Crane's Promise

Fri.-Sat., May 8-9, 8 p.m., and Sun., May 10, 3 p.m., $12, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., 215-387-1911, cecarts.org.

by Shaun Brady

puppetry/dance/storytelling

When architect-turned-puppeteer Martina Plag heard Decemberists singer Colin Meloy discussing his song cycle "The Crane Wife" on NPR, she was intrigued by the Japanese folk tale on which it was based. She's far from alone — the story has countless variations across several cultures. A tale's survival is all in the telling, of course, and Plag has devised a new variation that combines elegant puppetry with dance and just a hint of text. While based on Bunraku, the piece sheds the puppeteer-cloaking black garb and lets the typically hidden manipulators become storytellers in their own right, their yarns intersecting with the main tale.

Fri.-Sat., May 8-9, 8 p.m., and Sun., May 10, 3 p.m., $12, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., 215-387-1911, cecarts.org.