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It All Started with the Muppets…(June 2020)

It all started with the Muppets. A group of high strung, emotionally fragile and extremely talented felt creatures pulling their collective selves together to entertain. At five or six years old I didn’t see them as puppets, they were living, breathing creatures. I watched them, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in awe. It was magic. I was overwhelmed by Kermit’s patience, Scooter’s organization, Piggy’s beauty and Gonzo…that little blue freak would do anything for the show. I wanted to be a part of that chaos, that love, and all that fur.

In the 7th grade I realized I liked writing. my first story was about a dead guy that crawls out of his grave on every full moon to see the woman he left behind. He did it for a year and every month he deteriorated more and more until it was time for him just to die, for good. Though I had fun describing how more and more disgusting he got it was my description of the sunset in the opening paragraph that caught my teacher’s eye. She read it to the class and said, “Now that’s what I mean by description.” Those seven words was all it took. Words were magic.

In the late 90’s I was in my early 20’s and pretty much lost in regards to what I should do with my life. I knew what I WANTED to do. The theater and writing were right there in the front of my mind, pulling on my pants leg like a little kid…”hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey!…” Being impulsive from time to time, something my therapist and I are trying to find out why…I decided to do a show of my own. Impulsively. The Calvin Opera House in downtown Washington Mo had just gotten fresh owners. I marched myself there, talked to them and within 20 minutes I had free range of the theater for rehearsals and a couple of nights booked for whatever was going to be rehearsed.

So I did what any good theater-loving Muppet would do, I gathered all my poet, musician, actor and artist friends and put on a show. Silver Frog Productions was born. It was magical. I did my second show in 2001, right about the time I met my first husband. After that I fell in love, had two great boys, got divorced and still have two great boys. One is now bigger than me and the other isn’t far behind. I still know some of the people involved in those two shows and I’ve met a bunch more artists in the last 22 years.

“Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey…” that tug never left, but was just overshadowed by louder, stronger tugs. So what is a Muppet to do? You gather all your friends and you put on a show. Welcome to silverfrogproductions.org.