Written by a fifth-grader, starring actors from ‘Veep’ and ‘Insecure.’ Title: ‘Small Hands, Orange Face’
In “The Biggest Show,” the annual event of the Young Storytellers mentorship program, Hollywood celebs read scripts written by fifth-graders. Here, Tony Hale, Natasha Rockwell and Max Greenfield peform young Grace Ani’s “Small Hands, Orange Face.”
An all-star roster of actors — Tony Hale (“Veep”), Jimmi Simpson (“Westworld”), Molly Shannon (“Saturday Night Live”), J.B. Smoove (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and more — was the pawn in the hands of fifth-grade screenwriters.
Out of 900 screenplays written by students in the Young Storytellers program this year, six were selected for “The Biggest Show” on Wednesday night at the Novo theater at downtown’s LA Live. The glitzy event is a fundraiser for a mentorship program that teaches Los Angeles Unified School District students to tap into their imaginations and craft stories.
Shannon, who introduced herself to the kids by athletically reenacting her Superstar character from “SNL,” played an elephant and an evil genius named Dr. Chickenpants. Hale, Simpson and hosts Jason and Randy Sklar gamely played mutant turkeys with martial arts skills. Smoove became a vegetarian dragon that swooped in to aid a boy played by Max Greenfield (“New Girl”), who was trapped inside the fantasy world of his drawings.
Even at such a lighthearted, youth-focused event, things got political. Grace Ani from Canfield Avenue Elementary ended the evening with her absurdist story — “Small Hands, Orange Face” — about President Trump (portrayed by Natasha Rockwell from “Insecure”) and an undercover detective named Mr. Yoop (Hale). At one point in their journey, narrated by Greenfield, they took a cab driven by Elmo, puppeteered by Jason Mantzoukas (“The House” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”). You can watch excerpts in the video above.
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