Patrons watch a puppet show at Dreamland as part of a special event New Year's Eve. Another special event is planned starting Friday, a full weekend of shows called "Puppetry in the Alley."

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com file photo

Perhaps you have not seen a puppet show since you were a kid, if ever. On the other hand, you may already be clued in that Ypsilanti has a number of talented puppeteers and its very own puppet theater (and more) downtown.

Since founding Ypsilanti’s Dreamland Theater, in 2002, owner and puppeteer Naia Venturi has been hosting creative and sometimes a little off-the-wall arts programming for both adult audiences and kids, as well as showcasing visual art and local music. Venturi is looking forward to showing off some of Ypsilanti’s puppetry prowess at the Dreamland Theater’s upcoming three-day puppet show series, “Puppetry in the Alley,” happening throughout the weekend of October 22-24.

Venturi will premiere her adaptation of George Orwell’s "Animal Farm" indoors on Friday, October 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. Then on Saturday, October 23, performances move outdoors to the alley behind the theater, from 2 to 10 p.m. A selection of local artists will perform in and around an old defunct elevator shaft on Saturday, including Jason Voss, Patrick Elkins, and Ryan Groendyk; a group of middle school students under the direction of Ika Danielson; and other local performers TBD.

Friday and Saturday shows will mostly be geared towards an adult audience, but Venturi isn’t leaving the kids out. Sunday afternoons are regularly reserved for kid-friendly puppet shows at the Dreamland Theater (every Sunday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m), so she decided to feature family-oriented puppet shows on “Puppetry in the Alley’s” final day, Sunday, October 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. inside the theater.

Venturi’s puppet version of "Animal Farm" will be performed on three stages — “a triptych” — inside the Dreamland Theater, on Friday. The main stage will feature marionettes, hand puppets, and rod puppets depicting scenes that happen in the farmyard from the story, and two side stages will feature shadow puppets acting out scenes from the barn and the hill near the farm. After its premiere at “Puppetry in the Alley, the show will run three additional Saturdays, November 6, 13, and 20, beginning at 8 p.m. (doors at 7:30 p.m.).

Venturi says her version “stays true to the original story,” however, adapting such a “long book with a lot of narration” into a condensed puppet show presented her some challenges, she explains. “There are a lot of things that happen in the story, so I did my best to break it up into scenes and capture the essence of what Orwell was saying,” in his 1945 novel, which critiques human nature and revolution using the farmyard setting to create an allegory.

Although she follows the plot, “I tried to keep it as light as possible, because it’s a really sad story,” Venturi explains. “I’m working on having the characters stand out as individual personalities. I think that will help make it less preachy,” she says.

Saturday’s “Puppetry in the Alley” shows will be performed by a variety of local puppeteers. Patrick Elkins is planning a show “about a chicken who is incapable of dreaming and is seeking a golden potato that helps someone remember their whole lifetime of dreams,” he told Venturi. Jason Voss is planning a shadow puppet show “about the number seven,” he explains. “Seven days of the week, seven chakras, seven visible planetary bodies, and others. I’ll also include different songs about seven,” he says. Ryan Groendyk is coming in from Lansing, where he recently moved for school, to contribute an original shadow puppet show, which will include projected animations. Venturi will present a puppet version of Stephen King’s classic "Children of the Corn" out in the alley, as well as the Friday and Saturday before Halloween, from 7 to 8 p.m. “We don’t do it completely seriously. We try to be scary, but it’ll probably end up being pretty funny doing it with puppets,” she says.

Kid- and family-friendly performances include a puppet show with original music written and performed by middle school students under the direction of educator Ika Danielson. The kids will perform their piece both Saturday and Sunday. Venturi is planning a Mad Libs-themed puppet show to add some childish fun for all ages to the Saturday and Sunday’s shows. In addition, more kid-appropriate programming will most likely be added to Sunday’s schedule before show time.

“In the back of the building there is an elevator shaft,” Venturi says. “When I bought the building (Dreamland has been at its current location since 2006), we had to cut the elevator because the mechanism was broken. It was hanging there on the second floor, so we dropped it to the basement. On Saturday, we are going to open the roller door to the room where the elevator shaft is, which will serve as our primary outdoor stage,” Venturi explains. Weather permitting, Saturday’s shows will be a great chance to do something in the open air before the season changes. But if it rains, Venturi has a tent ready and the show will go on.

Jennifer Eberbach is a free-lance writer who covers art for AnnArbor.com.