WILLIAM JOYCE’S
The Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and The Shreve Memorial Library are performing KERMIT POLING’S orchestration of William Joyce’s book, THE LEAF MEN AND THE BRAVE GOOD BUGS, Sunday afternoon, May 15, during ArtBreak’s 36th Family Fun Weekend. This is an epic adventure of good over evil, where brave little doodle bugs summon the help of formidable leaf men to defeat an evil spider queen and save a beautiful garden. The play, the Orchestra, a 20-foot-tall tree designed by local artist Mitch Landry, and specially designed make-and-take S.T.E.A.M. activities all work together to encourage families to look more closely at the leaves and the bugs that inhabit our Louisiana forests.
THE LEAF MEN AND THE BRAVE GOOD BUGS is the 1996 book upon which Joyce’s 2013 film, Epic, is loosely based. In the movie, a young girl named Mary Katherine shrinks and enters a world of forest warriors known as Leaf Men who battle a treacherous species known as the Boggans. If you are the least bit intrigued by the mysteries of the forest, it’s a world you might discover in your own backyard, if you take a moment to pause on your next stroll through the trees.
The planners of ArtBreak 36 hope to arouse that curiosity about leaves and bugs with the S.T.E.A.M. activities they have planned to go along with the Symphony and the Library’s presentation. Landry’s giant tall tree is the perfect place to hang leaves that families who come to the Family Fun ArtBreak weekend design. The leaves will be based on ten trees indigenous to Louisiana. Each family member will also have the chance to pick the create the perfect headband adornment - - a ladybug, praying mantis, or one of Joyce’s Leaf Men designs-- for your next big adventure into an enchanted forest.
“Tiny of body but brave of heart, we will finish what we start,” the doodle bugs in Joyce’s Leaf Men and The Brave Good Bugs chant. And they do finish what they start, with the help of the Leaf Men, and bring back their garden to a miraculous place where anything can happen on a beautiful moonlit night, according to this captivating tale.
ALL WEEKEND!
Leaf Men Art Activities
SUNDAY @ 1:00 PM
On Citizens National Bank Stage
Shreveport Symphony Orchestra performing Kermit Poling’s Original Score to “The Leaf Men Brave Good Bugs” by William Joyce, featuring soloists Aiden Poling and Maddison Gilcrease with narration by Angelique Feaster.
