In January 2012 the Theatre department received a $1000 grant for a Community Outreach Project.  Their plan was to perform a puppet show at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, but because of the rule that all visitors must have flu shots, they had to change the location.

The head of the Theatre department, Amie Gossett, proposed the idea to The Missouri Thespians Society, where it was weighed against other proposals. West’s Theatre Departments proposal for a Puppet Show,“Ode to Landagonia” was awarded the grant, which paid for the script printing, puppet rental, coloring book printing, crayons and set creation.

Senior Meredith Parsons and junior Mary Lumley brainstormed ideas for the 20-minute script.

“Every childhood movie has this message they want you to walk away with, we thought, what could be ours?” Lumley said.

The main message of “Ode to Landagonia” is courage and believing in oneself.

The show will take place Dec. 10 and 11 at Trinity Lutheran Preschool as a field trip during school.  They will also be performing at the St. Louis Crisis Nursery later this year.

Each child will leave with an 18 page-coloring book, organized with passages from the script by senior Ezgi Ilhan and illustrated by sophomore Ellie Ecker.

After “Ode to Landagonia” ends, Lumley and crew hope the documentary made by junior Dide Su Bilgin will gain airtime on PBS.

“We’ve taken recordings of the process from auditions to rehearsals, with interviews from some directors and cast members,” Lumley said.

Once the show is performed, the students will add parts of the performance to the documentary before submitting it to PBS.