Late October 2007
By Christina Vogl
The band Fall Out Boy named its third album From Under the Cork Tree after a line from the story. Singer-songwriter Elliot Smith has a rendition of the main character tattooed on his arm. A national reading campaign recently set a record with it. The Story of Ferdinand, a children’s book about a peace-loving bovine written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson, continues to have a far-ranging impact seven decades after it first appeared.
Ferdinand the Bull, an adaptation of the classic tale published at the outset of the Spanish Civil War, comes to the stage in a narrated production with larger-than-life puppets, masked dancers, and mechanical figures. Hudson Vagabond Puppets performs the show at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 21, in Eisenhower Auditorium.
Ferdinand spends his days relaxing under a cork tree while the other bulls butt heads. One day, though, he is mistaken for being ill tempered due to a dramatic display after a bee stings him. Upon seeing this “wild” performance, men who were out looking for potential challengers for the next bullfight select Ferdinand. The bull is transported from the carefree Spanish countryside to the spectacle of the city’s bullring. But fighting just isn’t in his blood. In the end, Ferdinand stays true to himself as a bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight a matador.
The five Hudson Vagabond puppeteers borrow from the traditional Japanese Bunraku style of puppetry to animate Ferdinand and his friends on stage. Each scene recalls an illustration from the book.
The troupe performs more than 150 times each year for students, teachers, and families at schools, universities, theatres, and festivals throughout the United States. The company has performed with a number of musical ensembles, including the Phoenix Symphony, The Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fischer Hall in New York City, and the Saint Louis Symphony.
Jason Holland of the Orange County Performing Artscenter in Costa Mesa, California, recalls the performance of Ferdinand the Bull as “igniting the imaginations of all of our student and family audiences as they enjoyed the larger-than-life puppetry and mask work. Our audiences were thrilled with the company’s ‘re-imagining’ of this classic story complete with original songs and dances.”
The company’s resident choreographer Edward Winslow, who holds a master of fine arts in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is the show’s director and choreographer. Michael Minard wrote the music and lyrics. Lois Bohovesky, who founded the upstate New York-based company in 1980, is the producer. Peter Bohovesky is in charge of puppet and mask construction.
A campaign by the national nonprofit organization Jumpstart, aimed at raising money and awareness for early education in low-income communities, set a record September 20 for the most children reading the same book on the same day. An estimated quarter of a million children read The Story of Ferdinand with adults in conjunction with almost 2,000 reading events taking place across the country.
The Jumpstart campaign, called Read for the Record, raised more than $1 million from donations and sales of a special edition of the book published by Penguin Young Readers Group. More than 100,000 copies of The Story of Ferdinand were donated to children in low-income communities.
Kidz Connections, which begins in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the show and is free to ticket holders, includes activities for young audience members. Children can make a tissue paper flower, learn to use castanets, and play “pin the bee on Ferdinand” before enjoying a pre-performance snack.
Adult $15
University Park Student $10
18 and Younger $10
