Honeybees Are Important! - Available for Touring

Honeybees are Important! written and directed by Sandra Hughes was performed by Gateway Performance Productions in Atlanta, Georgia on February 25th. The production was  presented  by Young Audiences at the Woodruff Arts Center.  Principal performer and master gardener Jerilynn Bedingfield portrays an Italian Honey Bee. Italian honeybees are favorites of  beekeepers in the USA.  Honey Bee is in trouble!

Comic characters from the Italian Commedia del' Arte Theatre - Michael Hickey as Arlequino and Sandra Hughes as Columbina - are determined to do everything they can to help Honey Bee stay healthy and able to pollinate to keep all the delicious, nutritious foods she makes possible in their diet...

Photos: Bunny Vrooman




... and in their beloved chicken Sylvia's diet as well. Sylvia is portrayed by Fieldtrip- a particularly gentle chicken who lives at Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Georgia. Fieldtrip has extensive experience as a visitor to schools and other community sites.
Honeybees Are Important! is about understanding how important honeybees are to food supplies for humans and animals and learning what we can do to help these tiny pollinators who  are currently threatened by disease, mites, pesticides and colony collapse disorder.  This production is part of Gateway's The Bee Project which provides educational performances, workshops, residencies and information about honeybees. The show has also been performed for family audiences at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History and is now available for touring to museums, theatres, festivals and other community venues. 

Bee Project programs have also been presented at the Chattahoochee Nature Center, the Averitt Center for the Arts in Statesboro, Georgia, Futral Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia and other school venues. Project and program sponsors include The Turning Point Healing Center in Marietta, Georgia,   Coastal Organic Growers, 21 Things I Love in London, England and the Phoenix and Dragon Bookstore in Sandy Springs,  Georgia. 

A school version of Honeybee Bee Are Important! was developed by Gateway during a YAWAC professional learning seminar facilitated by National Program Specialist Gregg Johnson. This version  of the production  has been performed at Garden Hills Elementary School in Atlanta and Seaborn Lee Elementary School in College Park, Georgia. It is now available for touring as well.

Contact gatewaypp@masktheatre.org  or 404 222-9262 to find out how to bring either or both of these productions to your community. Related workshops and residencies are also available. 
http://www.masktheatre.org/ 
http://www.thebeeproject.org/

These programs are made possible in part by support from the Fulton County Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council  and the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs.

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