CHILDREN’S FEST RATED GP (GOOD FOR PARENTS)

Two days of children’s theater? It’s going to be parent burnout, right? All those puppets, clowns and fairy tales. . . .

Well, surprise. Children’s theater has been growing up.

The 11th annual Theatre Festival for Young Audiences, sponsored by the Southern California Educational Theatre Assn., was held at Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday and Sunday, and among the more than two dozen theater groups and individual performers participating, themes dealing with the fear of change, low self-esteem, and feeling different were common.

Yes, there were letdowns.

Sincerity doesn’t necessarily mean success. But, with three indoor and two outdoor stages going, the good stuff prevailed.

“C’mon, I want to get back and see this!” An unhappy parent had to take Junior outside during South Coast Repertory’s peppy “The Right Self.” In Jerry Patch’s musical (he wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics with composer Diane King), three kids with self-esteem problems go to Camp Iwannapersona and learn to feel good about themselves.

Will (Tom Shelton) the nerd, awkward Karen (Bartha Hartman) and macho Rocky (Sam Hamann) all find a kernel of conviction on which they can build self-respect, thanks to unpreachy and playful musical numbers and an understanding camp counselor (Kathryn Johnson). The show worked well for the older kids at Foster Road School in La Mirada on Friday, and even better for the all-ages audience at Cal State San Bernardino. (Oh yes, Mom and Junior made it back--in double time.)

And there was this exceptional standout: The Mark Taper Forum’s Improvisational Theatre Project’s “A Family Album,” written by Peter C. Brosius, Rosanna Staffa and the ITP company. A small gem, the musical uses a series of humorous--and telling--vignettes to show kids that their fears about family changes (stepfamilies, divorce, working mothers, unemployed fathers) are normal. Done with polish and panache, the production has a multifaceted shine. A small viewer summed it up: “I want to see it again.”

The Firebird Theatre brought its old standard, “The Fisherman and His Wife,” a Grimm’s fairy tale gone Kabuki--sort of, and made a hit, using the Recital Hall to full advantage for dramatic entrances and crowd palaver. After the tale, the cast asked for an alternate ending and then put all suggestions into a finale, using audience members as performers. There were volunteers aplenty and much hilarity as the fisherman ended up marrying the flounder.

Performers outside were under a distinct disadvantage. The San Bernardino sun beat down mercilessly and there was little shade to be found on the wide, sloping lawns.

Those who braved the heat found a variety of amateur and professional entertainment to choose from, including the Orange County Opera Company presenting a demystifying introduction to their art with Pergolesi’s comic “La Serva Padrona”; the Riverside Highland Dancers, kilts and all; “Music Americana,” a pleasant educational program of music and history, mime Judi Garratt and even a Michael Jackson impersonator, Jimmy Ramirez.

“We Tell Stories,” a deceptively ragtag threesome, brought their old trunk full of props off the outdoor stage, where the setting sun punished the eyes, and onto the grass, performing stories by Carl Sandburg and Lewis Carroll, giving kids a chance at acting--as a court counselor, a train or a slithy tove (from Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”).

Coordination of the event didn’t always run smoothly. A mime in whiteface, surrounded by equipment waiting to be moved to an outdoor stage, displayed disgruntlement as only a mime can, and muttered: “Where’s the crew? I’m supposed to have a crew.”

A disappointment of this year’s festival was the lack of festival atmosphere. A few vendors offered a limited choice of refreshments; there was a finger-painting booth and a makeup station. No balloons or streamers, no brightly costumed strolling clowns or minstrels. Last-minute cancellations by theater companies didn’t help. (The Twelfth Night Repertory Company and Little Broadway Productions were missed.)

And CSUSB undeniably is not centrally located (some hardy souls with pioneer spirit came from the Valley). But it does offer lots of room and a new Creative Arts center housing several performance spaces, small enough (the larger Recital Hall seats 248) to produce intimacy needed in children’s theater. A good dose of color to engender that necessary intangible excitement was needed, however.

On Friday, the festival was open only to schoolchildren--about 1,500 in all--and they were treated to one exciting performer the weekend crowd missed out on. Dan Crow, veteran singer and wit, kept his audience laughing with adroit musical numbers such as “The Palindrome Man,” “Homonyms” and an ode to Surrealists.

For sheer class, Caprice Rothe in “Silent Treatment” was a winner. In the small Creative Arts Lab, Rothe demonstrated the art of mime with clarity, depth and humor, her discussion kept to a minimum, closing the distance between audience and performer.

Superficiality was the problem with Cal State Fullerton’s “The Magic in Me” by Ronald D. Wood. Repetition, slow pacing (slowed further by a mime who had to be verbally interpreted) and an offstage resolution defeated the well-meant message of self-worth.

Playwright Suzan Zeder was represented twice: “Step on a Crack,” dealing with a child’s difficulty in accepting her new stepmother, was performed creditably by the very young Patio Playhouse Youtheatre cast, carefully directed by Jo Rubin. And despite lighting problems, the United States International University’s production of “Wiley and the Hairy Man,” an offbeat play about conjuring and lurking terror, recalled the fun of horror tales told in the dark.

At the end of a long day, the heat had eased and the wind had picked up as the last stragglers made for the parking lot.

The festival was a mixed success, but it did prove that children’s theater, with its potential not only to amuse but to involve and inspire, deserves to be seen.