“We’re able to bring some very sophisticated theater to this festival, and we’re completely confident that our audience will accept it,” said Brian Joyce, director
of the Philadelphia International Children’s Festival
at the Annenberg Center, shortly before the annual festival
got underway in May. “The festival has become more sophisticated
because it has trained its own audience.”
Judging from the packed theaters and squeals
of laughter that greeted such innovative fare as Thomas Kubinek’s
one-strange-man show and the Canadian Theatre de l’Oeil’s
other-worldly puppet performance, The Star Keeper (left),
Joyce had sized up his audience right.
Michael
Rose, managing director of the Annenberg Center, noted that
the choral music and tribal dances of Black Umfolosi were
very popular with Philadelphia school children, while the
preview picnic for Penn faculty and staff (top) was a “great
success.
