"Furious George Goes Bananas" Live! The Opposite of Avatar!

On Saturday, June 12th, I had a dream come true. With some fantastic help, I put on a play of one of my books at The Chatham Playhouse, home of the Chatham Community Players, in New Jersey. I had done many shows there as a child, and cut my acting teeth on that very stage!

We performed an awesome, amazing, and exhilarating version of my latest book, “Furious George Goes Bananas!” It was as if the illustrations walked right off the page and onto center stage!

We went all out on the production! No prop was too intricate! No costume was too outlandish! No spectacle was too elaborate! The following shots are from the first of two packed performances.

Which is the book?

Which is the stage show?

I dare you to tell the difference!

Here, in an early pivotal scene, the Man in the Funny Hat lures George with a pile of bananas! Such authenticity!





Midway through the story, the drama heats up, and George gets furious at a construction site! Such vision!





In the penultimate scene, George is taken advantage of by a scientist! Such pathos!





Laughs! Heartache! Whimsy! Histrionics! It had it all!

Stay tuned for more!

Live Action Preview...

Here's a shot from the past weekend. The "Live Action Furious George Goes Bananas" went over very well, and was lots of fun. I'll more pics in a few days, as I have to get them sorted. We had a full gorilla costume, and made a few additions to it to make it look more like George in the book.

Today I'm banging out a cover for my next book, which I hope to announce soon.

Furious George Live!

Heads up! I am doing a "live" version of "Furious George Goes Bananas" this Saturday at the Chatham Community Players in my home town, Chatham NJ. The show is coming together very quickly and will be a little rough around the edges, but I do know that we've got a guy in a gorilla suit! What could be better? Shows are at 11:30 and 1:30. I'll also be doing a "live" reading my first book, 1997's "The Painting Gorilla." (Sadly, it went out of print about two years ago.)



Please stop by for the show and to say hello. I'll also be siging copies of "Furious George."

Furious George Review #4

Betsy Bird, who Forbes Magazine called “the most powerful blogger in kids’ books,” wrote an incredible review of “Furious George Goes Bananas” back in January. I was waiting for the book to come out to post the review, however, Betsy’s gigantic Blog is migrating, and the review is not currently available. However, she kindly put up a copy at Amazon.

“There is no feeling in the world quite like returning to a picture book you loved as a kid, only to discover how weird or disturbing that book was all along. A lot of adults experience this when they first have kids of their own and want to read them the books they used to love. The green elephant in Babar. The unapologetic nudist in In the Night Kitchen. And then there's Curious George. That happy little monkey has long since had his adventures adapted into movies, television shows, spin-offs, and even iPod apps. But when you go back and reread the original stories you may find yourself more than a little perturbed by what he experiences. Michael Rex sure was…”

Read the rest here…

Thanks Betsy!

Forbes

Betsy’s Blog

This old man...

More watercolor work. I'm getting there...

More Peaches...

Here's another drawing of my caveman character, Peaches. He just got some new sneakers and he loves them! Just a goofy watercolor/ink with brush test.

BookPage Interview

I was recently interviewed by BookPage, which is a free review journal with a circulation of 400,000. As you can see, they inteview the author/illustrators in a really fun way. It was great to be asked to do this, as it shows strong support for Furious George. This is a scan from the actual paper, you can click it to see it larger. I think the link will be up soon.