The Sesame Street Muppets get ready for another big tour
The
Sesame Street is once again teaming with the USO (United Service Organizations) for the tour, which will stop at 22 military installations across Europe, as well as
“What we bring military children is an opportunity to take a break from their daily challenges,” says Lynn Chwatsky, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Director for Outreach Initiatives and Partners. “We know how hard it is to be in a military family. We know they’re constantly facing transitions, such as getting ready for deployment and homecomings. Some of their moms or dads are on their third or fourth deployment. Some parents are coming home changed. We want to get children singing and dancing.”
TELLING MILITARY FAMILIES THAT WE CARE
“Our show helps the families of the military to transition when one parent has to leave, and hopefully will make things easier on everyone until the loved one returns,” says Liz Stout, who played Zoe on the 2008 tour and will return for the upcoming one. “I can only imagine when we go abroad how the families will feel to have us reach out to them. It will be a taste of home and a helping hand in dealing with a sensitive subject.”
“Like any USO program, what it does is bring the message home to the military community that the American public is thinking about you, we support you, we have programs that can help you,” she says.
“The primary focus of this tour is to bring a touch of home to the men and women who serve and their families,” she continues. “Families are the ones left behind. Imagine not being able to hear from a loved one for weeks or months at a time. How do you explain that to a child?”
The free show, which is exclusively for military families, features live character performances by Zoe, Elmo, Rosita, Cookie Monster and Grover. Audience members also receive giveaways — such as twirly lights — and outreach materials from Sesame’s Talk, Listen, Connect and other partners.
The approximately 30-minute show consists of singing and dancing, and delicately touches on the shared reality of military children: how to cope when a parent or other relative is far from home.
At one point during the show, Elmo expresses sadness that his daddy had to go away. He says to the audience, “Do you ever feel sad, like when you miss your mom or dad?”
“To hear 500 kids in that audience say, ‘Yeah!’ really says, wow, we need to do something for these kids,” Tischler adds.
CAREFUL PLANNING
In order to decide where the tour would visit, Sesame Workshop and the USO worked with the Department of Defense to identify the installations with the youngest children. They also looked at where the most deployments would be taking place.
Tour stops this fall include USAG Heidelberg in
Lynn Chwatsky says the reaction to the 2008 tour was extraordinary.
“We didn’t know what to expect. But it was a full house. People hear that the Muppets are coming, and they come. I had a mother in tears tell me, ‘I’ve never seen my child this happy.’”
“It’s really about trying to bring joy,” says Peter Van Roden, Vice President of Themed Entertainment for Sesame Workshop. “You just don’t realize the little things that they appreciate. We’re just bringing them a little show, but they are so appreciative of us coming out to see them.”
POSITIVE AND IMPACTFUL
“The USO does entertainment for the military better than anybody,” Chwatsky adds. “That’s their business. It was a great relationship because they’ve never done anything for the young ones. They’ve always served the service members. So it is a perfect relationship.
Bob Vogt, Community Recreation Director at
“The
Peter Van Roden agrees. “It is life-changing. I can tell you that this, by far, is one of the most important projects I’ve ever been associated with. It’s so wonderful, so positive, and we hope our association with the USO goes on for a long time.”
But don’t just take Van Roden’s word for it.
“We were at 29 Palms [