Funded by an Artist Collaboration Grant for the State of South Dakota and the desire to create a performance piece that played with ideas as well as conventions; Bug City Music Festival was forged by Leonard and Eric beginning in Winter 2012 and continuing throughout the year. It was performed in May 2013 at the John T. Vurcurevich Event Center in Rapid City, South Dakota starring Leonard Running, Michael H. Black, and Eric Hedlund. It was remounted again in June 2013 starring Leonard Running, Sue Hey, and Lief Hey Running.
The show: 90 minutes long and containing over 20 pieces of original music and featuring elements of movement theater, mask and puppetry. It is composed of a series of 21 smaller vignettes staring 22 bug characters and one spider.
Bug City Music Festival is suitable for all ages 5 and up. Leonard & Eric plan to tour the show in 2014.
The show: 90 minutes long and containing over 20 pieces of original music and featuring elements of movement theater, mask and puppetry. It is composed of a series of 21 smaller vignettes staring 22 bug characters and one spider.
Bug City Music Festival is suitable for all ages 5 and up. Leonard & Eric plan to tour the show in 2014.
Leonard Running
South Dakota has been my lifelong home. I was raised in Custer and have lived in Rapid City for the past 35 years. When I was going to school in Chadron, Nebraska I got my first taste of being a traveling performer touring with a small chorus on public relations junkets around the panhandle. When I graduated and started teaching music on the Pine Ridge Reservation, I thought that teaching was not only too intense, it was also really confining.
After two years, I contacted two friends from high school who had started a puppet theatre called Dragons Are Too Seldom and they invited me to travel with them to Bar Harbor , Maine to do environmental puppet shows for the camping crowd at Acadia National Park. We lived in tents; did fractured fairy tales with music; we passed the hat and made enough for clam sandwiches, beer and a new tire for the trip home. I don’t think any of us were contemplating careers in puppet theatre at the time; these were the free-wheeling ‘70’s and we were having fun.
But this was also the halcyon days of the National Endowment for the Arts. We Dragons found ourselves uniquely qualified to join the first SDAC touring arts roster. Qualified not because we were educated in the art of puppetry but by having done a summer’s worth of puppet shows for donations in National Parks campgrounds and we loved traveling and performing.
That first year, we got $25 for each puppet show we did and that was matched by a grant from the Arts Council. We shared a motel room; ate in small town restaurants and put hundreds of thousands of miles on our Vokswagen van performing in all but 3 or 4 school districts in South Dakota.
With the guidance of the Arts Council, we learned more about puppetry and more about theatre and began to refine our presentations. We even toured with the Arts Midwest programs and Western States Arts Foundation encompassing 15 states. More miles in the van, more restaurants, but this time we didn’t have to share a motel room.
Now, almost 35 years since my Dragon days, I still do puppet shows and write music and perform. My wife, Sue Hey, and I have a theatre called Butterfly Puppet Theatre. My priorities now preclude so much traveling, but I have found various projects to keep my hand in (heh-heh) puppet theatre and spend time with my family in these beautiful Black Hills. I am exceedingly fortunate to have had such experiences in the arts so far. And now in my 65th year of life, I think I’m in a great position to do some experimenting and hopefully add to the art of puppetry.
After two years, I contacted two friends from high school who had started a puppet theatre called Dragons Are Too Seldom and they invited me to travel with them to Bar Harbor , Maine to do environmental puppet shows for the camping crowd at Acadia National Park. We lived in tents; did fractured fairy tales with music; we passed the hat and made enough for clam sandwiches, beer and a new tire for the trip home. I don’t think any of us were contemplating careers in puppet theatre at the time; these were the free-wheeling ‘70’s and we were having fun.
But this was also the halcyon days of the National Endowment for the Arts. We Dragons found ourselves uniquely qualified to join the first SDAC touring arts roster. Qualified not because we were educated in the art of puppetry but by having done a summer’s worth of puppet shows for donations in National Parks campgrounds and we loved traveling and performing.
That first year, we got $25 for each puppet show we did and that was matched by a grant from the Arts Council. We shared a motel room; ate in small town restaurants and put hundreds of thousands of miles on our Vokswagen van performing in all but 3 or 4 school districts in South Dakota.
With the guidance of the Arts Council, we learned more about puppetry and more about theatre and began to refine our presentations. We even toured with the Arts Midwest programs and Western States Arts Foundation encompassing 15 states. More miles in the van, more restaurants, but this time we didn’t have to share a motel room.
Now, almost 35 years since my Dragon days, I still do puppet shows and write music and perform. My wife, Sue Hey, and I have a theatre called Butterfly Puppet Theatre. My priorities now preclude so much traveling, but I have found various projects to keep my hand in (heh-heh) puppet theatre and spend time with my family in these beautiful Black Hills. I am exceedingly fortunate to have had such experiences in the arts so far. And now in my 65th year of life, I think I’m in a great position to do some experimenting and hopefully add to the art of puppetry.
Eric Hedlund
Currently living in New York, NY and working as an events electrician and stage carpenter.
I have loved to travel in the last 5 years and have gotten to visit: Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Kentucky, Providence, Israel and Cape Town, South Africa.
With the help of the Dakota Players, Dan and Deb Workman, Jen Dickenson, the South Dakota Arts Council, and the people of South Dakota, I have had the pleasure of traveling through South Dakota. In a week-long residencies, I had the treasured experience of working with thousands of youth over a year and a half of travels. On the road, I began to follow the events in Rapid City, where I grew up and first experienced theater. I was in Chester, SD when I heard that Black Hills Community Theater had an opening. Soon after I was Director of Education and Outreach at Black Hills Community Theater. I had a wonderful time and now continue my journey through the art world.
I am an actor, director, lighting designer, technician, carpenter, and occasionally barista. My interests are wide: history, politics, economics, psychology, theater, culture, journalism, and music. I have had wonderful personal influences in my life from the community of Rapid City. My first directors, Christine Gradl-Seitz and Kristi Thielen. Practitioners of spectacle and beauty, Justin Speck and Bonny Fleming. And the puppeteers, Claire and Markie Scholz. The independent genius and creativity of Daniel 'Catfish' Stanton and Leonard Running. I grew up here and still, after borrowing and learning from hundreds of other artists, the contributions of the artists that helped raise me here in South Dakota speak the loudest. My resume says I studied film and theater directing in California, interned at theaters in Minneapolis and South Africa, and even that I worked on a movie for the Coen Brothers, but the truth is, what I learned here still means the most. I'm still stealing from these guys, and probably always will. Thank you to everyone who has worked or shared their work with me.
My magnum opus is to write and option several historical mini-series: 1. The Merovingian - the birth of Christianity and a dynasty in early medieval France 2. Manifest - set in 1840's District of Columbia, and following politics and the maturation of the American enterprise. 3. Numbers - set in the desert following power, crime, and the adventures of the traveling jews of Exodus. 4. Babylon - Set in mythical Tower of Babel, Babylon 5. Train - Set amongst the Social Clubs and Magnates of 1875-1890's America. 6. Silk Road - a story of trade.
I have loved to travel in the last 5 years and have gotten to visit: Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Kentucky, Providence, Israel and Cape Town, South Africa.
With the help of the Dakota Players, Dan and Deb Workman, Jen Dickenson, the South Dakota Arts Council, and the people of South Dakota, I have had the pleasure of traveling through South Dakota. In a week-long residencies, I had the treasured experience of working with thousands of youth over a year and a half of travels. On the road, I began to follow the events in Rapid City, where I grew up and first experienced theater. I was in Chester, SD when I heard that Black Hills Community Theater had an opening. Soon after I was Director of Education and Outreach at Black Hills Community Theater. I had a wonderful time and now continue my journey through the art world.
I am an actor, director, lighting designer, technician, carpenter, and occasionally barista. My interests are wide: history, politics, economics, psychology, theater, culture, journalism, and music. I have had wonderful personal influences in my life from the community of Rapid City. My first directors, Christine Gradl-Seitz and Kristi Thielen. Practitioners of spectacle and beauty, Justin Speck and Bonny Fleming. And the puppeteers, Claire and Markie Scholz. The independent genius and creativity of Daniel 'Catfish' Stanton and Leonard Running. I grew up here and still, after borrowing and learning from hundreds of other artists, the contributions of the artists that helped raise me here in South Dakota speak the loudest. My resume says I studied film and theater directing in California, interned at theaters in Minneapolis and South Africa, and even that I worked on a movie for the Coen Brothers, but the truth is, what I learned here still means the most. I'm still stealing from these guys, and probably always will. Thank you to everyone who has worked or shared their work with me.
My magnum opus is to write and option several historical mini-series: 1. The Merovingian - the birth of Christianity and a dynasty in early medieval France 2. Manifest - set in 1840's District of Columbia, and following politics and the maturation of the American enterprise. 3. Numbers - set in the desert following power, crime, and the adventures of the traveling jews of Exodus. 4. Babylon - Set in mythical Tower of Babel, Babylon 5. Train - Set amongst the Social Clubs and Magnates of 1875-1890's America. 6. Silk Road - a story of trade.
Andy the Ant
Andy the Ant got her start in theater right here in Rapid City, South Dakota when a grubby-fingered, little human child dropped a piece of candy on the floor while watching a show. She has been hooked ever since and has worked at numerous, diminutive venues, such as; Inch High Cabaret, Ant Hill Community Theater, The Spider's Web, The Pint-Sized Palace Theater, The Anthrie Theater, Southern Anthill Repertory Theater, The Queen's Players, and many more. She is honoured to perform in Bug City Music Festival and would like to thank her family, especially her mother, Alice, and her sisters: Aaliyah, Abbie, Abby, Abigail, Abina, Acacia, Acadia, Achilla, Ada, Addie, Addy, Adelaide, Adele, Aden, Adena, Aditi, Adolpha, Adona, Adora, Adriana, Adrienne, Africa, Agape, Agatha, Aggie, Agnes, Ai, Aida, Aideen, Aiesha, Aiko, Aila, Aileen, Aimee, Ain, Ainsley, Aisha, Aisling, Aja, Akala, Akana, Akanke, Akela, Akila, Akili, Akilina, Alaine, Alake, Alala, Alana, Alani, Alba, Alberta, Albina, Alda, Alejandra, Alena, Alessa, Alessandra, Alethea, Alex, Alexa, Alexandra, Alexandria, Alexia, Alexis, Alfreda, Ali, Alia, Alicia, Alisa, Alisha, Alison, Alissa, Aliya, Aliz, Aliza, Allegra, Allie, Allison, Allora, Allyson, Alma, Almira, Aloha, Alona, Alouetta, Alpha, Alta, Althea, Alva, Alvina, Alvira, Alysa, Alysia, Alyson, Alyssa, Amadora, Amalie, Amanda, Amandine, Amara, Amaranth, Amazonia, Ambar, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amberley, Amelia, Amethyst, Ami, Amina, Amity, Amy, An, Ana, Anabelle, Anastasia, Andrea, Andromache, Andromeda, Anemone, Angela, Angelica, Anika, Anita, Ann, Ann-Margret, Anna, Annabeth, Annalise, Annalynn, Annamaria, Annapurna, Anne, Anneliese, Annette, Antigone, Antionette, Antonia, Anusha, Aphrodite, April, Arabella, Arabelle, Arachne, Arcadia, Ardelia, Ardelle, Aretha, Argenta, Aria, Ariadne, Ariana, Ariane, Arika, Arlene, Arlette, Artemis, Artemisia, Aruna, Arva, Asa, _Ashleigh, Ashley, Asia, Aspen, Astrea, Astrid, Atara, Athena, Atlanta, Audora, Audrey, Augusta, Aura, Aurora, Autumn, Ava, Avalon, Aveline, Avera, Averil, Avery, Azalea, and Azura.