Children’s Theater
Welcome to Bad City!
Did another Play in a Day project this afternoon—Gogol’s The Inspector General, with a cast of ten, half of whom were under 7 years old. I’ve already posted the chaotic results on the NHTJ Play in a Day page, here.
Theater-related “New Arrivals” on Netflix
Airplane: “What’s his problem?” “That’s Lieutenant Hurwitz. Severe shellshock. Thinks he’s Ethel Merman.” (The misspelling of Merman’s surname in the YouTube clip above is not my fault.) Some Like It Hot: Features an actual vaudevillean, Joe E. Brown. Plus Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag. Plus Marilyn Monroe playing a ukulele. Of course … Continue reading
The Threads of a Spider Web Review
Threads of a Spider Web Written by Annie DiMartino. Music written by Carol Taubl, Jack Taubl, Sam Taubl James Taubl, Jeremiah Taubl and Emily Taubl. Performed by Sam Taubl, Anthony Rockford, Danielle Bonanno, Chelsea Dacey, Jeremiah Taubl, James Taubl, Dawn Williams, Jessica Coppola, Jane Logan, Nina Dicker, Gabriel DiMartino, Marisa Sullivan, Kira Topalian, Bowen Kirwood, … Continue reading
The Summer Youth Theatre Hamlet Review
Hamlet By William Shakespeare. Directed by Annie DiMartino. Musical Director: Carol Taubl. Performed by Sam Taubl (Hamlet), Erik Van Eck (Claudius), Jane Logan (Gertrude), Ryan Ronan (Polonius), Jessica Coppola (Ophelia), James Taubl (Laertes), Jack Taubl (The Ghost), Jeremiah Taubl (Horatio), Maris Sullivan (Rosenkrantz), Kira Topalian (Guildenstern), Anthony Rockford (Grave Digger), Nina Dicker (First Player), Danielle … Continue reading
Sides
I put together this facsimile paper theater (from Pollock’s Toy Theatres, published in 1972) with scissors and a gluestick. The only remaining thing is to figure out what to present in it. For a paper theater, something flat, black & white and two-dimensional seems appropriate. But if I did a Wendy Wasserstein play, I’d have … Continue reading
Little Theater for Little Women
I’ve had kids’ theater on my mind these days, and want now to acknowledge my awe for one of the best anthologies of theater BY children that’s ever existed. Comic Tragedies was copywritten 1893 by Anna B. Pratt but the title page says “Written by ‘Jo’ and ‘Meg’ and acted by the ‘Little Women’.” A … Continue reading
The Never Ending Orchard
OK, here, for what it’s worth (and I fully acknowledge the ridiculous elements of the concept) is the kid version of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard I devised (in a single three-hour session) with a bunch of kids at the Never Ending Bookstore in February. What’s missing from this excerpt is an opening burst of pageantry … Continue reading
Play in a Day—My Julian Marsh Moment
I’m gearing up for another round of my patented “Play in a Day” events, where I, and a bunch of kids of all ages, prepare and perform a theater classic in the space of three hours. This is an impromptu mid-rehearsal pep talk from my very first attempt at such a thing, a pint-sized variation … Continue reading
Kid City Set Piece
The performance installations and playscapes at the Kid City children’s museum in Middletown have always been impressive. The newest is a “Celebrated Bathing Fluid Dispensary” credited to the inventor Pulaski Nostrum (1854-1906). Through lit signs, machine helps participants soap, rub, rinse and dry their hands—all to the rhythm of a mechanical bicyclist. Kid City claims … Continue reading
Literary Prestidigitation
The branch library a few blocks from here hosted a healthy dinner (with obligatory lecture on how healthy it was) plus a performance by Magic Dan, with guest appearances by a talking puppet bird and a scared live rabbit. Libraries are a heck of a place to see a magic show because when the kiss … Continue reading