This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
The new children’s puppet musical “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,” in a world premiere run through Oct. 20 at the Center for Puppetry Arts, carries the same heart and message of the picture book on which it is based. It’s a fable of a young boy rabbit who seeks to reunite with his father, who had to migrate from their home to find work.
“I think you hear a lot about it in the news, especially right now, when there’s campaigns and things like that,” book author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh said in a Zoom interview. “It’s either very abstract or the families are often used as scapegoats. But I don’t think that you often hear of the journey, like all the dangers that people go through or how much the separation affects families. Pancho just wants to see his dad, whom he hasn’t seen in several years.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Center for Puppetry Arts
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Center for Puppetry Arts
The story and play capture the human aspect of the issue. Within it, Pancho travels away from home himself in an effort to find his father, and he receives the aid of a coyote on the journey. Yet the coyote’s help comes at a great cost.
Tonatiuh, the Center’s Co-Artistic Director, Jason Hines, and scriptwriter Jessica Rosa Espinoza all said they hope the show will inspire kindness, compassion and conversation.
“I love that the story works really on two levels at the same time so beautifully,” Hines said. “Because it is really just a fun adventure story with a great beginning, middle and end. But also it is such a current, very present and real topic. And when we have taken this to schools and things, we show people the book. For so many of the kids there, it is very much a part of their lives. A lot of them have said, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s how I got here too.’ So it’s not just that it’s a fairy tale, but it is also a very real-life, present story that’s happening right now.”
Hines is directing the production and designed many of the puppets for it. But the script and the idea for the show came from Espinoza, who is an educator as well as an accomplished playwright.
“I’ve got two young kids, and I went to the public library and had a stack of books,” she said. “And this happened to be one of the books in my stack. I saw the way that my children reacted to it. I knew right out of the gate that it was really a special story that needed to be heard. Also, as I was reading it, there’s just a sense of musicality in the book.”
The music for the show was composed by Clayton Colwell.
To find Tonatiuh and discuss the possibility of an adaptation, Espinoza sought him in a unique way.
“I found out that Duncan lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which is where my parents live,” she said. “So I called my mom and said, ‘Can you help me track down this writer?’ When I took my next trip to Mexico, visiting my family, I met with Duncan and said this has got to be a musical.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Center for Puppetry Arts
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Center for Puppetry Arts
The five puppeteers in the show — Juan Carlos Unzueta, Isa Martinez, Luis Hernandez, Dolph Amick and Amy Sweeney — are all seasoned performers, though some are doing puppetry for the first time. Hines said the puppets primarily are hand-and-rod designs, drawing inspiration from Tonatiuh’s illustrations.
“The illustrations are very inspired by pre-Columbian art, Mesoamerican art,” the author said. “So they’re very flat, very stylized. They have a pretty particular style. I use a lot of textures in my book. I use a lot of photographic elements. I think they’ve also tried to capture a lot of those textures in the puppets, in the scenery and in other parts to reflect some of the spirit of the book.”
The themes of the production may seem particularly topical in an election year, but Tonatiuh said they were also prescient when he wrote his book in 2013. Then, as now, people were motivated to leave their homes for a variety of reasons, seeking opportunity. And the United States has a reliance upon cheap labor. It is a perpetual issue.
“It’s an easy topic to politicize,” Hines said. “But one of the things I also love about the story is that it’s not really about that. It’s about people trying to take care of their family.”
Espinoza likes how the characters provide a unique perspective to the story.
“Politics aside, there are children in our country — in any country, really, but especially in our country — that feel this pain, and that voice hasn’t been heard,” Espinoza said. “And I just feel like this is an opportunity to, like Jason said, hear that voice, see that point of view and feel something for a child that’s going through this. It’s not easy. It’s not easy on anyone in the family, but particularly on the children that miss a parent.”
IF YOU GO
“Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote”
Through Oct. 20 at the Center for Puppetry Arts. 10 and 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 3 p.m. Sundays. $22.75. 1404 Spring St. NW, Atlanta. 404-873-3391, puppet.org
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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, “Impacted,” was published by the Story Plant.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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