know..so would my family! It really looks like a fun event!

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  7. Sounds like a great time and a must see!!

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  8. What a fun show! I bet my youngest daughter would love it.

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  9. What an amazing show. I love puppets and those that bring them to life.

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  10. How Fun!! I would love to watch something like that myself let alone the kids lol.

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  11. My kids would love this puppet show!

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  12. That is great! Sounds like a great puppet show, she is very talented!

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  13. How much fun! Puppets are fun to watch and play with at any age. :)

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  14. This sounds like such a great show, and I love the name of it!

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  15. My boys would have loved to have seen this.

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  16. This sounds like a great show. I love that it is so interactive, and the name is cute.

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  17. Sounds like a lot of fun! Could me motivating to me to write more blog posts these days!

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  18. What a fun show. Reminds me of Sheri Lewis and her hand puppet but with an updated twist. Love the images.

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  19. This is the kind of stuff a little girl would remember for a really long time. I love that there's a connection there as well.

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  20. Abby Cadabby was my little niece Sesame Street favorite character and this lolly sounds fantastic. The kids in my family love puppet shows and there are not many in the Dallas area

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  21. puppet shows never get old. and i LOVE her mr rogers shirt too!

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  22. How fabulous! When my kids were little we got them a puppet theatre and a lots of puppets so they could make up their own shows. They loved it!

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  23. It looks like you had an amazing time!

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  24. I do know the feeling of staring at a blank page and not knowing where to start. I love how Leslie crowd sourced the ideas for the show....that is really neat.

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  25. Leslie is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!

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  26. From the first time I saw Leslie Carrara years ago at the Adventurer's Club on Pleasure Island I felt sure she would make it big some day. What a privilege to know her. Her ambition was to entertain children way back then. She is a truly loving and caring person who will go far.

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  27. I've always been fond of puppet shows, but after you explained how they think and what their messaging is, I really really like them. This is just what kids need!

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  28. My kids get so excited about going to puppet shows.

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  29. Aww, that sounds like so much fun. I like the fact that it is so interactive.

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