Following the "Catch the Reading Bug" theme, Acting Up has come up with another exciting show. This story takes us to a deep part of the reading garden of your local library where the grass is a little taller, the flowers a little smellier and the bugs a lot thicker. There is a wonderfully smart caterpillar that lives there named Casper; while Casper has sat around waiting for his turn to become a butterfly he has taken up a hobby. He reads voraciously; in fact he reads so much that he has convinced himself that he is not a caterpillar but he is a bookworm and will not turn his back on what he truly is. His friends and relatives are shocked and worried because he no longer spends any time in his cocoon and all he does is finish one book and run off to the library to get more. If he keeps this up he will never turn into the beautiful butterfly that nature intended him to be.

The show will have many of the Acting Up staples such as comedy, pop culture references, many revolving colorful characters but most of all in this one it will have a moral about beauty not only being in the eyes but also in the mind. While everybody else thinks that Casper should be concentrating on being beautiful on the outside he is having no problem concentrating on all of the wondrous things that fill the inside of his mind with books. Will he become that beautiful butterfly that everyone wants him to be or will he continue making trips to the library and feed his urge to become a bookworm? Tune in this summer at a library near you.

Acting Up Theatre Company has been touring libraries and summer schools for the past 8 years with their wonderful messages about reading. Last summer found them performing 60 shows in many different locations, they were voted #1 in amoungst 15 performers in the Capital Area District Libraries in 2003. We look forward to once again being in libraries in both Peninsulas this summer, but book fast, dates are already beginning to fill up.


Characters

Casper the Caterpillar: This caterpillar has identity issues; he is a caterpillar who is due to become a butterfly if he would just stay in his cocoon. But he keeps going off to the library to get more books because he is convinced he is a bookworm

Uncle Ant: He’s an ant who is an uncle but not an aunt who is an uncle. He tries to get Caterpillar to stop reading and get in his cocoon.

Frankie Flutterby: The best looking bug in the 13 colonies. He is colorful, handsome, a snappy dresser and quite charming. He does all he can do to convince his Caterpillar cousin to be the same thing he is: A snobby, stuck up, selfish beauty.

Beeswax: A friendly yellow jacket who has his own opinions on personal identity. “You can’t change who you are in here, no matter what you look like out here. And if they don’t like it they can mind their own beeswax.

**Piggy-back pricing is available to libraries who have another library within 40 miles that can book in the same day. Must allow at least two hours (travel and set-up) between performances.