A Bear, A Moon, and A Caterpillar: Treasured Stories by Eric Carle – website
To see a video preview of the show, scroll to the bottom of this post.
Location: Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
Phone: 773-871-3000
Dates and times: May 2 – 27 (Some shows are sold out already!)
Mondays – no shows
Tuesdays – 10:15 am
Wednesdays – 10:15 am
Thursdays – 10:15 am
Fridays – 10:00 am, Noon
Saturdays – 10:00 am, Noon, 3:00 pm
Sundays – 11:00 am, 3:00 pm
Admission:
Adults – $26-$41
Children – $18-$31
Parking: Metered street parking is available for $1.50/hr with a three hour maximum.
To travel by train, use the Red, Brown, or Purple line; the closest El stop is Fullerton. To travel by bus, take the Lincoln Avenue (#11), Fullerton (#74), or Sedgwick/Ogden (#37). Valet parking is available for $11 on weekends.
Bathrooms: There are public bathrooms (the women’s is to the left when you enter the building, with a private handicapped bathroom next to it, and the men’s is straight ahead past the bar.) There are no changing tables in the bathrooms, but there is a bench in the women’s room.
Nursing: There is no designated nursing area.
Handicapped/stroller accessibility: The theater is very accessible. There is a ramp next to the stairs inside the entrance, and an elevator to the second floor. There is a separate private handicapped bathroom near the women’s bathroom. The theater offers a stroller parking area.
Other features:
- The Chicago Children’s Theatre is working with Open Books for a Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book Drive. A box will be available at the theatre for donations of new and used books which will benefit Chicago area children in need. To promote the book drive, celebrity reading ambassadors will appear before the show on certain dates. See the Special Events below for details and dates.
- Crayons and coloring sheets are available for the kids in the lobby before the show begins, as well as cutouts for taking pictures.
Food: The Biograph Theater has a concession bar with beverages and snacks. It is open on weekends, but it was closed when we attended a weekday show in the past. They also have an online list of nearby restaurants that offer discounts to ticket holders.
Special events:
- May 12 at 10:00 am – Little Beans Cafe Post-Show Party
- May 12 at Noon – Celebrity Reading Ambassador – Illinois Governor Pat Quinn
- May 13 at 11:00 am & 3:00 pm – Mother’s Day crafts courtesy of Wishcraft before and after the show
- May 19 at 10:00 am – Building Blocks Post-Show Party
- May 19 at Noon – Celebrity Reading Ambassador – WGN-TV’s Ana Belaval
- May 20 at 11:00 am – KickSprout Post-Show Party
- May 26 at Noon – Celebrity Reading Ambassador – Ralph Covert of “Ralph’s World”
- May 26 at 3:00 pm – Macaroni Kid Post-Show Party
- May 27 at 11:00 pm – My Gym Post-Show Party
We paid: We received complimentary tickets to the show. We paid $3 for 2 hours of metered parking and we purchased bottled water for $2 and yogurt covered pretzels for $3 at the concession bar. Our tickets would have cost approximately $144 (although seats in another section would have been $84) for our family of four.
Our experience:
We’ve been to several Chicago Children’s Theatre shows now and we’ve been very happy with all of them so I really had high expectations for this show, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.
We arrived at the theatre early and the boys settled down with some coloring sheets and crayons.
We had great seats, off the the right but in the lower section, but all the seats in the theatre are pretty good. Before the show started their was an announcement that it was a “no shushing” show so the kids could help characters out or recite the stories they recognized. A “no shushing” show is my favorite kind; I can quietly answer questions and not cringe (much) every time the boys yell out things like, “The caterpillar is pooping a cocoon!”
The show is done with puppets and set pieces painted with black light paint so they glow; the puppeteers wear all black so they are invisible (or nearly invisible) for the entire show.
The show starts with the story of the Hungry Little Caterpillar, then Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and ends with Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me.
The boys (and John and I) were delighted with the entire show. The glowing puppets floating in the air kept their attention for the entire show and they both giggled every time the caterpillar climbed up the tree or dangled from the branch or leaves. We all really enjoyed the show and the boys were so involved in the show that they were quiet most of the time, except when they really liked something and had to point it out to me or John.
After the show was over, the puppeteers came out and explained to the kids how they put on the show. It was fascinating to hear about it and I was shocked to find out there were only two puppeteers (I would have guessed four or five). They took questions from the kids and requests to see particular puppets or set pieces.
It was a fantastic experience. The Chicago Children’s Theatre continues to impress me with the shows they bring to Chicago.
Because we were there for a blogger event, after the show and post-show were over we had the opportunity to come up to the stage and check out the puppets and get some great pictures of the boys.
