Central Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, February 1, 2001

MARIONETTE THEATER AWAKES FOR THE SEASON

Like a puppet made of moveable parts, the Swedish Cottage can be taken apart piece by piece. The building is an authentic Swedish schoolhouse that was shipped to the United States in pieces. Since it arrived here in 1876, the Cottage has played many parts: a star role in the American Centennial Fair in Philadelphia, a backstage role as a toolshed in Central Park. It was a library and then a laboratory for the study of bugs. It also acted as the local headquarters for Civil Defense in WWII. Today the Swedish Cottage, home to Parks' and the City Parks Foundation's Marionette Theatre, tells stories.

On Tuesday, January 30, 2001 Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern; Deborah (Courant) Landau, Executive Director of the City Parks Foundation; Bruce (Marionette) Cannon, Artistic Director of the Marionette Theatre; Pamela (Rose Red) Awad, Hilary (Hilarious) Adams, and Christine (Bobolink) Connelly of the Judith Connelly Delouvrier Fund celebrated the Marionette Theatre's newest original production: a version of Sleeping Beauty set in the wilds of Central Park.

Artistic Director, Bruce Cannon invited first and second graders from his own elementary school into the former Swedish schoolhouse as audience members during the show and participants in a post-play discussion. Commissioner Stern, Pamela Awad, and Hilary Adams addressed the audience before the curtain rose.

Sleeping Beauty runs Tuesday through Friday at 10:30 a.m. and at noon, and on Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. The theatre welcomes families and school groups and invites them to stay for questions after the show. For more information, please contact Nancy Greenberg at (212) 360-8161.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Thursday, February 4, 1988)

VON KING RECREATION CENTER FIRST '88 BROOKLYN "5X5"SUCCESS

Brooklyn Parks has completed its first "5X5" clean-up of 1988 at Bedford Stuyvesant's Herbert Von King Recreation Center, at 670 Lafayette Avenue between Tompkins and Marcy Avenues.

The citywide Parks "5X5" program, now in its second year, is the largest self-funded, in-house maintenance campaign undertaken by Parks in decades. As part of "5X5", Parks cleans and repairs five major park sites in each of the five boroughs throughout the year.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep."

John Keats (1795-1821)