GIANT ENDANGERED SPECIES PUPPETRY PAGEANT IN FRONT OF CITY HALL FOR WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

A Giant Puppetry Pageant featuring 100 Bay Area school children, an enormous sea turtle, a Grizzly bear, schools of salmon, butterflies, chimpanzees and frogs will parade in front of City Hall for the Opening Ceremonies of World Environment Day on June 2nd , from 9am to 11am.

The United Nations has an established connection to Giant Puppetry. In 2003 Kofi Anon, Jane Goodall and the pageant’s lead artist Matthew Hoffman “flew” giant peace doves through the streets of New York City and into the gates of the UN in honor of UN International Peace Day. At that time the doves were inaugurated as the official symbol of peace by the UN.

Again giant puppetry will commemorate an international UN event as World Environment Day is celebrated for the first time in North America in its 33 year history. A procession of Giant Endangered Species puppets accompanied by Bay Area school children will grace the official opening ceremony outside of SF city hall. Participants will include Mayor Gavin Newsom and mayors from around the world whom have traveled to SF to discuss “Green Cities” and write environmental accords.

The pageant, created by Matthew Hoffman, lead artist, and Christine Marie, Director of Youth performance, will include 25 giant puppets and 100 school children. Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill will lead the children in reading from the 2002 Children’s Earth Summit Declaration.

The procession will launch a global theater project entitled, “Council Of Species,” that is a partnership of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots youth organization (www.rootsandshoots.org) and the Natural World Museum. Drawing upon the great success of the Matthew Hoffman’s Giant Peace Dove Campaign (www.giantpeacedoves.org) which had Roots & Shoots members from 35 countries creating and “flying” doves around the globe, the Council Of Species curriculum and puppetry manual will be offered to Roots & Shoots groups in 80 countries encouraging youth to replicate the procession and create local pageants that inform their communities about the crisis of extinction.

The Council of Species Giant Puppet Spectacular will undoubtedly be the most colorful component of World Environment Day next week. Artists, environmental educators and enthusiastic students are currently building, paper mache-ing, and painting puppets from recycled material. “Green Cities and biodiversity go hand in hand,” says Council of Species Artistic Director Matthew Hoffman. “But rather than talk about it, we prefer to celebrate it.”

“The pageant gives animals a voice through the mouths of children whom have taken a stand for the environment and for our future in a way that’s fun and spectacular,” says Council of Species Youth Performance Director Christine Marie. As written in The Children’s Earth Summit Declaration, “Too much time has been spent talking about the world’s problems. It is now time for commitment and action.”

You are invited to meet the artists and puppets daily at the Village Mission Market on 18th and Florida St. in San Francisco’s Mission district.

May 27, 2005
Contact: Matthew Hoffman
Phone: 415.279.3933
Email:
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