'The Green Adventures of R-Man': Play designed to get kids excited about protecting Mother Earth

April 13, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. It's the mantra for all things "green," and it's making its way to the theatre to help drive the lesson home with kids. Hosea Sanders gives us a sneak peek in this "Live Green with ABC7" report.

You don't have to be a superhero to help rescue the planet, but there is one coming to a local theatre that's up for the job. Children and children at heart will learn how they save the earth's resources by living green.

It's the "Green Adventures of: R-Man"  the "R" of course, stands for reduce, reuse and recycle.

You can reduce it, by opting to go with a lunchbox instead. You can reuse it by making that same bag last an entire week. Or you can recycle it by placing it in one of those nifty blue bins that you see at your school or playground.

The play aims to teach children the values of recycling and how they can play a role in protecting the earth.

"Sometimes textbook lessons on recycling and ways to be green can be a little bit dry and boring, so we try to make it interesting and exciting," said "Earth Kid" Briana Bower.

The show is a production of the Child's Play Touring Theatre, which started more than 30 years ago in Champign-Urbana.

"The green theme is something that's near and dear to our hearts," said June Podagrosi, co-founder of Child's Play. "R-Man was created by Christopher Baltnick, who is now 30 years old, when he was 10 or 11. So it's been around for 20 years."

Child's Play's productions always incorporate children's ideas. Christian Vernon, who stars as the green superhero, adapted their stories for this show.

"Last year, we went to a lot of different schools and we did workshops about recycling, and we gave them ideas about things to write about recycling, about how not taking care of the earth can hurt, and the kids wrote back a lot of responses about that," said Vernon.

The "Green Adventures of: R-Man" will take the stage at the Old Town School of Folk Music next Thursday. There will be two shows next Friday at Freedom Hall in south suburban Park Forest.

For ticket information go to www.cptt.org or www.freedomhall.org

Get more Green »

green, hosea sanders

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•