By Donna Barr

Clallam Bay correspondent

Luce Puppet Company brought the delightful one-woman puppet show “Diggity Doo, Delicious Too!” before a small audience in the Clallam Bay Library, Tuesday, July 15.

“When we have a small audience like this, it’s like we’re playing to royalty!”

Luce Puppet Company, by Elizabeth Luce, was awhirl with the adventures of a too-trusting baker, a king who called everybody “peasant” – even the delighted audience – and a sidekick who was just a little bit too helpful, but who in the end saved the day with his magic sea chest.

On their adventures, they met a banana-ship-gobbling sea monkey, and a huge fuzzy pink carnivorous rabbit, whose roar of “Meat on feet!” had the audience in stitches.

Luce opened the puppet theater, easily stripping material fastened to the light stage with velcro, to reveal the inside workings of a puppet stage.

Puppets that had been so lively when possessed by Luce’s hands hung limply, upside down, off the racking bar – the bar running across the front of the theater used to support the characters.

The theater used to feature a two-man show, Luce said, and to keep up some of the complexity of using two hands instead of four, she now has to keep the space inside the theater working as efficiently as possible.

Luce demonstrated puppet construction and the theatrical motions that give life and personality to the characters.

Luce and the pink monster rabbit helped the audience learn how to speak puppet, leading them through the alphabet. One of her bare hands demonstrated how to work the puppet, supporting the floppy material, like a skeleton. Her other hand was hidden inside the puppet, who, with a raw red mouth and jagged teeth snapping away, roared the alphabet.

After, children in the audience were allowed to try on the puppets.

Mikiah Winter, Aidyn and Alec Shingleton, Kiley Winter, and Elizabeth Luce gave life to the sidekick, sea monkey, king and even the banana boat, while Luce barely kept the monster rabbit under control.

The show was presented by the Friends of the Clallam Bay Library.

For more on the Luce Puppet Company, go to www.lucepuppetco.com.