Book Fair and Saltimbancos

28 August 2011

This is from last weekend; better late than never. 

Details to be added later but it's a GORGEOUS day and right now I want to go out and play! :)

Back now and adding my notes on the photos.  This interesting looking flower is in one of the flowerbeds in the garden here. 

A closer view.

Some of my students posing with their creation, "Underpants Man".

Those spiky things are not devices to keep the birds off the power lines, they are some kind of moss or air plants that spontaneously grow there.

The event of the week was the Book Fair, which opened today in the Getulio Vargas plaza.  There were clowns and stiltwalkers to entertain the kids.

Booksellers were set up under canopies surrounding the fountain area.

There were also a few entertainments, such as this chess area for adults and kids.

And this children's play area, which had places for children to do crafts under the supervision of a pink witch with a puppet. 

A local school marching band opened the festivities with tunes from Lionel Richie, the Beatles, and other things which should never be adapted for tuba and snare.

At the end of the plaza a covered area was set up with a stage.  Here is a view of the very fine seating - boards on sawhorses.  Watching them spring up at one end when someone sat down on the other end and the ensuing surprise was hilarious.

The Saltimbancos performers preparing for their performance.  The performance reminded me of the Commedia Dell'Arte from the Renaissance Faires.

The cat was the first character to appear.

It was too dark for me to get good photos from where I was sitting, so I decided to try some video footage.  You will quickly see that the sawhorse-plank seating was very bouncy!  Everytime someone shifted their behind the plank would bounce like mad, so I apologize for the motion sickness potential of the videos.

The little play was adorable, about farm life.  Here the animals are singing their introduction.

In this one the farmer is introducing himself.

This one seems to be a bout the hard life of peasant farm workers.

The dog sings a solo with backup doggies.

The chicken arrives with some juicy gossip.

The chicken sings a touching song about her eggs.

Hopefully my Portuguese will improve to the point where I can understand more than just a couple of words in these songs as they seem quite darling.