@coracle 

It's hard to say. Obviously Logos Theatre could not have taken their shows anywhere for a while when covid hit. 

In talking of Narnia stage adaptions, there's a ballet school called the Hosanna Dance Studio in Eugene, Oregon. Every December, they put on a ballet version of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. If any of you are in the Eugene area, the ballet is worth seeing during the Holiday season.

@jasmine_tarkheena  true. But it is a massive show, with huge sets, as well as a large cast, and they continue to do shows at their theatre all year round.  Driving it across country even this far is very expensive.

I hope some of my American friends can get to Washington to see it. I had the privilege of seeing the opening night of the premiere production, in 2019. I know it's wonderful.

On the west coast, getting to your local ballet production sounds like a great opportunity!

@coracle 

And it's great for the holiday season. It's no surprise that The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe gets adapted the most.

On my website I did a series about all the different ways the character of Aslan is presented on the stage.

Puppet Aslan

Actor Aslan

Dance Aslan

Future Aslan

@cobalt-jade Very interesting! I must say, none of those stage versions of Aslan really "does it" for me, especially the ones where he's basically a man in a lion costume. I know I read somewhere that Lewis himself once stated he hated the idea of Aslan being portrayed that way in a stage or screen adaptation — unfortunately I can't find the quote at the moment.

I once saw (in December 2019, just before Christmas) a live stage version of LWW in London with Aslan played simultaneously by an actor and a puppet... which, unfortunately, I didn't find very effective at all. This is what I wrote about it at the time (at the start of this thread):

As for Aslan... this was probably the biggest let-down of all. He was portrayed by a guy (the same actor who played the Professor) in a big fur coat, with a sort of huge lion puppet (with spooky glowing pupil-less eyes, dragonfly-like wings and assorted flowers in its mane) hovering around in the background, very rarely even held above the human actor. So it didn't even feel like Aslan actually was a lion at all, let alone a breathtaking, majestic, awe-inspiring presence that you can't help being drawn to. Which pretty much cuts out the whole heart of the story....

Oh yes, and as a last laugh — anyone else here remember how the Talking Beasts podcast presenters recently went over the old BBC TV version of LWW and cracked up at the hokey way in which Maugrim the wolf "roared" at the end of episode two? Well, the fur-coated bloke in this stage production did exactly the same thing for Aslan's roar, with exactly the same lack of impressiveness. "RRRAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

I do in fact have a soft spot for Aslan as portrayed in the BBC series (included at the start of your blog too). I've seen a video about how they made that puppet and it turned out his face was controlled remotely by animatronics — fairly high tech for 1988-89 (and certainly for the Beeb's notoriously low budget for children's programmes back then), although they never did get him to lip-sync very well!! But they gave him such an appealing face (much more so than the CGI version of him in the Walden films, which I'm afraid I just find ugly), and, as you say, Jade, the voice actor, Ronald Pickup, did a pretty good job too.

All the other puppet Aslans you've included are, I think, pretty awful (especially the ones where he looks almost skeletal — and that last one!!!). But I reckon he COULD be portrayed with a puppet very effectively if only some really expert designers could spend a lot of time and money getting him right. About 10 years ago, there was a stage production of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse here in Britain, which soon became famous for the sheer awesomeness of the puppetry — the horses were giant puppets controlled by three people each, and they were SO well done, with all their movements so realistic, that after a while you almost stopped seeing the puppeteers and could just about believe these were real, living horses in front of you. I went to see that play three times — it was that good — and was totally blown away each time!! So yes, it would theoretically be possible to do Aslan on stage so brilliantly as well. At least, I live in hope...

Here's an stage adaption of The Silver Chair that Encore! Theatre did some years ago.

Hello, fellow NarniaWebbers,

I'm a bit late to this party (listening to Talking Beasts atm) but I'm looking forward to seeing the video @jasmine_tarkheena just posted.  But when it comes to stage adaptations of Narnia, the first thing that comes to mind for me was this amazing local school's performance of LWW.  Aslan was not a puppet - and IMO doing Aslan as a guy in a costume is not great either. But the play as a whole was awesome!  Very immersive, like being there!  The costumes were very well-done, and I loved the couple times they had characters go down the aisle.  Like the scene with Edmund and the Witch, where two kids literally pulled her sledge onto the scene, right past me!  I didn't notice that it was kids pulling it, cuz the whole thing was such a cool surprise!  And in the final battle, they did this really creative trick with the lights, so the horde of monsters cast shadows on the walls, making it look like there were a lot more of them than there actually were.  Not that it was without criticism - the dwarf hopped out of the sledge and messed with Edmund: "Bow in the presence of the Queen of Narnia!  Lower!"  And I was like, whoa... okay... that's kinda random."  And like I said, Aslan standing on his "hind legs" (lol) the whole time was... kinda weird.  But considering it was a school play - and just the fact that they did LWW of all the things they could've done - I don't care.  It was so fun!  Our own little adventure in Narnia!

Here's a stage production of The Magician's Nephew.

Members in America may be pleased to know that The Academy of Arts/Logos Theatre is bringing back its production of The Horse And His Boy to the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, for a summer run.  Dates 23 June to 6 Aug. 

It will also take it to Branson MO just before Christmas. 

EDIT: Branson run will be 7-16 December, at Freedom Encounter. 

There will also be another Narnia production at the Museum of the Bible in early 2024 but it hasn't been announced yet.

(The Logos's own Theatre in South Carolina will be having some building work during this time)

Posted by: @coracle

Members in America may be pleased to know that The Academy of Arts/Logos Theatre is bringing back its production of The Horse And His Boy to the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, for a summer run. It will also take it to Branson MO just before Christmas. 

Branson, MO has a theatre called Sights and Sounds, where they put Bible stories on stage. I've actually seen a performance of Joseph there.

So Narnia in Branson, MO sounds like fun.

@jasmine_tarkheena I just checked, and have added in the details in my previous post. 

It will be staged at Feeedom Encounter, in Branson. 

Playing 7-16 December 2023

I think the Spring 2024 touring production at Museum of the Bible will be Prince Caspian.

It's just turned up on the Logos Theatre website, as a poster for the 2024 season (Feb 23 to April 14).

So it's either a placeholder or the actual thing. The words accompanying it still say TBA (to be announced). 

But it's the obvious show to take, considering they did it recently. 

Logos has confirmed that it will be presenting Prince Caspian at Museum of the Bible in Spring 2024.

Fox News has an interview with people from Logos Theatre; puppetmaster Justin Swain and artistic director Nicole Stratton, talking with Lauren Green from Lighthouse Faith. It's 40 minutes long,

https://radio.foxnews.com/2023/04/30/the-logos-theater-a-disney-alternative-raised-for-such-a-time-as-this/?fbclid=IwAR2_OYOhmb5tbftbMJwa2ze-2hYqVe5G5c4JgPB-3NXja1OG0tRzkQ7PzwY

I hope they show The Horse and his Boy where I live soon and not discontinue it.