Home Care In Glen Echo, MD

Weeks later, Glen Echo park still struggling to recover from storm damage

That big Saturday storm that caused power outages and downed trees was now three weeks ago but some are still dealing with its after-effects, including one of the DMV’s Iconic landmarks.

BETHESDA, Md. - Severe storms that caused power outages and downed trees slammed the DMV about three weeks ago but some are still dealing with its aftereffects, including one of the area's most iconic landmarks.

Glen Echo Park in Bethesda was closed for the week.

Park officials say about 15 trees went down, damaging some of the historical components of the park that have kept generations of families coming back for years.

Some of the horses and benches on the carousel were damaged and they’re blocked off with caution tape right now.

The organ that plays the music is normally a real organ that is self-playing but the organ was damaged, so they’re playing a recording in the meantime.

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The park started a fundraiser.

It’s owned by the National Park Service but largely operated by a nonprofit called the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture.

They’re working to raise $50,000 to help with repairs and with lost wages because they closed for a week.

The fundraising campaign is just a few days old, but it’s already raised nearly half of the goal. Chief Operating Officer Emily Rogers says that’s a testament to what this park means to people.

"It’s amazing to feel the love of the community, I mean, I am here every week and I get to see people enjoying the park so much, but for people to open their wallets, um, without thinking twice about it to show up at our summer concerts with checks and donations has been amazing," Rogers.

Rogers says some of the fixes they need to make are tough because of how specialized they are.

“The King’s daughter shall in her fifteenth year prick herself with a spindle and fall down dead.” Thus reads a frightening line in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of “Little Briar Rose” or “Sleeping Beauty,” in which a princess is doomed to die but a curse is mitigated. Again, quoting from the Grimms, “It shall not be death, but a deep sleep of a hundred years, into which the princess shall fall.” Of course, “this sleep extended over the whole palace.”

…loyal to the romance and imagination of the Brothers Grimm tale while softening some of the more somber elements with humor.

The Puppet Co. presentation of the tale is excellent because it is loyal to the romance and imagination of the Brothers Grimm tale while softening some of the more somber elements with humor. In this vein, there are references to popular culture and everyday slang. When baby Briar Rose cries and is reprimanded for doing so. For example, the king and a frog exclaim, paraphrasing a 1960s rock-and-roll hit: “It’s her party, and she’ll cry if she wants to!”

While the frog is merely a minor character in the Grimm fairy tale version, but the frog hops front and center in the Puppet Co. retelling. Here he is the Royal Storyteller at court who has been turned into a frog because of annoyance caused by his proclivity to end stories incessantly with the cliché “happily ever after.” Cliché or not, this story of “Sleeping Beauty” (here she is also called “Briar Rose”) does end happily ever after to the delight of children viewers.

The cast is excellent, with Cate Ginsberg (listed in the program as a “newly minted puppeteer”) performing the role of Fairy 13 who casts the wicked spell intending Briar Rose’s demise. While Briar Rose is normally portrayed by Gabe Jolly, director Elizabeth Dapo took on the role with flair in the performance we saw. Danny Pushkin was in fine form as the humorous Royal Storyteller/Frog. If the storyteller is going to spend more than 100 years as a frog, he had better “make the most of it,” he says, hopping by, sunning himself, and eating flies. (“Eating flies?! Yuck!”). Each of the three cast members also takes on the parts of other characters to round out the play.

The puppet costumes, designed by earlier Puppet Co. innovators Christopher Piper, MayField Piper, Allan Stevens, and Eric Brooks, are gorgeous, as are the regal stage sets, with everything suggestive of a fairy-tale kingdom of long ago. Lighting by Elizabeth Dapo is employed effectively to create mood and atmosphere. Notably, music—such as Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” and Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer”—is used, bringing the world’s great music to young ears, as The Puppet Co. productions regularly do.

Running Time: Approximately 45 minutes with no intermission.

Advisory: Recommended ages 4+.

“Sleeping Beauty” runs through April 9, 2023 at The Puppet Co. Playhouse, 300 MacArthur Blvd, Glen Echo, MD 20812 in historic Glen Echo Park. For more information and tickets, go online. Mask required performances: March 23 – March 26. ASL interpreted performance: March 19 at 11:30 am. Sensory friendly performance: April 2 at 11:30 am.

Glen Echo Park's historic Dentzel Carousel and other park structures sustained damage from strong storms that hit the D.C. area on July 29.

|Updated Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 2:40 pm ET

GLEN ECHO, MD — The destructive storms that hit the Washington, D.C. area on July 29 damaged historic structures and knocked down more than 15 large trees at Glen Echo Park in Maryland.

The park also lost power for three days after the storm, forcing park-wide closures and cancellations of all events and activities, including two children’s theaters, a nature center, and other visual and performing arts studios.

Glen Echo Park, at 7300 MacArthur Blvd., is owned by the National Park Service, but is funded through grants and donations. The park is managed by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture in partnership with the National Park Service and Montgomery County.

The Glen Echo Park Partnership said Friday that the storm caused $50,000 in repairs and income losses. The partnership has created a new Lift Us Up fundraising campaign to raise money for recovery efforts.

Park officials spent almost a week clearing debris and assessing the impact to the Spanish Ballroom, Bumper Car Pavilion, yurts, parking lot, playground, walkways, and other buildings at the park.

Find out what's happening in Bethesda-Chevy Chasewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Staff cleared water from a fire sprinkler system malfunction inside the historic Dentzel Carousel caused by the lengthy power outage. The almost-century-old Wurlitzer band organ at the park also sustained water damage.

Glen Echo Park reopened the evening of Friday, Aug. 4, almost a week after the storm.

“We are so grateful to supporters who reached out with concern and a willingness to help while the Park remained closed for tree removal and stabilization of structures to ensure a safe reopening,” Katey Boerner, CEO of the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, said in a statement Friday.

Remediation and repairs inside the park due to the storms are expected to continue into 2024, the partnership said.

“While the numerous arts and cultural programs in the park remain strong and the beloved Dentzel carousel is in operation again — despite several animals that sustained damage being off limits to riders — the public’s help in recouping losses is essential,” said Ama Mills-Robertson, chief program officer of the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture.

Donations to the Lift Us Up campaign will also be accepted in person at the park’s last free summer concert of the season on Thursday, Aug. 24, at 7:30 p.m, and at the partnership’s Labor Day weekend events, including the Labor Day Art Show (Sept. 2-4) and the Social Dance Showcase (Sept. 2-3), where staff will be available to receive contributions.

Visit the Lift Us Up fundraising campaign site if you are interested in donating money to help with the storm repair and cleanup costs at Glen Echo Park.

Carousel Day, an annual event at Glen Echo Park, will be held April 29, with the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers headlining the event.

GLEN ECHO, MD — Carousel Day, an annual tradition at Glen Echo Park, will be held on Saturday, April 29, with the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers headlining the event with a free performance in the park’s historic Spanish Ballroom.

The festival will also include art projects for children, open art studios and galleries, and a parade through park grounds led by the Washington Revels.

Carousel Day is presented by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture and often attracts up to 4,000 people who come to the park to celebrate the opening of the Dentzel carousel for the season.

The event will take place on April 29 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers will perform with dance, drum and song. As many as 10 million Native Americans lived in North America before the first white settlers arrived and decimated their communities and culture.

A succession of Algonquian peoples coalesced into the Piscataway Nation of the Chesapeake & Tidewater regions of Maryland. The Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers carry on the traditions, culture, and heritage of their indigenous ancestors.

“The partnership acknowledges the many Indigenous peoples who have known the Potomac Valley and its lands and waters as their homeland for thousands of years,” Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture CEO Katey Boerner said in a statement Thursday.

“It is with respect and appreciation that we have the opportunity to present the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers at Glen Echo Park,” she said.

Opening the Carousel Day event will be the Washington Revels leading a musical parade through the park. They will also perform in the park’s Bumper Car Pavilion and lead a Maypole Dance.

The Washington Conservatory of Music will present a Musical Instrument Petting Zoo. Visitors can meet musicians demonstrating their instruments, and kids can pick up a Musical Instrument Zoo Scorecard, collect stickers from all the instruments on the card, and be entered to win free music lessons, a ukulele, or free carousel rides.

Carousel Day performers also will seek to embody a theme of art and nature, including Envirodrum and Billy B. Envirodrum’s music underscores the importance of preserving the environment and practicing “the 3R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” The band uses all recycled products to create percussion-based music.

Billy B.’s lively song, dance, and stories combine environmental education and entertainment.

Also, “Uprooted,” a sculptural installation by environmental artist Stephanie Garon, will be unveiled on April 1. The sculpture will be on display on Carousel Day and for the rest of the year. The work considers humanity's interruption of nature and is composed of steel and English ivy, an invasive plant species sourced at Glen Echo Park.

The public will be able to take rides on the 102-year-old Dentzel carousel. Carousel rides are $2 per ride or $5 for an all-day ticket.

One day a prince was out disguised as a hunter. He found himself hungry and knocked on the door of a home in which a girl, who appeared to be a household servant covered in dust, kindly shared her breakfast with him. He mentioned there would be a big ball at the palace that evening and that he might see her there. Such is one scene from the current production of “Cinderella” at The Puppet Co. Here and elsewhere in the production, the story has been expanded in creative ways, adding unfamiliar scenes to the story. The effect is that we are almost experiencing the story anew.

…a wonderful choice to keep ‘Cinderella’ true to the romantic spirit of the original story…highly recommend parents bring their children to see this production.

This latest production of the Puppet Co. is an excellent recreation of a show written and designed by Christopher Piper, founder of this resident marionette troupe at Glen Echo Park. It contains many hallmarks of the Piper method including the use of classical music (the “Barcarolle” from Jacques Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffmann” is heard, for instance) and loyalty to the original source material. In this latter vein, there is a reference to a horrific moment in the Grimm fairy tale version of “Cinderella,” in which her wicked step-mother hands one of her own daughters a knife when the famous slipper is too small and dainty to fit. She says in the original, “Cut the toe off, for when you are queen, you will have no more need to walk on foot.” Yet this is told in passing as a joke in this version so as not to upset children.

Despite an expanded storyline and other unique choices, there are also familiar visual allusions to Disney’s “Cinderella” which children will appreciate as well. For example, the pumpkin is turned into a Rococo-style coach and a mouse becomes a horse. All of this is achieved with the use of special effects that have traditional charm but which are also innovative.

The production has a sleek and handsome look and the puppets sparkle beautifully—such as the wicked stepmother decked out in seventeenth-century high fashion and the father dressed as a cavalier. A special moment is the costumed ball when the puppets wear exquisite masks. The color coordination is also a wonder to behold. In the scene in which Cinderella and the prince in disguise are discussing breakfast, the brown tones of the puppet costumes and kitchen and orange pumpkin in the corner all coordinate beautifully. This is also a pleasing aesthetic as the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella, in her silver dress, is presented against a blue background.

A nice detail also emerges when Cinderella begins to assert herself against the cruel treatment of her stepmother and stepsisters, even before the prince rescues her from her impossibly bleak situation. In this version, the lead character is called Ella. It is her stepmother who cruelly names her Cinderella or “Ella of the Cinders,” reminding us of the classic comic strip “Ella Cinders.”

The Puppet Co. is known for a modern take on fairy tales with a refreshing and irreverent attitude. Yet in the production, it was a wonderful choice to keep “Cinderella” true to the romantic spirit of the original story. The show’s success is due especially to the efforts of Bridgid Wallace as Cinderella, Penny Russell as the Fairy Godmother, and Kristina Hopkins as the Stepmother. The show is directed by Liz Dapo (also Understudy) and assistant director Dillon Mitcham. I highly recommend parents bring their children to see this production.

Running time: One hour with no intermission.

“Cinderella” runs through August 28, 2022, at the Puppet Co. Playhouse, Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Maryland 20812. To purchase tickets, please visit here. COVID-19 Health and Safety: Masks are required.