ROCK-SOLID PUPPETRY

by Matt and Lindsey Vlaardingerbroek

So what did you think?" a mother asked her children. "Exciting and fun!" they both said. "But what was it about?" "A rubbish tip!" "A rubbish tip?"

The children had just seen The Rocky Road Show, an initiative by Matt and Lindsey Vlaardingerbroek of OAC Holland. For the last three years they have tried to start schools work in The Hague. This turned out to be very difficult because of the Dutch education system. In Holland there are 3 different types of school: protestant, catholic and state (non-religious) schools. Often the Christian schools are so only in name, and few are really open for anything Christian. The idea of morning assemblies is also foreign. So in order to work in these schools they had to come up with something different and attractive.

A professional puppet play! Would that work? They built a big round stage, wrote a story, made puppets, used light and sound effects, rewrote the story, and after several months The Rocky Road Show Muppet Theatre was born.

The story takes place on a rubbish tip, and features four characters. Rocky hates living on the tip, and would do anything to change it; Annabelle has a huge clothes peg on her nose and therefore doesn't notice that she is living on a rubbish tip; Fred loves rubbish and wants to make the world one great big tip; while the professor carries out experiments to change rubbish into something beautiful.

Together with the storyteller (Lindsey), Rocky goes on a search to find out how the tip came into existence. Based on the parable of the man who builds a vineyard and then leaves others to look after it, and using relighting candles, the Gospel in woven into the investigation.

The conclusion is that it is no good trying to change or get rid of the rubbish. What needs to be done is to change the hearts of the people, since they are the ones who make rubbish and fight with each other. But how do you do that? There is only one person who can change someone from the inside...

Matt works inside the stage, operating all four puppet characters, while Lindsey plays herself, talking with the puppets and the children, telling a story, leading a quiz and so on.

Last year, under the banner of Heart for The Hague, an interdenominational local church initiative, Matt and Lindsey launched a project in which cartoon books about the life of Jesus were offered to the children in the top class of the primary schools. The book is called He lived among us and contains a cartoon story plus the actual Bible text. This was well received, and in total about 2,000 books were delivered to forty schools.

The project was repeated again this year, but this time every school also received an invitation for a free performance of The Rocky Road Show Muppet Theatre. The number of books ordered was slightly lower than last year, but seventeen schools also asked for a performance, including three public schools! Reactions from staff and pupils have been very positive, and doors have been opened for a possible return visit, The Return of The Rocky Road Show!