FESTIVAL REVIEW : Theater Arts Entertaining for Kids at Strauss Ranch

A few hornets dropped by for lunch and the sun was baking, but the Theater Arts Festival for Youth, TAFFY for short, had no trouble serving up a premium roster of children’s entertainment this weekend at the Peter Strauss Ranch in Agoura.

Streamlined from last year when the event was stretched a bit thinly over two weekends, TAFFY featured its usual festival trappings: Storytelling inside the Nylon Zoo’s patchwork whale, picture drawing on and in Michael Marks’ inflatable art balloon, craft workshops, arts and crafts for sale, games and food booths.

The Puddledumplin’ Players, a band of strolling performers in vivid animal makeup and Victorian dress, held a mayoral election (Benoit the frog jumped in and out of the campaign).

TAFFY’s strength, however, along with its refreshing innocence and good will, has always been its varied professional performances. This year’s lineup was one of its strongest.

Vocal Works, a quintet of singers and musicians, lifted spirits with rhythms and harmonies of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Recording artist and shameless punster Dan Crow earned giggles with the shaggiest of shaggy song intros and Bonnie Phipps and her Elastic Band’s smooth sing-along folk and country sound made old and new tunes accessible to even the youngest listeners.

The musical group Inca, performing traditional Peruvian music and dance, sent the haunting lilt of pan pipes soaring into the sky, while Ranka’s Revue, a marionette show extraordinaire from San Francisco, delighted all ages with sophisticated artistry and sly humor.

The magical Moonshine Puppet Co. used fanciful, large-sized puppets, music and song to tell a “coyote” tale of American Indian legend; the appealing Troyan Trio, originally from Russia, clowned and juggled its way through the slapstick “Brownbag Moscow Circus”; and the veteran theater-in-a-trunk troupe We Tell Stories acted out tales from “The Spirit of Black Folklore.”

Another veteran, singer-songwriter Peter Alsop, involved the audience in his zany songs with their underlying messages of self-esteem.

All in all, TAFFY remains one of the best family outings around.