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Programs and Descriptions: |
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Karen fell in love with storytelling in 1990 and has been telling professionally ever since. She specializes in folktales from around the world which spotlight the heroism and humor of ordinary people. Her programs include riddles, songs, poems, movement and lots of audience participation. She has performed her one-woman variety shows in elementary and secondary schools, libraries, clubs, churches, universities, museums and senior centers from California to East Tennessee. Since 1997 Karen has been resident storyteller for the Riverside Public Library’s First Sundays Program. She appeared in Corona, Irvine and Oakland as part of the Smithsonian Institution's 1994 California tour. Her CD, “Cooler Water Cora and Other Stories,” is the winner of a National Parenting Publications Honors Award and an iParenting Media Award for Audio Excellence. Karen teaches storytelling for the UC Riverside Early Childhood Education Certificate Program and has worked as a performer and artist educator with the Riverside Arts Council since 1993. She is a touring and teaching artist for the McCallum Theatre Institute in Palm Desert, and presented her workshop “Storyhour Stretches with the Brain in Mind” at the National Storytelling Conference in Chicago in 2003. Karen is a member of the National Storytelling Network and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She has received the Arts Angel and Artist of the Month Award from the Riverside Arts Council, and the Celebrate Literacy Award from both the Inland Empire and Arrowhead Chapters of the International Reading Association. She holds a Master's Degree in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Karen is also a graduate of the California Arts Council/Coro Southern California Arts Leadership Program. The Really Big Bug ShowThe Really Big Bug Show features a real, live Traveling Flea Circus, and that’s not all! Award-winning Family Entertainer Karen Rae Kraut rolls songs, stories, magic, and some crazy jitterbugging into this one-woman variety show overflowing with audience participation. Bi-lingual. I Wanna Be a Dog …A one-woman variety show of stories, songs, riddles and poems that chronicle the antics and adventures of our four-legged friends. Stories from Tanzania, the U.S. and Mexico. Music, songs, lots of audience participation, bi-lingual. La Mariposa and Friends: Close Calls!Join La Mariposa the little butterfly, Turtle Koka, and the Doodle Bug in stories and songs in which the little creatures face some hair-raising adventures with two legged and four legged predators. Songs, riddles, stories and movement activities make for lots of audience involvement. For pre-school through third grade and their families, bi-lingual. Animal Tales and Tunes for Pre-schoolThe Teeny Weeny Bop searches for the perfect pet in highly interactive program for pre-schoolers and their families. Songs, nursery rhymes, drawing stories, and singing games make this an engaging pre-school program that will keep little wigglers involved from start to finish. 30 to 40 minutes. Songs and Stories of the Wild, Wild WestRamblin’Rose, that rambunctious Cowgirl, sings traditional cowboy songs, shares authentic cowboy lore, and combines music and storytelling for the bi-lingual, rip-roarin’ true adventure of young Elfego Baca, set in 1884 New Mexico. Audience members take the stage to model bandanas and join Rosie in some tuneful cowgirl yodeling. See her whale on washtub bass and don’t miss special guest Petunia the Performing Cow, who will even do a little hoofin’. Some comments about Karen’s showsThank you so much for your hiliarious and creative program…You were…just mahvelous, simply mahvelous!...We always expect a good show but you have outdone yourself…I’m still laughing. Thank you very much for your wonderful performance…The kids loved the dancing, storytelling, and especially the music, as well as your interaction with the audience. It was a hit!...We will welcome you again any time. Karen Rae Kraut is a delightful and thoroughly professional performer. She worked with Mary and me, via e-mail and telephone, arrived early, set up her own stuff (quite a bit of stuff, by the way), was ready to go on time, and was extremely supportive and appreciative of the responses from our young children in the audience. Everyone was enthralled with her “flea circus.” If you’ve never seen one, you must see Karen’s. Totally fun. Kids were rapt with attention, their mouth hanging open and their eyes…well, “as big as sauces” would not be an understatement.
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Karen Rae Kraut spent her early years as an actress and singer. She performed in more than 100 plays and musicals and one opera. She earned a Bachelors Degree in Drama from the University of Southern California and studied acting for three years with the legendary Stella Adler in New York City. She graduated from the Stella Adler Theatre Studio and appeared in two plays directed by Miss Adler. 