Behind the Masks of ‘African Folk Tales’ Hide Parables of Friendship

The Actors for Children theater troupe usually performs in elementary school classrooms and at assemblies. But Wednesday, the group will make a rare public appearance at the Thousand Oaks Library, which means parents will be able to see the show too.

The theater troupe, which just finished a four-performance series at the Los Angeles Children’s Museum last weekend, has toured the Ventura and L.A. areas since its inception in 1984.

“We’ve done everything from traditional fairy tales to a play based on the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’--once we even did an anti-war play done with broad strokes of mime and vaudeville,” said Naomi Monroe, the group’s founder who produces and directs all the shows. “I always look for language in the scripts that is not condescending. We don’t want the kids to feel that some authority figure is stuffing something down their throats.”

At Wednesday’s show, five actors--Michael Lee Jones Jr., Toni Frish-Beery, Eileen McLoone, Ann West and Larry Woods--will perform “African Folk Tales,” a series of four stories written by Anita Gustafson. The central figure in the tales is a mouse who becomes a storyteller to help him make friends in the jungle.

What makes this show special for Monroe are the masks the actors will wear in the production. They were created by Barbara Bouman Jay, a Newbury Park artist who lived in Africa for 1 1/2 years. “They’re really works of art,” Monroe said, “but they’re functional too. It took her all summer to create them.”

The actors always make a point of putting the masks on in front of the audience. “We want to make it clear that these are actors,” Monroe said. “We don’t want the kids to be frightened.”

African instruments--a drum from Rwanda, a flute from Kenya, Pygmy goat bells and other shakers and noisemakers--are used to enhance the authenticity of the stories. At Wednesday’s show, there will be an exhibit of African artifacts.

Monroe, who runs a casting service for commercials, doesn’t limit her theater work to children. She is also the artistic producing director of the Xanadu Theatre Company. During the summer, the group performs at Cal Lutheran University; other times they can be seen at the Conejo Community Center and other venues--the group has no permanent theater.

But she believes that her work for children’s audiences is especially important. “I found there was a tremendous ned to introduce children to quality theater,” she said.

It wasn’t hard to find others interested in her project. “At first I leaned on my contacts in the business to find actors,” Monroe said, “but now that our reputation has grown, actors have been calling me.

“But I think it takes three times as much energy to perform before a children’s audience. Kids have such short attention spans; to keep their interest you have to be physically more active and more mentally alert than you would before an audience of adults.”

The Actors for Children troupe performs “African Folk Tales” by Anita Gustafson Jan . 18 at the Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. Performance begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free but reservations are required. Call (805) 497-6282.