Porcupines
to die.”
She added that while new trees were planted, they’ll take 30 years to grow back to what was there before. Trees will be honored with puppets in a dance into the center of town led by a porcupine when the event opens at 11:30 a.m., she said.
Fleming showed off concepts of the puppets worn by eight performers that feature branches spanning all four seasons with the person’s lower body forming the trunk. After the opening ceremony, the trees will “walk” through the village throughout the day.
This year’s Sinterklaas features a twist on the circa 1812 German fairytale “Hansel and Gretel,” with the two characters helping to narrate the day’s events. In the traditional telling Hansel and Gretel are left in the woods when their parents can’t feed them, Fleming said. They’re portrayed as being deeply afraid of the woods, she added.
Fleming’s telling flips that narrative completely on its head. “Children should not be afraid of the forest,” she said. “They should be protectors of the forest in the future.”
Two opera singers from Bard College, Kirby Burgess and Melaine Dubal, will provide the voices of Hansel and Gretel, who will offer a surprise twist on the classic 18th-century bedtime prayer “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.”
The pageant, closing out the day’s festivities, will also have a surprise ending, she said.
Fleming said her team has completed 500 porcupine masks for children and older people alike to gather in a prickle. “A prickle is a gathering of porcupines,” she added.
Families also won’t want to miss a visit to The Grove designed by Richard Prouse, a Broadway set designer. She showed off Prouse’s concept on the table. It features an area enclosed by a number of trees. It will be located in the courtyard in the village, or inside one of the churches in the event of rain,
Fleming estimated the real-life Grove is as large as her kitchen and will accommodate about 10 people at a time. Once inside, they’ll sit on red and white toadstool mushrooms that bear a bit of a resemblance to a wellknown “Super Mario Bros.” powerup. Inside, visitors will step into a soundscape crafted by Peter Wyer.
“Outside it will be winter,” Fleming said. “Inside it’ll be spring.”
Eventgoers can even learn to “speak porcupine” by stopping at video screens featuring YouTube sensation Teddy the Talking Porcupine.
As in years past, there will be numerous puppets for participants in the Children’s Starlight parade to carry. Fleming showed off a wide range of colorful porcupine puppets, complete with quills that have taken up residence through her home. The two-sided puppets, carried on a stick, are furnished above a cardboard base that were laser cut by a business in the town of Milan.
Each has a name that is a play on quills like Granny Q, a rainbow-colored Pridethemed example known as “LGBT-Q.” There’s also the still-in-progress Q-Tip, which will have its quills made of Q-tips, and “Rubik’s Qube,” which is black with colorful numbers all over its body.
In another room, Fleming was crafting another yet-tobe-named porcupine using a hot glue gun to attach quills made from a plastic thread.
Returning to the event, Fleming said longtime favorites like the Pocket Lady will return. She’ll be handing out little toys featuring other animals fashioned with porcupine quills, Fleming added.
She also said visitors should also be on the lookout for The Gadfly, played by Donald Chorren. “He’ll be making all kinds of trouble, telling dumb jokes,” she said. “He’ll have a whoopie cushion.”
But by night, he’ll take on a more serious role.
“At the end of the night he’ll read the blessing,” Fleming said.