David Hutchman — known by generations of children and their families for his work at Please Touch Museum — is taking his pal Digger on the road to perform original education-based shows at preschools, kindergartens, libraries, museums and daycares. His first professional job was with The Children's Repertory Company when he was a freshly minted undergrad from Temple. That was 1979 and they toured
the entire tri-state area. 250 shows a year out of an old blue van. He stayed for six years and went from actor to actor/playwright/set designer/board member by the time he was done. After Children's Rep it was The Lunch Bag Players at Tulane University in New Orleans (while he was getting his MFA in directing plays for big people). And then The Hangar Theater's Summer Children's Series in Ithaca, N.Y. in between directing MacBeth and A Midsummer's Night Dream. Back in Philly, he worked for 10 years helping young authors find their stage voices at The Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival. At the same time he also did a lot of big person theater in the city. Waiting For Godot, Virginia Wolfe, To Kill a Mockingbird. But he always returned to the kids. For the last 17 years, he was the Director of Performance at Please Touch Museum. President Nancy Kolb hired him to create a theater program from scratch and over the course of his stay, he created an entire catalog of original, age-appropriate, highly interactive one-person shows. He worked with the museum's education department to come up with a new show every year. And each show had a different visual and performance style and each took on a major child-related theme, such as fear, bullying, financial literacy, good eating or friendship. In 2013, he was invited to create a new Please Touch Museum show for the PIFA Festival at the Kimmel Center and President Ulysses S. Grant and the Great Centennial Banana Mystery was born. His work on the Please Touch Playhouse stage has entertained thousands and thousands of families. People who had seen him perform when they were kids eventually brought their own kids to his shows. But throughout his tenure at the museum, David truly missed touring. Taking shows to kids who have never seen him before. To some who have never seen a live performance before. So, David has teamed up with his old puppet pal Digger to create a whole new slate of entertaining and education-based stories and is taking his show on the road to libraries, day cares, pre-schools, kindergartens and museums all over Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Northern Delaware. David and Digger are looking forward to seeing you at one of their next shows! David lives in Lansdowne, Pa., with his wife, Martha, and their two turtles and three goldfish. David is an active member of:
Puppeteers of America
The Greater Philadelphia Puppetry Guild
IMTAL (International Museum Theater Alliance)
Kidabra! David is fully licensed and insured, and Digger has had all his shots.
