Middleborough Public Library

In August 2023, Grumbling Gryphons Traveling Childrens Theater will perform Anansi, The Trickster Spider: A West African Tale at the Middleborough Public Library (MA). Celebrating its 5th decade, Grumbling Gryphons has received the Governor’s Arts Awards in recognition of its achievement and contributions to the arts in Connecticut. In this interactive show, Anansi manages to trick the various animals of the jungle and retrieve the stolen stories from Nyame, the greedy sky god of the Ashanti people. Through the pre-performance workshop, children become village dancers, monkeys, elephants, hippos, bees, crocodiles, and spiders while learning songs, chants and movements to perform in the show. Other activities are mask making workshops including a cross-generational collaboration with the Council on Aging, purchase of additional books associated with the tales of Anansi and incorporating the service of an ASL translator to support children from a local deaf and hard of hearing program.