Slovenian Surprise

I was thwarted last night by the "no photography" rule. Even a video would not have captured the magic of the Slovenian children's puppet theatre.

As of this writing, I still don't know what we saw. It was a Hans Christian Anderson tale involving a soldier, witch, dog, theif, princess, queen, hangman (yes), king and firestarter. Any thoughts? When we inquired about the tickets (a bargain at 4 Euros each)we were reminded, "It is all in Slovenian." Universal puppets, Brett said. It won't matter.

Our family was about 10% of the audience in the tiny theatre. Vaudville style, 2 actors and an actress entered with a street cart and bicycle, dressed as Charlie Chaplin-like caricactures. Simple antics led to the set up of the cart into a small theatre that remained throughout the show. At times they worked puppets from behind and other times wore masks to work in front of the smaller puppets. Every scene change included brief entertainment- juggling, magic, dancing with twirling ribbons. With thier faces and voices exaggerated, it was easier to spot the cultural details.

It was a 40 minute show and afterward, our family tried to piece together the plot line. We couldn't concur. Knowing that puppet theatres closer to Austria can run a "PG" show, we felt pretty lucky to escape with a hanging and a few sparks. And sorry, no photos.

The theatre wasn't the only magical part of the day. DD6 will tell you about her white quilted vest she found at the market, but the rest of us will tell the tale of walking down from the town castle- a major attraction- into the parking lot of a Waldorf school!

For those outside the Waldorf world I should explain. Waldorf education is universally the same- same decor in the schools, same curriculum, same festivals and of course same philosophy. They are also few and far between in the states, but becoming more common. To us, this feels the equivalent of finding a relative greeting us at the bottom of the hill.

Greet us they did. The office person (administrator? admissions?)warmly shook hands with all the children and consoled us in our shock. "Yes, yes you were just coming down from the castle and you saw us here. It happens about once a month we have a family from the states appear at our door step surprised to find a Waldorf school." She immediately asked if the children were available to attend classes this week. "It is good for our own children too. We like to have visitors, so they can see there are other Waldorf children like them. Today we have a group from Romania and a group from Spain visiting the high school. Each gave a demonstration of dancing and singing." This place is hopping.

We were given a tour and the children were introduced to those in their own grade level, where they will spend time with today. Much like our own school, the children come from varied international backgrounds. In the 5th grade, 7 countries are represented. You always fit at Waldorf.

The school is 17 years old and when I said I was surprised by the high school, they said "Yes, it was started with the first generation. We knew it must continue until university."

DD6 is a little sad because the Early Childhood is on a separate campus. Maybe she could visit 1st grade? As it turns out, first grade is started a 6 years old. A controversial sticking point that is near and dear to our family. She is thier age.

We are all invited to the 2nd grade play today and of course classes. I'm up bright and early, glad to be sending my children to class, if only for the day.

(I found an English page to describe the puppet play! Adding this in after original post: http://www.lgl.si/predstave/ang/avzigalnik.swf)