String And Shadow’s ‘Night At The Grand Opera’

“A single night at the Grand Royal Opera House, where industrialists, revolutionaries, the players of the opera house and the vermin who inhabit its walls collide,” is how String and Shadow Puppet Theater describes their giant puppet show “Night At The Grand Opera.” “…Love triangles, converging revolutionary plots, art-loving flies and disaffected vermin are brought to life with cardboard and papier-mache.”

Emily McHugh, who apprenticed with Paperhand Puppet Intervention in North Carolina, and Donald Palardy founded the company in 2020. They’re based in Olympia, Washington and (sometimes) New Orleans.

“Night At The Grand Opera” offers flea stilters, a Trojan Horse, swells, revolutionaries, a king, a prima donna, sword fights, fire, melodrama, satire. They’ve been touring it across Washington, Oregon, California and Montana in July and August.

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