Old Mr. Toad Nature Stories and Songs

NOTE: This performance will take place at the Lanesville Community Center.

Manship Artist and Mask Maker Eric Bornstein and his cohort, including Puppeteer Margaret Moody and Singer Songwriter Phil Berman will present the premiere performance of Old Mr. Toad Nature Stories and Songs to our Community before he begins its regional tour.

Following the tradition of Aesop’s Fables and other anthropomorphic nature stories, Bornstein has crafted a series of tales inspired by the original children’s book about Old Mr. Toad. Through the pageantry and magic of mask and puppet theater, Bornstein and his collaborators will teach lessons on how to care for the planet and all her creatures great and small.

This program is the first event in our 2026 Firefly Fiesta offerings that educate the public about the natural world and our critical role as protectors and stewards of native habitats and species.

Reserve your spot HERE.

ARTIST BIOS

Eric Bornstein is the Artistic Director of Behind The Mask Studio/Theatre. He is an award-winning artist who specializes in custom-made masks and puppets, arts education, and mask theater programming. Bornstein studied mask making with masters Agung Suardana in Bali, and Donato Sartori in Italy. He received his MLA in Fine Arts (Art History) along with the Thomas Small prize from Harvard Extension School. Bornstein was awarded a Fulbright award to revive and reinvigorate the art of giant puppet effigies in Jamaica in 2017 and won the Excellence in Production Design award at the New York Musical Theatre Festival for his masks in Le Cabaret Grimm in 2012. Past clients include: Boston and Ft. Wayne Ballets’ Nutcrackers, Sugarloaf Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast, Boston Lyric Opera’s Madama Butterfly, Peabody Museum at Harvard, Gamm Theatre’s Morality Play, corporate video game promotions for Bethesda Softworks video games: Dishonored (Versailles, France), Skyrim/Elder Scrolls at The Boston Park Plaza Castle, Wolfenstein, and The Evil Within, Underground Railway Theater’s Life of Galileo, and First Night Boston. Eric was also featured on the PBS hit show, Pinkalicious and Peteriffic. He currently teaches classes in making and performing masks, and offers performances and residencies to schools throughout the state through Arts For Learning Massachusetts.  www.behindthemask.org –  FACEBOOK  –  INSTAGRAM       

Margaret Moody loves the way a few hands and puppets can tell a lot of stories. She studied Bu Dai Xi hand puppetry in Taiwan with master Li Tien-lu and includes the style’s acrobatic movements in all her puppet work. Through Margaret Moody Puppets, Margaret creates solo shows focused on the emotional lives of children for those aged 3 and up, as well as group performances with environmental themes for children 4 and older. Under the banner of Galapagos Puppets, Margaret and Madeleine Beresford perform episodes of the Chinese epic Journey to the West accompanied by the Jimmy Zhao Chinese Music Ensemble of Malden. Since 2019, Margaret has performed as “Alice” in Dream Tale Puppets’ “Alice, or the Red King’s Dream,” a show based on writings of Lewis Carroll. Margaret has collaborated with mask artist Eric Bornstein in a Monkey King show and was delighted to perform as a giant turtle in  Saint-Saen’s“Carnival of the Animals,” which Eric directed for the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. margaretmoodypuppets.com and galapagospuppets.com Review of Galapagos Puppets’ “The Fiery Mountain”: New England Theatre Geek, 3/2/2026

Phil Berman is a singer songwriter, puppet-adjacent performer, and music educator based in Cambridge, MA. Compositions include songs and scores for Party Animals, Puppet Playtime, Three Blessed Brothers, and The Penelopiad. Live music for puppetry performance includes The Joshua Show, What the Moon Saw (Puppet Kabob), Brundibar (Central Square Theater), What Are You Eating (Puppet Kitchen) and the annual Puppet Showplace Theater Holiday Singalong with Sarah Nolen. Phil also teaches over 200 weekly students aged infant-5 years old through New England Conservatory’s expanded education early childhood program. His albums The Battle of Bunker Hilland Play the Part (released as Phil and the Flying Leap) are available wherever you stream music. His new single ‘Spring Again’ was released in March, with more new music on the way in 2026. linktr.ee/PhilandtheFlyingLeap – www.philberman.net