Offscript - The Children’s Hour

The first stage play I ever saw left a lasting impression. About 30 years ago my mother took me to a show at the Academy Theater in Buckhead. The title is lost to me, but I recall it entailed a kind of magical battle of the sexes, with the boys and girls in the audience divided by gender with a cast of male warlocks and female witches. The action involved us casting “spells” at each other by shouting out letters like “R-A-T-S” or “W-A-S-H-I-N-G M-A-C-H-I-N-E,” causing the actors to pantomime rodent behaviors or spin cycles. It ended, naturally, with a message of unity and mutual respect.

Did it spark a lifelong love of live theater? Well, no. At the time I just saw a bunch of long-haired, black-robed grown-ups and thought, “These people are out of their minds.” But it’s certainly proved the staying power of children’s theater. Now, with Atlanta theater continuing to face austere economic times, perhaps the children shall lead them.

Tradition holds that family shows are reliable moneymakers, and that if all else fails a cash-strapped company, it can do a touring show for schools. Onstage Atlanta artistic director Scott Rousseau says the theater’s 10-year-old Abracadabra Children’s Theatre has actually supported the mainstage productions in some past seasons.

But the idea of children’s theater can strike fear into the hearts of grown-ups, conjuring images of hyper-perky grown women prancing on stage in green tights, pretending to be Peter Pan. English playwright David Wood once described children’s theater as providing a creative home for “beginners, cranks and failures.”

Each stereotype has a kernel of truth, but proves to be incomplete. Children’s shows aren’t necessarily infantile, and they’re not necessarily cash cows, either. Luann Purcell, artistic director of Atlanta’s 5-year-old FirstStage Theatre, acknowledges that fundraising and marketing was difficult for the family theater company, which is on hiatus until fall 2003. Next fall should also mark the return of Abracadabra to Onstage, which recently canceled the remaining three shows of its current season. Rousseau says that in this case, construction delays in the company’s new space have kept the kids’ shows from getting the attention and resources they deserve.

Works with educational content can unlock reservoirs of grant money, although Dad’s Garage seldom bothers with such lessons in Uncle Grampa’s Hoo-Dilly Stew, which returns Feb. 8. The playhouse sees Hoo-Dilly as a smart investment, not only attracting parents to the theater’s grown-up programs but cultivating loyal audiences to return to the theater in the future.

The Dad’s show has more in common with Soupy Sales than Shakespeare, but work for youngsters needn’t simply rehash Mother Goose and the Brothers Grimm. FirstStage staged child-friendly versions of classic texts like She Stoops to Conquer, while PushPush Theater’s SmallTall Theater has done kids’ shows by David Mamet and Anton Chekhov. Theatrical Outfit’s Reader’s Theater productions of the Chronicles of Narnia books don’t just draw the Harry Potter crowd, but highlight the spiritual themes of author C.S. Lewis.

In some cases, children’s theater provides a community’s most innovative stagecraft. When The Lion King opens at the Atlanta Civic Center Jan. 31, audiences will be attracted by their knowledge of the Disney movie or the Elton John songs. But director Julie Taymor’s evocative animal costumes were the crucial element in making the work a stage hit.

Atlanta regularly sees a homegrown equivalent in Jon Ludwig’s wildly creative shows like Weather Rocks! at the Center for Puppetry Arts. The current revival of the 1999 show weds the teaching value of Schoolhouse Rocks with the pop sensibility of “The Simpsons,” with song forms ranging from gospel to bossa nova. A highlight of Weather’s 1999 premiere occurred when hippie raindrops crooned a tune about precipitation — and the audience began spontaneously dancing like Woodstock participants. Sometimes the kids are worth the price of admission.

Career counseling

Rather than simply acknowledge some of the most interesting utility players of 2002, I thought I’d highlight their talents by connecting actors to specific playwrights that could connect to their strengths.

Patrick Wood and Shakespeare. An imposing presence in plays like The History of the Devil, he seems born to play a larger-than-life Shakespearean villain, like Macbeth or one of King Lear’s supporting sadists.

Donna Wright and Tennessee Williams. While one of our most explosively funny actresses, at times she reveals melancholy on the margins, suggesting that she’d suit a bittersweet Southern heroine in a work like Summer and Smoke.

Brandon O’Dell and Eugene O’Neill. O’Dell’s overdue to get a juicy, substantial part, and his charm would lighten up America’s most serious playwright.

Aileen Loy and Someone Bitchy. With her throaty voice and feline stage presence, Loy’s ideal for hurling barbed witticisms from a martini glass or cigarette holder. Hook her up with Noel Coward or one of his younger heirs.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com

Off Script is a biweekly column on the Atlanta theater scene.