On the Road: The Great Mountain visits Stratford and the Big Apple

The Great Mountain crew hit the road for another tour to visit schools in Stratford and Mitchell, Ontario before heading out to New York City.

This being our first visit to Stratford with The Great Mountain, we were excited to visit the schools to share this exciting new piece! Both the students and teachers were very engaged and attentive as we even had some non-blinking students right in the front row! They also encouraged an encore at the end of the show.

The Grade 6 teacher from Upper Thames Elementary School said, “That show was absolutely incredible…no doubt the best show we’ve ever had at this school, and I’ve been here a long time”

The Principal at Downie Public School was also really appreciative of the show saying, “This show is so great…not only does it have a great environmental message; but the message of sharing, trust, honesty, being helpful, is so wonderful; more shows should be like this”.

Shortly after our return to Toronto, the crew flew down to New York City to perform at the prestigious National Museum of the American Indian, the sixteenth museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Museum of the American Indian is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans of the Americas. What an honour it was for Red Sky to perform at this space, not for the first time, but for our second!

The show was actually delayed as we were shocked to see a group of about 300 Grade 4 students file in from Manhattan and the surrounding areas including Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. This was a surprising turnout as we were moments away from the start of the show. This audience was by far the most demonstrative to date and the students particularly loved the stomp dance sequence and even cheered them on. The cast had never heard such an energetic response from an audience before!

Shawn Termin of the Smithsonian Institute commented on the show saying it was “an absolutely incredible show…such an amazing job, and the audience was so receptive because it was done so well!”

What a great way to finish off the first tour of The Great Mountain! Thank you all to our presenters, fans, and friends this season! Watch for The Great Mountain tour in our Fall and Winter tours coming up soon.