Sendak Starts Theater Company for Children

Artist Maurice Sendak may very quickly find out where the wild things are when he embarks on his latest project--a national children’s theater.

The award-winning illustrator of such children’s classics as “Where the Wild Things Are” and “A Hole Is to Dig” is putting his books on hold to start the Night Kitchen, a theater company devoted entirely to creating and producing plays, operas and dances for children.

“I’ve spent half my life working for kids. They’re the only reasonably sane audience,” Sendak said at news conference Wednesday at the New York Public Library.

Sendak will design and co-produce most of the productions with Arthur Yorinks, another award-winning children’s author. Yorinks will be artistic director and Sendak the associate artistic director.

Plans for a 1992-93 season already include a Sendak-designed production of “Hansel and Gretel,” co-produced with the Los Angeles Opera, and a new version of “Peter Pan,” with a script by Yorinks.

Yorinks said the Night Kitchen, named after Sendak’s critically acclaimed book “In the Night Kitchen,” aims to produce four shows a year with various American theater companies.

“It’s not going to be traditional kiddie theater,” Yorinks said. “There’ll be opera, theater, ballet. We’re looking for everything.”

Sendak said the company would use a $1-million grant from HarperCollins Publishers over four years to commission original material and develop new productions of existing children’s works.