Video Generation Gets a Taste of Live Theater

“Mommy, they’re really singing,” said a preschooler in the audience for “Cinderella: A Bug Story” at Max’s Playhouse in Van Nuys. For the video-fed generation, live children’s theater can be a good introduction to entertain the old-fashioned way: in person.

“There’s nothing that can replace that live actor, the live communication that goes on in children’s theater,” said Catherine Dezseran, associate theater professor at Cal State Northridge. The value of children’s theater, she said, is not that it introduces them to an art form that has existed for thousands of years. “It’s something children can react to very vocally and physically. It’s very different from television because there are real live people up there.”

That interaction and the children’s thrill of being part of a live experience hold their attention during the 50-minute “Cinderella” musical. The children are delighted when the actors ask questions of the audience and most join in on some of the simple refrains in the songs. After the show, the children wait eagerly for autographs from the actors, touching the costumes and talking to them with the awe typically reserved for well-known characters at Disneyland.

Jim Houle, who wrote, produced and directed the musical, said he takes his inspiration from Dr. Seuss. Houle’s aim is to entertain the little humans, as the Cinderella characters call the children, and the bigger humans as well. He also tries to make the plays meaningful, building in issues--self-esteem, prejudice, recycling--to give the children something to think about long after they go home.

The mission of the five-person Max’s Playhouse, Houle said, is to create entertainment that is accessible to adults as well as to children. He wants to branch into video, television and animation; the playhouse has just filmed a video of “Cinderella” that will be broadcast on Santa Monica cable television (City TV) this year.

Houle, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Brandeis University, takes children’s theater seriously. “Unfortunately it’s the evil stepchild of theater, because there’s little of quality, but I hold up our work to anything done for adults,” he said.

Houle does everything from taking ticket orders to writing, directing and acting. He also schedules productions on school sites and at birthday parties and community events.

The plays go over well even with tough-to-entertain 2-year-olds, said Shelly Foucher, director of Bright Beginnings preschool in West Los Angeles, where Max’s playhouse recently performed. “Even our littlest ones were absolutely enthralled,” she said. She finds the children seem less inhibited about acting out stories after watching live theater. “It’s really important for them to experience different kinds of media as opposed to television all the time.”

Max’s Playhouse is offering two productions this summer:

* “Cinderella,” which has only glass slippers, a semi-rotten stepsister and a midnight deadline in common with the fairy tale. It is designed to teach children about self-esteem and the importance of standing up for what you believe in. The costumes capture the natural character of the bugs--just hope your children don’t expect anything so magical this Halloween. The cockroach is covered with garbage and is always hungry; the caterpillar is fluffy purple-pink and soft-looking; the black widow looks fearsome but delicate.

* “Kid Dinosaur,” which opens July 20, builds on the self-confidence theme, adding a recycling angle when a tyrannosaurus rex and a pterodactyl join forces to turn trash into new and useful things.

The believe-in-yourself message will be the prevailing theme in Houle’s future work, he said, because he thinks it’s important for children of the ‘90s. “I grapple with self-esteem all the time,” he said, “and so do the children.”

Max’s Playhouse presents “Cinderella: A Bug Story,” 1 p.m. Saturdays, and starting July 20, “Kid Dinosaur” at 11 a.m. Saturdays at the West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. (818) 506-0685. Tickets: $7.