CAMDEN — The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is a one-act play based on a story by the famed author and humorist Mark Twain. Camden- Rockport Middle school students will present this play as part of their program titled 3 Puzzled Plays taking place March 18 and Thursday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the Camden Opera House.

Besides Twain, the students will be presenting Charles, by Shirley Jackson, and Dear Maudie, by Michele Willens, as part of the evenings performance. 3 Puzzled Plays involves sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.

Charles centers around a boy named Mathew who reports daily the tales of the "bad boy" at school.

Dear Maudie is both hilarious and heartwarming as it examines two friends and the challenges of keeping a friendship going through middle school.

Twain’s tale of The Celebrated Frog is a rambunctious tale of the people of Calaveras County who are tired of being duped by schemer Jim Smiley, and hatch a plan of their own to get even.

General admission tickets will be sold at the door. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students, and $15 for the whole family.

Now, about that horse

Thunderbolt, as it is aptly named, was the brain child of Erma Colvin, John Chilton and Adam Bifulco. It has its own crew and even a handler.

Colvin said she got the idea when she saw War Horse on Broadway.

“Originally we were going to do a head and blanket with a person in the head and a person under the blanket,” she said. "I saw a production of War Horse on Broadway and thought, we can do a Joey.”

Joey was the name of the lead puppet in the Broadway production.

“I studied the videos on YouTube and thought we could do a simplified version," she said. "The videos basically showed us how.”

Enter seventh graders John Chilton, 13, and Adam Bifulco, 13. Both students are part of the school’s Robotics Club. The boys were charged with designing and making articulating, front legs and a working, tail mechanism.

The two agreed that the materials they had to work with were a limiting factor.

“It was more like lack of materials,” said Bifulco.

Colvin said they had PVC pipe and chicken wire to work with.


“The tail was hard “because there are bars in it that are intricate and hard to place in the space," said Chilton. "It’s not exactly the way we wanted it, but it works and it’s very functional.”

Chilton said if he had it to do over again he would make the front legs bigger and thicker and add more skin.

“Something to make the head hold itself up,” said Bifulco. “That’s what I would like to have seen.”

“We made the head out of paper mache, the tech crew put it together,” said Colvin. “Kiara Derrig helped me design the bridal. Kiara also taught the puppeteers [Will Nickerson, Ellie Lincoln and Emily Pratt] how to walk like a horse and she is the handler.”

They achieved the clip-clop of the hooves with coconut halves. Thunderbolt has his own pit crew that keeps him in tip top shape. Everyday, before every rehearsal or performance he gets a tune up.

“Everyday you need to check the nuts and bolts that hold him together,” said Colvin. “Last week after a rehearsal his head came off. We don’t know why.”

The middle school students showed great amount resourcefulness in building a horse that walks and actually acts and sounds like a horse. It’s just one part of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. There are the frogs, of course and a dog that was also made from paper mache."

Chris Wolf can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.