Mad Hatters

 

Telling stories to children has been part of the Actors and Theatre Arts Guild since its beginning.  It was started by one of our early members, Helen Coulter, who moved to Sun City in 1998.

Having been involved in professional storytelling most of her life; Helen didn’t take long to develop a group to tell stories to children.  Helen asked Gary Miller, an AcTAG member and writer, to adapt a few fairy tales into short plays/stories suitable for children.

A few contacts with local school librarians got Helen and her group in the door.  And so, the Mad Hatters began.

Wearing colorful hats, appropriate for each story, the Mad Hatters have two performing troupes of six to eight each who read and act traditional fairy tales for their audiences.  One troupe performs for Head Start programs and nursery schools.  The second troupe performs for Georgetown ISD elementary schools and Jarrell elementary schools.  Both groups perform for Alzheimer patient groups.

The troupes perform throughout the school year and are seen by approximately 5,000 children each year.

AcTAG members support the troupes by creating special hats for each character, writing stories and participating as storytellers.