Never mind swimming with sharks when you can be with prehistoric marine dinosaurs and reptiles that lived billions of years ago. OK, a bit overly exaggerated, but Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium Adventure is an immersive and educational opportunity for both children and adults to have fun and “experience” what it might have been like in earth’s oceans eons ago.
The show uses actors, puppets and technology to introduce audiences, especially young people, to the real science of paleontology. “There is a large tank on the floor of the stage, which is created to look like you are underwater,” explained Eryn Malafronte, one of the puppeteers and hosts of the show. “Floating puppets are designed to seem weightless as they swim underwater. I work three puppets in the show, including the beautiful, 6-foot-long, 3-foot-wide baby plesiosaur, and am dressed head to toe in black.”
Malafronte’s puppet is attached to a backpack which she wears during the performance so she can maneuver the long-necked reptile, which weighs about 50 pounds. “The show is choreographed,” Malafronte said, joking that if it wasn’t, the puppeteers would “be clotheslining each other.” Four kids are selected from the audience and brought up onstage to get up close to the creators.
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 6 p.m. Nov. 20, starting at $14.95 plus tax and fee. 702.749.2000
