‘Pecos Bill Show’ Offers Slice of Folklore to Kids : Stage: Tonight’s lighthearted performance in Anaheim will wrap up Pearson Park’s 1990 ‘Just for Kids’ program.

ANAHEIM — One of America’s favorite cowboys moseys out of the storybooks and onto the stage of Anaheim’s Parson Park Amphitheatre tonight in “The Pecos Bill Show,” a lighthearted romp through American folklore for children ages 3 and up.

Presented by Los Angeles-based the Imagination Company, “Pecos Bill” wraps up Pearson Park’s 1990 “Just for Kids” program, a series of weekly low-cost children’s performances sponsored by the Anaheim Arts Council and Target Stores. Show time is 7:30 p.m.

Using no set or fancy stage effects and only simple costumes and props, the three adult actors in “Pecos Bill” will spin Tall Tales of the Old West, often calling upon the audience to join the action.

During the 40-minute show, children can get to know naturalist Johnny Appleseed, cheer Paul Bunyan as he takes on a city slicker in a lumberjack contest, and thrill to a (pea) shoot-out between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Selected kids can stand in as a variety of characters and props, ranging from Oakley’s shoot-out target to the slicker’s whirring buzz-saw.

Needless to say, an active imagination adds a lot to the evening.

“We expect children to fill in a lot of the blanks (in our shows), and they always do it beautifully,” said Imagination Company co-founder Tom Provenzano, who established the group in 1984 with actor-writer Teresa Love.

Provenzano added that while there is nothing wrong with more extravagantly staged children’s shows, “Pecos Bill” and other Imagination Company offerings “bring kids into a whole different kind of creative energy.”

Since its inception, Imagination Company has presented more than 3,000 performances in schools, parks and community centers across Southern California. The group has a repertoire of nearly 20 plays designed for preschool through high school, all of them created or adapted by Love. An Imagination Company teacher’s guide suggests pre- and post-performance discussions and projects for each of the shows, which range in content from American history to Shakespeare to the celebration of Chinese New Year.

Sue Richmond of Anaheim’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services who coordinates the “Just for Kids” series, brought the Imagination Company to Anaheim with the help of Performing Tree, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that represents 57 local performing troupes.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the California Department of Education, Performing Tree works with schools and youth organizations to provide performing and visual arts experiences for school-age children. The group serves about 500 sites each year. During the 1989-90 school year, 157 of those were in Orange County.

Artists represented by Performing Tree range from such Southland-area theater troupes as the Imagination Company, the Lilliput Players and J.P. Nightingale, to special interest programs like “Jazz, America’s Music,” an exploration of jazz history and “Mother Earth Sings the Blues,” an environmentally themed program of stories, skits and songs. Multicultural groups include Kazuko, an introduction of Japanese dance forms; Xipe Totec, a demonstration of ancient Aztec dance; the Korean Classical Music and Dance Company and the Nigerian Talking Drums, showcasing the dance and music of the Yoruba tribe. (The latter will appear Wednesday at Laguna Niguel’s Crown Valley Park as part of the city’s family concert series.)

Performing Tree also coordinates in-school residencies with 63 local visual artists and conducts teachers’ workshops and retreats to help educators plan their arts curricula.

The group also can arrange funding for long-term arts programs through local businesses and government grants, said Diana Zaslove, Performing Tree’s program coordinator.

“School budgets are being cut, and the arts are being cut right along with them,” Zaslove said. “More and more schools are dependent upon outside sources to bring the arts into their classrooms. Whenever we can, we try to help them find that funding.”

The group recently worked with McDonnell Douglas to help underwrite performances in several North Orange County schools.

But no matter where the money comes from, Zaslove said, the end result is the same: Children from all walks of life learn to appreciate the arts and, through that experience, gain a broader awareness of their own culture and others.

“Rather than just teaching or telling about a topic, the arts provide a real hands-on experience that is a much more powerful lesson for a child than just reading about something in a book,” she noted. “Besides, it’s fun.”