Walk Two Moons

As adults, we know that life is unpredictable. There are surprises around each bend in the road, some pleasant and some tragic. We can’t plan for the unexpected, but we can learn to cope with it. Children, on the other hand, don’t know these things instinctively. Some manage to live many uneventful years with a stable home and family. For others there are multiple moves–to a new house, a new town, a new state. Accidents or illness may claim the life of a loved one. Adapting to change isn’t easy, and it’s a tricky skill to teach. 

Walk Two Moons is a stage adaptation of Sharon Creech’s Newbery-Award winning children’s novel about one young girl and the life changes she navigates over the course of a year or so.  The narrator of the story, Salamanca Hiddle (Sal for short), is on a road trip with her grandparents, but also addresses the audience as her memory flows back and forth from her childhood on a farm in Bybanks, Kentucky, to her new home in Euclid, Ohio. We are gradually introduced to more of Sal’s friends and family, including Sugar–her mom who left Kentucky a year ago, and didn’t come back. Sal is just sure if she and her grandparents can reach Lewiston, Idaho by Sugar’s birthday, she will agree to come home with them. 

On the road, Sal entertains her Gram and Gramps with the tale of her new Ohio friend, Phoebe Winterbottom, who has a colorful imagination and sees mystery everywhere. She is convinced the next door neighbor has murdered her husband, and that a stranger in the neighborhood is a dangerous lunatic. But then something happens that’s even weirder than what Phoebe imagines: her mother disappears, leaving only a note saying she’ll be back. 

This pair of mysteries, two missing mothers, gives the story structure. As Sal tells Phoebe’s story, she comes to terms with her own, as well.  By turns comical–especially Sal’s irrepressible grandparents and her drama-queen friend Phoebe–and tender, Walk Two Moons has something to say to children and adults alike about cherishing memories, coping with change and loss, not taking loved ones for granted, and not judging “a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.”

Performances are March 7-9 & 14-16 at the PPG ArtsLab, 300 E Main Street.
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 curtain
Sunday matinee 2:30 curtain
Adults $22, Seniors(60+) $19, Students $15; Groups 8+ $15 (must call box office for group tickets)
Tickets are available at the Arts United box office at 260-422-4226 or click this link!