FOR THE KIDS : Show Time : Prompted by school budget cuts, five Simi Valley mothers are bringing music, dance, drama and art to children.

The villains are goo, toxic goo. With gaudy placards over their chests, the children slink about the stage chanting, “My name is toxic goo, I have my very own toxic zoo.”

The good guys are trees, lakes and animals in this eco-minded fairy tale. A couple of children portraying swans wail through “The Dirty Water Blues.”

Welcome to the first production of PAW, Performance, Arts, Workshops, a group formed by a handful of Simi Valley mothers intent on bringing music, dance, drama and art to children.

Because art programs are often the first to be cut by schools faced with budget woes, the five moms decided to take the matter into their own hands. “Who better than us,” said Jan Glasband, one of the organizers. “We’re all professionals and educators.”

So they pooled their talents. Glasband is a graphic artist. Irene Silbert performs in local productions and develops dramatic programs for children. Elisa Morrison teaches art, Karen Ospina dance and Debbie McCarthy music.

Collectively, they have 13 children.

After more than a year of planning, they offered their first workshop last month for children 7 to 11. With little advertising, they set their sights on 20 children and started work in space donated by Patsy Swayze’s dance studio in Simi Valley.

The idea was to put on a show. Quickly. In the tradition of those back-yard, home-grown shows of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The children met with instructors three hours a day, three days a week, for three weeks.

“The first week and a half was spent getting the kids used to performing,” Glasband said. The workshop was never intended solely for talented youngsters already on the show-biz track.

The script was written primarily by Silbert. But the children were urged to contribute, and their thoughts on the environment were worked into the script. Jenny Cariker, 9, penned and sang the song “Earth Is Mother.”

The curtain went up on the last day of the workshop. Actually, there was no curtain, no stage lights, no fancy costumes. Parents, squirming babies, friends and relatives sat on folding chairs in the studio’s classroom to see the 20-minute production.

Although it wasn’t a seasoned performance, the audience wasn’t disappointed. “The parents were so touched,” Morrison said. “I glanced around and one mother was crying.”

The story concerns a trial pitting toxins against nature. The toxins file a lawsuit claiming that people are trying to banish them. All they have done these past hundred years, the toxins argue, is follow the will of the people.

Right. We all knew who the bad guys were. They were the ones who snicker, “Yeah, sure,” when asked to swear to tell the truth.

In true fairy-tale fashion, a compromise is struck in the end, and everyone agrees to work together to save the planet. Phew. Waving streamers, the kids gyrated to the hit song “Celebration,” and even coaxed reluctant parents onto the dance floor.

The environmental drumbeat was clearly evident throughout the show, especially in McCarthy’s clever songs “Bottles and Cans,” a lament about wasteful practices, and “Recycle, Recycle.”

The props and placards, all created by the children, were reminders to walk gently on the Earth. They plastered sayings such as “Stash That Trash” all over a backdrop. They pinned recyclable items to another backdrop. They glued bits of paper together to form a giant globe. They punched holes in coffee cans and, with candles inside, created eerie “silhouetted cities” to carry on stage.

The show was intended as a one-time recital mainly for parents. The PAW founders called it a success and said a second workshop will be offered, probably in October. The plan is to provide them year-round.

The fee for each child was $99, but the group hopes to provide scholarships to needy children.

“This was a pilot,” Glasband said after the show as she calmed a cranky toddler and comforted a weeping performer whose lines were accidentally omitted.

The idea for the organization was born 1 1/2 years ago as Glasband opened up her living room to Silbert and others to air their frustrations about budget cuts in the schools. Over the years, they had watched the erosion of music, art and drama programs.

“We were seeing children wandering around without any place to put their expressiveness,” Glasband said.

When she was growing up, all elementary schools had a music teacher who directed the orchestra and chorus and taught students to play musical instruments, Silbert said.

At her daughter’s elementary school, the music program was chopped. So Silbert volunteered to direct the chorus. “That’s how the individual schools are getting activities,” she said.

PAW, a nonprofit program under the umbrella of the Performing Artist Guild in Thousand Oaks, hopes to attract funding. And the founders have dreams of expanding to include a children’s conservatory of the arts.

“We’re definitely going to continue,” Glasband said.

* FYI

For information about PAW, Performance, Arts, Workshops, call Jan Glasband, 583-2103, or Irene Silbert, (818) 346-7278.