DOING MOUSE WORK : Stage Versions of Popular Tales Give Rodent’s-Eye Views

Move over, Mickey. There’s some new mice in town, and on Sunday they’ll be going whisker-to-whisker for the attention of family audiences.

In this corner: the star and title character of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” the Serendipity Theatre Company’s touring version of the popular children’s book, at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. His worthy challenger: Mortimer, a major player in the American Family Theatre’s version of the fairy-tale classic “Cinderella,” at Mission Viejo’s Saddleback College.

Both one-hour shows will be offered at two Sunday afternoon matinees and are recommended for preschoolers on up.

Based on Laura Joffe Numeroff’s children’s story of the same name, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” is a little like a kids’ version of Kaufman and Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” After innocently offering a hungry mouse a snack, a young boy soon finds himself the unwitting host to his pint-size guest, who apparently has no firm departure date in mind.

This Serendipity production features a two-person cast and a colorful, whimsical set scaled to make the boy and mouse (played by a 6-foot-3 man and a 4-foot-8 woman, respectively) appear more diminutive. A 13-foot-tall refrigerator towers overhead; there’s also a 5 1/2-foot-tall rubber glove and a six-foot glass of milk, which the mouse slurps through an eight-foot straw. And hold on to your calorie charts: The cookie measures in at a hefty 1 1/2 feet wide.

The show’s slapstick humor is influenced by the styles of silent-movie comics such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, making it popular with young children through senior citizens, said Serendipity’s managing director, Jody Davidson.

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” is a homecoming of sorts for Davidson. The 5-year-old troupe was founded and remains directed by Davidson and her husband, Scott. The couple worked from 1986 to 1990 with the Laguna Playhouse: he as the founder and first director of Laguna’s youth theater program, she as the playhouse’s managing director. In the summer of 1990, along with Katy Realista, they left Laguna to create Serendipity.

From the fall of 1990 until last summer, the Davidsons and Realista ran Serendipity in the Coronet Theatre, a mid-size Equity house in West Hollywood, operating one of the few, if not the only, permanent facilities dedicated solely to family-oriented theater.

Critical and audience response to their shows was consistently positive, said Davidson, but after 28 productions, the venture became too costly to continue without significantly raising ticket prices. The trio gave up the Coronet and began searching for a new home, which they found earlier this year in the 99-seat Burbank Little Theatre, where they now stage a six-play season of shows based on classic and contemporary children’s literature.

“We loved Orange County and Orange County audiences, and if we could have found a facility here, we probably would have stayed.

“But there aren’t that many (mid-size) stages available in Southern California, and when a good one becomes available, you have to act,” Davidson continued. “We need our own facility. We’re not the kind of organization where children’s theater is performed for one matinee in front of the curtain in front of the set for the ‘real’ adult show.”

Presenting shows inspired by children’s books extends the outing for children, Davidson said.

“If a child enjoys a theatrical experience, they’ll want to go back to the source, and, in our case, that means we’re encouraging them to go back to literature.”

While they were between homes, Serendipity, which includes several young actors who studied under Scott Davidson in Laguna, presented short seasons at Southland performing-arts centers.

The touring experience turned out to be serendipitous for the company. This month, they signed with New Mexico-based Bill Fagan Productions, which has booked Serendipity for a 27-week, nationwide tour of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” that begins with Sunday’s show in Costa Mesa.

Meanwhile, in Mission Viejo, an inventive mouse named Mortimer lends a hand to the fairy godmother in “Cinderella,” a musical adaptation by the American Family Theatre.

The musical is the first of three youth-oriented shows to be presented by Saddleback as part of their “Just for Kids” series. The season continues in July and August with “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Rapunzel and the Witch,” presented by local high school and college students.

Based in Philadelphia, the American Family Theatre gets around. The company has 16 touring groups on the road in the United States and Taiwan. Local audiences may already know them from their recent productions of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Babes in Toyland,” performed in October and November at the Irvine Barclay; they’re scheduled to return in December with another staging of “Babes in Toyland,” this time at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

Mortimer aside, AFT’s “Cinderella” sticks fairly close to the original tale. The cast features San Diego actors Pam Wilson and Tom Guthrie as Cinderella and the mouse. Orange County High School of the Arts graduate Reed Grudin, whose credits include the Brea Young Actors’ Theatre’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” plays the prince.

Adrienne Crane, AFT’s producer, said she’s careful to describe her company’s shows as “family entertainment” instead of “children’s theater,” because she thinks the latter conjures up the wrong image.

“This is not kids’ theater in the back of a van,” Crane explained. “Our productions are fully staged with full-scale lighting and special effects, beautiful costumes and fully orchestrated music. There’s a Broadway feel to them that’s designed to please the parents as much as the children.”

Crane said they present shows of the highest caliber possible to help youngsters develop a taste for live theater that, she hopes, they will carry into adulthood. And, she says, even if they’ve never seen live theater, kids expect a lot from entertainment.

“Children are a sophisticated audience,” she said. “They’re used to technically sophisticated productions because of the videos and movies they see. They expect a polished look, and that’s what they deserve.”

* What: “Cinderella,” presented by the American Family Theatre.

* When: Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m.

* Where: McKinney Theatre at Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo.

* Whereabouts: Take the Avery Parkway exit from Interstate 5 and go east to Marguerite Parkway. Turn left and follow the road about a half-mile to the campus entrance. Turn right, then follow Theater Circle Road to the top of the hill. Park in Lot 12.

* Wherewithal: $8.

* Where to call: (714) 582-4656.

* What: Serendipity Theatre Company’s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

* When: Sunday at 2 and 4:30 p.m.

* Where: Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Fairview Road and drive south. Turn right into the campus on Arlington. Weekend parking is free.

* Wherewithal: Advance tickets are $5 for children 12 and under and $9 for adults; $7 and $13 at the door.

* Where to call: (714) 432-5880

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IN NEWPORT BEACH: WHEEL ‘EM IN

The good folks at Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve and Regional Park, 600 Shellmaker, will offer a two-hour, naturalist-lead bike tour at 9 a.m. Saturday along five miles of paved trails. Reservations, and helmets for riders under 18, are needed. $5. (714) 640-6746

IN COSTA MESA: ‘BIRDS’ GOES CHEAP

Today at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., South Coast Repertory’s touring show, “Birds of a Feather,” is offered in low-cost public performances at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, as part of Imagination Celebration. $6. (714) 957-4033.

IN WESTMINSTER: A ‘SNOW’ FOR THE ‘90s

The antagonist is a recycling queen, and the dwarfs are pizza dependent in the Orange County Children’s Theatre original, off-kilter take on the “Snow White” story, continuing Friday through Sunday at the Westminster Cultural Arts Center, 7571 Westminster Blvd. $5 (714) 502-2244.