Make Believe Neighborhood

I found Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood when I was three years old, and subsequently discovered the creator and host of the program, a gentle, calm, and caring man named Fred Rogers, talking directly to me. Like millions of other preschool-aged children, I was mesmerized by this show that was designed especially for my social and emotional development. Millions of children around the world instinctively knew, and still know, Fred Rogers was giving us something unique and invaluable we needed to grow.

As a young adult, I feel I was called, like Fred, into a vocation working with children and youth. My calling was also similar to Fred’s in that it addresses the social and emotional aspects of youth development; especially creative self-expression. A vocation to work with puppets called soon after. I feel a kinship with Fred through our common work, love of puppets and music. I have always wanted to create a puppet show – or even a whole parade – to honor his profound work and legacy that quietly, gently changed the world.

When the opportunity to create a larger show came up at HOBT, I thought – This is it. Let’s do a show about Fred Rogers. But what would Fred want me to do? Would he want a show just about him? No, he’d want me to look around at my neighborhood. In the early phase of the project, I also wondered what story can I tell that needs to be told? The answer that stuck out clearly was that I can help to tell the story of the neighborhood I live and work in, with my neighbors. So I’m doing both, exploring my neighborhood’s story and my hero Fred Rogers’ story through this puppet show.

Fred often talked of when he was a child and would see something scary in the world or in the news. He would say that his mother told him to always look for the helpers. She would say, that in any dangerous or scary situation, remember there are helpers, and look for them. Fred took that advice and made it part of his life, work and art, consistently shining a light on the neighborhood helpers. I took that advice also for this project.

In the summer of 2016, three youth apprentices from HOBT’s Phillips Project and I went out into the Phillips Community neighborhoods to find and video-interview “helpers.” We interviewed over 30 helpers, and developed a list of dozens more we could have gathered. This work became a great inspiration to me. The work became the core theme of our youth programming for two years, exploring, collecting, and developing neighborhood helper stories with youth, artists and neighbors. Our neighborhood is the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the state, a good representation of the world living in this one place, full of positivity and hope. This richness is astounding, as there are many challenges and problems that form a microcosm to the challenges of our country and our world. The summer we conducted the video interviews, crime and violence were especially present right outside the doors of the theatre and all over the neighborhood. I felt we needed to tell these positive stories to hold up the incredible positive work going on despite the problems, especially then, and especially now that greed and hate have gained a new foothold of power in many places.

In this project and in this puppet show, you will see and hear many people telling these stories. I am extremely humbled and extremely grateful that they have joined in the storytelling. Thank you so much! I feel we are in-between stories right now, in our culture, in our country, and in the world. And the more we share our own stories and wield our creative self-expression, the more we help to write this new story, and we really need this new story. Let’s make that story and believe in it, now and together!