Puppets stolen in Hawaii - No strings attached
The thieves broke into the van and arts organization had three dolls worth $ 10,000, cutting the company's cast in mid-tour in the middle of the people, and received workers frantically digging rubbish bins in search of missing characters.
Maui Arts Academy officials said puppets foam coated fabric was created in 2009 by puppeteer Frank Kane, who worked for Jim Henson and the Muppets, and flew in Kahului. The group made a public plea for help to locate missing workers find ways puppets and trash cans for signs of them.
"They are really no value for those who took them, but they are of great value to us," executive and artistic director David Johnston said Monday. "We scoured the area looking for them."
The theft occurred when the company was preparing to fly to Hawaii to perform "The Adventures of Tikki Tikki Tembo" for preschool and elementary children, an adaptation of a popular Chinese folk tale that is seen by 45,000 children per year around Hawaii.
"It's one of our great events," said Johnston. "This result is strong enough for us."
The lack puppets portrayed Chang, Tikki Tembo younger brother, mother and Nobu, a minstrel of the people. The missing puppet characters have been consolidated through the reconfiguration of the roles of the puppet of others.
"We made an emergency cosmetic surgery," said production manager Mark Collman.
Johnston said he lost three of the six puppet exert financial pressure on the capacity for the concert hall nonprofit, because they are used so frequently.
