When The Island Springs A Leak, Kids Learn To Care

Though Terrapin Puppet Theatre is from far-off Tasmania, its upcoming performance of “You and Me and the Space Between” at the Walton Arts Center will have a decidedly local flair. First, there’s the fact that Erika Wilhite, artistic director and founder of the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre in Fayetteville, will be on stage, performing with Terrapin.

“So the work will be delivered by a local actor, in your accent,” says Terrapin’s artistic director Sam Routledge. “The children get to hear the story as if it’s happening here, at home. We want people to feel as though this is something that could happen to them, rather than it being something that could only happen in Australia.”

Secondly, says the Walton Arts Center’s public relations director, Jennifer Wilson, audience members can mix and mingle with a variety of local environmental and art organizations for an hour prior to the performance.

“Families can join the fun together with a pre-show Family Art Night on March 28, starting at 6 p.m.,” says Wilson. “Organizations from all over Northwest Arkansas — including Ozark Natural Science Center, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, Botanical Garden of the Ozarks and the Museum of Native American History — are bringing crafts, games and [activities] to the Walton Arts Center atrium.”

The show itself, says Routledge, has ecological and environmental themes, though they are delivered in a storybook style.

“We really aim to tell contemporary stories that are allegorical,” he says. “So the allegory tells us about something important but through another type of story. … The thing about science fiction and fantasy is that they’re rooted in the challenges we’re facing in the real world

— so we don’t feel we’re being preached to, but we can draw parallels with challenges we might be facing.”

Routledge and his company, he says, “are inspired by puppetry. We’re most inspired by what are the essential elements to puppetry: bringing things that aren’t alive to life.”

The show tells the story of what happens after a community’s island springs a leak and starts to sink.

“They’ve only known their own world, but the people have to decide what to do, because they’re not safe where they are,” says Routledge. “The solution that they reach speaks to how we look out for the people who really need us but are very different than us.”

Photo courtesy Peter Mathew Terrapin Puppet Theatre’s production of “You and Me and the Space Between,” says artistic director Sam Routledge, “speaks to how we look out for the people who really need us, but are very different than us.”