09/01/2026
🎵🎻🎶🪈Colonial musician Robert Mouland will be joining us again this year for our Heritage Day Fall Festvial – but with a new twist! Mr. Mouland will be set up outside with his wagon, entertaining and educating guests of all ages with his fiddle, flute, hurdy gurdy, and dancing puppets. Marionettes a’ la planchette, or jig puppets in English, have been a form of European street entertainment for centuries. No one knows for certain their origins as they seemed to spread all over the continent and most likely made it to the shores of the American colonies as well.
A fully articulated marionette has a single string through the chest that attaches to the performer’s knee while the other end loops onto an upright. The puppet then dances on a wooden board while the musician plays. The string does tend to break eventually, so in the nineteenth century it was replaced with a wooden stick (known as limberjacks). But with the stick came the inability to play an instrument at the same time because the performer’s hand was now in use. These puppets can still be found on the streets of European cities today and Mr. Mouland enjoys performing with them at historic sites across the country using a variety of historic characters and instruments. You never know who you might see . . . maybe Mr. Washington or Ben Franklin. Don’t miss this fun and engaging presentation on October 18th!
