HALIFAX – The Company H Puppet Show has become an annual summertime tradition for young children and their families in the Holmes Public Library community. Held each year at the Great Hall inside Halifax’s Town Hall, this free family puppet show is put on by Company H, a troupe of talented teenagers led by youth services librarian Marie Coady, who has a background in theatre arts. Now in its fourth year of productions, this year’s show, “Puppets, Puppets, Puppets,” features troupe members Ali Farina,14, Emily Hickey, 14, Kate Hickey, 12, John McCarthy, 14, and Patrick McCarthy, 14, all of Halifax, and will be held on Thursday, August 14, at 11 a.m.
Company H is sponsored by the Sandra LaCivita Children’s Arts Fund of the Holmes Public Library, endowed by gifts in memory of LaCivita, a longtime resident of Halifax who passed away in 2010. The Sandra LaCivita Children’s Arts Fund continues her legacy of enriching the lives of children through the arts. During her lifetime, she tirelessly promoted the performing arts, raising money and securing grants for arts and cultural programs in the Halifax schools and in the town.
Each year, Mrs. Coady shows her new group of enthusiastic teen volunteers the basics of puppetry, set design, scriptwriting, and staging during a series of weekly summer workshops.
Ali Farina, 14, has been part of the Company H Puppet Troupe from the beginning and is in her fourth year. “I like doing the puppets because all the kids in the audience really like it and get into it, and it’s fun to watch them having fun,” she said at a recent rehearsal. Ali has also been a library volunteer at children’s events such as the Pet Show and Dance Party.
Fourteen-year-old Emily Hickey, a student at Silver Lake Regional High School, is in the troupe for her third year. “As you can tell, we’re a very comedic bunch,” she said, as the troupe jokingly argued as they assembled the puppet stage for rehearsal. “This is a great way to vent all that comedy you have bottled up inside you.”
John agreed, saying, “It’s a bunch of fun making a show for people who appreciate my puns.”
To see photos from previous years’ Company H performances, visit holmespubliclibrary.org/CompanyH.html