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Show les y t s e f i L WASATCH COUNTY COURIER PAGE9 Ponti Pull No Stri ee ae bey DINING & TOURISM REVIEW BY JEAN CROASMUN whe last thing I ever want to do at ten o’clock . §f - in the morning is load up the car and go hang out in the woods with a bunch of screaming kids. So when I agreed to review Sundance’s Children’s Theatre, their late-morning kid- oriented outdoor summer theatre production, it was with a grain of salt. | | : | ._ _ De 3 = | | FINE DINING | y oe LODGING ¥ eee 3 > array eatqurant | ; 654-0805 | of Music, only with a bunch of kids from | Don Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant Kindergarten Cop instead of the Von Trapp family. But what I ultimately got was a peek at one of the 1050 South Main Street — Heber City . | weirdest puppet shows I’ve ever seen. Daniels Summit Lodge& General Store Gabriel Ponti’s Cartoon Theatre is a puppet show | Highway40 -. Daniel’sSummit 800-519-9969 like no other, in part because the puppets are unique |. to Ponti, in part because of the outdoor stage limita- | Fanny’s Grill tions and constraints at Sundance and in part because | ee Caen arr . 375 RainbowLane Memphis constructed of common things found around the house, dump or maybe the crafts store. The corner of Jakes Later masks were made of deter- _ of everyday plastic, foam rubber, glue and markers. | Aside from the fact that Ponti’s puppets looked unique, Ponti’s use of them in his storytelling is similarly unique. Ponti has no set, merely a small stage : Yodels 9 E. Main = Heber City Holiday Lanes Eccles Stage, was an added bonus to the production. There are no chairs, just soft, wood-chip covered ris- 565 N. Main Oo 255 N. Main _ Heber City. esectes | WE Mam | | | Harvest 654-7021 | 159E.Main : | ies 654-5544 3 _ Heber City : 570 N. Main 654-0773 : to puppeteering worked to keep the average elemen- |— | Timp Freeze forty minutes. | wiirnebi zat outdoor surroundings seemed appropriate when the final five minutes of fidgetting TR elnis TTI int RTE ARS tA he A eRe Twist | Seen PP] 94N. Main eee | : Books & Beyond 800 S. Main Ponti’s first run in the United States, the production Wagon | F U N , peney “| 654-5889 rm : a. : House | Midway | | 657-1440 es Heber Valley Railroad 450S.600W. _ Heber City i : a 261S.Main ‘ 654-5601 7 Heber City 52 West 100 North i 654-5555 , neat 654-7525 - Heber City 654-7458 | 350S.Main | ae . baphct ac As <li esa-sace i Whimsy Heber City Baskets & Gifts _ Heber City aor en ms | Wendy’s ree & s Midway Rocky Mountain 654-3900 Ry Cafe | NG ———— | bargain at $5.00 for children and $7.00 for adults. While last weekend’s production at Sundance was zh Cottage 3 | Heber City (654-7137 Water From The Moon, | 118S.500W. , 3 Heber City 654-2267 = Wheel will take a hiatus from Sundance for a week before | 220N.Main — a oe 654-2202 at : Heber City tary-schooler entertained> for at least thirty-five to Heber City _ Pinto Pony Designs but it held the attention of the rather packed crowd | Taco Time and, for the most part, me. His unorthodox approach ce ; 128W.100N. ain, | ae 654-0722 All That Stuff In The Barn Heber City | a : 654-3097 Or maybe it was because, gasp, the | Snow King Drive In Ponti’s performance was odd, don’t get me wrong, Se _ 6640721 eS SHO Heber Cit y McDon al d e 610S. Main |. _ specs 654-0372 680 S. Main | Heber City : Heber City : tip Bakery re Viking Lodge 989S.Main _ oe ae ers built into the ground. Trees provided much-need- | Hub Cafe children were actually interested. ; SwissAlps Inn : Heber City ed shade from the 90 degree day. Wind, birds and the | 1165S.Main ‘running amok. Maybe it was because we were all threatened with good behavior (no rock throwing, no noisy food) at the beginning, during our pre-perform- os 3 — 641771 | ered hillside adjacent to Sundance Resort’s outdoor : eethere8 were no children 7 And, much to Sia my surprise, ie | Drive In picak . 657-2755 Mountain Spe neeor | 800N.MountainSpaLane Midway — 654644 Heber City — ) playing again July 21 through 24. . mabe } _ | 511S. Main ; squirrel added added charac characever-present SUsRiHeS groun¢ d mulire | : 67S. Main Gr anny’s The stage itself, set in the middle of a pine-cov- entertaining diversion to the long, hot summer anda 654-4333 7" D Heber City 199. Main laughing and mes- Overall, Gabriel Ponti’s Cartoon Theatre offers an | Midway — as And all but the — set in. — “ F inch-- | 4245S.Main straws youngest children in the audience stayed with the The | ae ‘eens | Heber City at T Kastle Inn O st ee Dairy Keen _ : Sed a Johnson Mill Bed & Breakfast - 100N.JohnsonMillRoad Midway 654-5379 O Arby’s ence goes amazingly unnoticed. ance pep-talk. | Bt saat AGERE DE ARS Gore FA 154 S. Main : we ) ions errs Inn on the Creek — Mi eam | gS Chick’s Cafe : 1235 Warn Springe-rid- , e At Ponti’s head becomes a doctor. While Ponti never hides behind a screen, his pres- ne 2 The Huckleberry Country Inn esd Midway attached to Ponti’s shoes. Still later the hat worn on | - puppeteer throughout the show, 654-1102 _ 7 small se Midway " two = | m y ie - 654-9990 Resort. 700N.HomesteadDr. ae | : ce a rae | Heber City ‘ ; a arms. pole is | controlie . 7 e | peteer. In the opening sequence, Ponti’s bare hands are the bodies of pair of dancing humans, their heads puppet Homestead 657-1100 et Sn aes Holiday Inn1 Expiess 654-1102 © | | Heber Gi 3 1268S. Main | times, Ponti is the backdrop, the puppet and the pup- are adhered ee cha oe | e : or platform that he uses equally as a seat for himself worm | Midway oy ee Grill , 7 anes untry Inn Restaurant _ gent bottles and household containers; puppets, or | ~ marionettes as Ponti refers to them, were made of bits | ene and an area on which his creations can perform. | Smokehouse 700 N. Homestead Dr. 654-2150 : | 654-0892 Heber City a molded-polystyrene box was Ponti’s first mask of | Simon’s Heber City Gee ee. Midway 98 S. Main 425 S. Main Daniels Summit Lodge ie -«U.S.Hwy.40 DanielsSummit —_ 800-519-9969 | Inn on the Creek to live the | Sundance minimal-environmental-impact credo. His puppets and masks, presumably all self-created, are the performance. eny 654-0231 e 3 seems : Heber Ci a Bear Mountain Chalet 657-0600. : 7 : 3 = reas Lodge Soe —— | Sundance’s stage production of the C. S. Lewis novel doesn’t happen until August. I was fearing a puppetshow like the one with yodeling goats in The Sound puppeteer, ) : sails I was hoping for The Lion, the Witch and the Ponti, a Belgian _—-- i ; eee | Wardrobe, one of my favorite books as a kid, but of Ponti himself. Juty 13, 1999 3 _ 654-0251 Bak: |