Sacramento’s Fantasy Theatre Troupe Brings Festival to L.A.

In front of an invited audience at Chandler Elementary School in Van Nuys on Saturday, the Sacramento-based Fantasy Theatre Company was previewing its second annual Fantasy Theatre Festival, an engaging 45-minute program of short plays by 7- to 14-year-olds, winners in a playwriting contest held in Northern California schools.

Why was the 2-year-old children’s theater troupe so far from home? Its artistic director, Tim Busfield, who founded the nonprofit Fantasy Theatre in 1986, wears another hat: He’s one of the stars of ABC’s “thirtysomething,” and commitments to that show meant he couldn’t leave Los Angeles.

On a small wooden platform, using wooden blocks and steps as a set and with minimal props, the six-member professional troupe of adults zestfully acted out humorous scenes between a little girl and her roving cat, a fast-talking teen and her wall-climbing mom, two kids on a date thinking up creative excuses for being late, and the story of Christopher Columbus with Marx Brothers overtones.

Aside from the comedy, there was a 13-year-old’s wistful drama called “Ghost Town,” about a boy who imagines the perfect family when his parents announce their divorce. The company also threw in one of its own pieces, a musical sketch about two cookie-baking old ladies and a dimwitted cookie thief, but the most striking piece was the simplest: a short poem called “Metamorphosis,” written by a 10-year-old.

Set to a haunting tune and sung by the cast, the story of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly was an effective contrast to the rest of the program. The cast later gracefully sign-interpreted the poem as a finale.

Despite his growing success in television and film, Busfield hopes to eventually expand his company’s tour to include Southern California. Here’s hoping that the company can survive funding problems and the lure of Hollywood.

Busfield and his troupe--Buck Busfield, Amy Crumpacker, Kathy Morrison, Howard Starrett and Arthur Ward--have youth, energy, a high degree of professionalism, an appealing roughness around the edges and a freshness too often lacking in children’s theater.