An Out-of-This-World Visitor: The Little Prince is here!

As the school year draws to a close, it seems everyone is busy with something. College students are all studying and trying to juggle multiple projects and fast-approaching deadlines. Parents and children are finishing up schoolwork and planning summer activities. For those who have completed their education, the approaching summer brings hope for more carefree times outside with family and friends...once they get their work done.

In the midst of it all, The Little Prince will have its world premiere at the QC Theatre Workshop in Davenport May 3-19. SAU Theatre Department Chair Daniel Rairdin-Hale's sabbatical project has brought Quad Cities artists together.

This project asks, "If you don't have the time to enjoy your life, appreciate the beauty around you and connect with the people in your life, then what's the point of all the work we're doing?"

The Little Prince will be performed as a children's show at the QC Theatre Workshop now and at SAU in the fall. This play touches on universal themes such as loneliness, love and loss. Therefore, the story is for people of all ages.

SAU alum Aaron Randolph III '02, '10, who worked to translate the original novella into a script, was drawn to the depth of the story. He said it's essentially a piece of philosophy masked as a children's fairy tale. This complexity brought some challenges to writing the script, though. To make it more engaging for audience members, Randolph and Rairdin-Hale rearranged elements and edited the original story for the stage. They also had to refresh and modernize the language, because the story was written in 1943.

Even with these changes, Randolph believes the core of the story remained the same. He mentioned that throughout the show, the aviator is focused on trying to fix his plane so he can leave the desert, but the Prince keeps trying to get the aviator to watch the sunset with him.

"The message of finding the beauty in day-to-day life and not just focusing on the end goals but actually enjoying the journey is something that is really simple to say but comes through in a very profound way in the story," Randolph said.

Rairdin-Hale's area of focus in the show-puppetry and mask-making-has built the Prince's fantasy world and characters alongside the script. A few months ago, Rairdin-Hale was casting the first two masks for the show-a process that began with clay sculpting, then plaster casting then finally pouring coats of Neoprene over the plaster. Now, almost every character wears a mask, or is a puppet, except for the aviator.

Rairdin-Hale and Randolph explained that the spectacle of masks and puppets is a striking way to immerse the audience into the fantasy of the Prince's world.

"The only real person in the story is the aviator, who's the narrator of the book," Randolph III said. "All these other elements are memories or stories the Prince is telling. I thought that would be a great way to differentiate between the real world and the fantasy world of the story."

Past visitors to SAU theatre productions may have seen Rairdin-Hale's large-scale puppets in Alice in Wonderland. For The Little Prince, he's outdone himself by working with Aaron Hook, SAU's technical director, on intricate puppets that can be fully operated by one person: the Snake, the Little Fox, the Rose, and the Prince himself.

Each puppet is built from wood, springs, and fabric (and "blood, sweat, and tears," Rairdin-Hale said). One new challenge for his puppet-making skills was the articulated operating joints on the Prince's arms.

"For every mechanism that works, we've tried it on ten others that didn't work," he said.

These designers' dedication to their craft didn't stop here, though. The puppets' designs draw from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's original illustrations, and the masks are each adorned with pages from the novella, as if the characters are born from the words themselves. Rairdin-Hale also added watercolor accents in the style of the original illustrations with the help of Joseph Lappie, SAU Art Department Chair.

Other Quad Cities artists of all kinds who have put their love and care into the show include SAU alum Zachary Lawson '18, who is the stage manager, and Amelia Fischer '16, who is a cast member. Lappie is creating the show's original art. Hook is designing the scenery and lighting. Randolph III and other Quad Cities composers are writing original music for the show. With the possibility of this show traveling in the future, these artists could get the chance to take their work on tour!

St. Ambrose is proud of these artists' hard work on The Little Prince. If you want to catch the show before seeing it on the SAU stage this fall, make sure to visit the QC Theatre Workshop these next three weekends from May 3-19. All the artists and many more are eager to show you the wonder of the Prince's world!

If you're still too tied up with work and want some of The Little Prince's magic and fantasy, it's okay to start small. Set your work down for a moment, step outside, and watch the sunset.