AboutImagine a feather encouraging us to have a strong backbone. A grain of sand demanding it’s an individual even if it looks the same as trillions of others. The book and pencil protesting that they are becoming redundant. The leaf reminding us that every crinkle tells a story and that ageing gracefully is virtuous. Seashells insist that even if cracked and broken they are useful. What is “perfect” anyway?
In this entertaining presentation, objects and elements of nature come alive and tell their stories while accompanied by a musician and visual artist. Available for live presentations in Schools and Colleges, Parks and Gardens, Museums, Libraries, Conservation and Sustainability Groups and Organizations, and for Special Events. |
Performance Samples
Dramatist Guild of America, Times Square, NYC
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Mary Rogers Theatre, NYC
Photos by Nicky Conti
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Leaf
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Oil
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Production Images
Reviews
What a wonderful way to spend time witnessing your brilliant ode to nature. Glorious! Entertaining and Fun.
Jojo Maurno, Performer and Producer of Children’s Theatre, Mary Rodgers Theatre, May 7, 2023
A tour de force. Environmentally conscious, brilliantly researched, written and performed. Lots of food for thought while we went “Ahhhhh” after each of the 20 “Voices From Nature”.
Christine Donnelly, Professor, School of Visual Arts, New York, 2023
It was as if we had commissioned this piece for our special day in which we focused on environmental consciousness. Stella, an educator, writer and performer extraordinaire our day made super relevant and special. Teachers and students loved “Voices From Nature.”
Patricia Runcie-Rice, Grade Level Coordinator & Theatre Educator, The Packer Collegiate Institute, March 9, 2023
Jojo Maurno, Performer and Producer of Children’s Theatre, Mary Rodgers Theatre, May 7, 2023
A tour de force. Environmentally conscious, brilliantly researched, written and performed. Lots of food for thought while we went “Ahhhhh” after each of the 20 “Voices From Nature”.
Christine Donnelly, Professor, School of Visual Arts, New York, 2023
It was as if we had commissioned this piece for our special day in which we focused on environmental consciousness. Stella, an educator, writer and performer extraordinaire our day made super relevant and special. Teachers and students loved “Voices From Nature.”
Patricia Runcie-Rice, Grade Level Coordinator & Theatre Educator, The Packer Collegiate Institute, March 9, 2023
Testimonal Highlight
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Two of the Voices
SAND
There are trillions and trillions that look just like me. But, they’re not me. I just can’t prove it.
It wasn’t me that scratched your back. Got in your eye and soda. It wasn’t me that clogged up your washing machine last summer. Got stuck in the creases of your armpits and the back of your knees. I just can’t prove it.
You can dust me off. Fob me off. Shake me. Flush me down the drainpipe or suck me up into your vacuum cleaner. There’s just no way of getting rid of me.
I just can’t prove that I am me. Not when I look like all the rest. Blame Mother Nature. She makes all the decisions.
It wasn’t me that scratched your back. Got in your eye and soda. It wasn’t me that clogged up your washing machine last summer. Got stuck in the creases of your armpits and the back of your knees. I just can’t prove it.
You can dust me off. Fob me off. Shake me. Flush me down the drainpipe or suck me up into your vacuum cleaner. There’s just no way of getting rid of me.
I just can’t prove that I am me. Not when I look like all the rest. Blame Mother Nature. She makes all the decisions.
SEASHELLS
Hey! You only picked some of us up to take home in that bright red plastic beach bucket of yours. How come? We all got washed up onto that large sandy beach you love to walk on. We all like to feel wanted, right? Even if we don’t all look perfect. Cracked and broken ones like me like to feel useful, too, and we are. Make no mistake! Sometimes, we’re broken on purpose to create brilliant, colorful mosaics, and to form patterns around mirror frames and on furniture; to fancy stuff up.
The perfect ones look pretty in a glass bowl on the edge of your bathtub, make pretty necklaces, earrings, brooches and hair pieces, and decoration for your belts, hats and handbags, and on jewelry boxes and ornaments. “Shell Art,” they call it. And, in some places, shells are added to the clothes of kings, queens and tribal elders. Makes them look pretty good, if I may say so myself.
And we have history, oh yeah. Some of us small, easy to carry seashells were once used like money, “Cowry,” they called us. They made tools and oil lamps out of us and they used large conch shells as bowls, and even bathtubs. Can you believe that? And large snail shells were used as musical instruments. The ones you blow. Like trumpets. Yep, we come in all shapes and sizes.
And, did you know that we seashells are made up of a mineral called calcium carbon. If you break us up into small pieces and add us to the soil everything in your garden will grow healthier. And if you ground us into powder and add us to poultry feed, your chicken will be healthier and happier.
I tell you there’s no end to our good use. We’re all good for something, right, whether we look perfect or not. Kind of makes you wonder what looking perfect is all about.
The perfect ones look pretty in a glass bowl on the edge of your bathtub, make pretty necklaces, earrings, brooches and hair pieces, and decoration for your belts, hats and handbags, and on jewelry boxes and ornaments. “Shell Art,” they call it. And, in some places, shells are added to the clothes of kings, queens and tribal elders. Makes them look pretty good, if I may say so myself.
And we have history, oh yeah. Some of us small, easy to carry seashells were once used like money, “Cowry,” they called us. They made tools and oil lamps out of us and they used large conch shells as bowls, and even bathtubs. Can you believe that? And large snail shells were used as musical instruments. The ones you blow. Like trumpets. Yep, we come in all shapes and sizes.
And, did you know that we seashells are made up of a mineral called calcium carbon. If you break us up into small pieces and add us to the soil everything in your garden will grow healthier. And if you ground us into powder and add us to poultry feed, your chicken will be healthier and happier.
I tell you there’s no end to our good use. We’re all good for something, right, whether we look perfect or not. Kind of makes you wonder what looking perfect is all about.