Puppets and Play: UNCG Presents The Long Christmas Ride Home

From King Friday on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood to Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka what is it about puppets that captures our imagination and sucks us into their stories?

University of North Carolina at Greensboro MFA Directing candidate Dani Keil knows. The Mary Sheila Nassif Graduate Award-winner spent years studying puppetry construction and procession in Italy before coming to the Triad, and she’s bringing her knowledge and skill to bear in the UNCG production of The Long Christmas Ride Home. The full-length one act play by Paula Vogel involves an ancient form of Japanese puppetry called bunraku. The Long Christmas Ride Home opens tomorrow night, Thursday, February 28 at 7:30pm with weeknight shows at 8pm and a Sunday matinee at 2pm in the Brown Building Theatre on the UNCG campus. Dani spoke with David Ford by phone from her office in Greensboro.