IT’S A WRAP : ‘It’s in the Bag’ Combines Masking, Clowning, Mime and Dance in Bright Pouches

Face, voice and gesture are fundamental tools for an actor. Take away one of these tools--as you take away the voice in mime, or the face in mask theater--and the performer must wield the remaining ones with special finesse.

You’ve probably seen mimes and masks. But chances are you’ve never seen anything like “It’s in the Bag.”

Developed by Diane Doyle and members of her dance theater troupe, Mind-Stretch, “It’s in the Bag” is an original bit of dance theater that wraps masking, clowning, mime and dance in yards of bright nylon/spandex. The result encourages family audiences to stretch their imaginations beyond the usual boundaries.

The company, 14 performers ranging in age from preteen to adult, presents “It’s in the Bag” and “Carnival of the Animals,” a mask theater piece set to Camille St. Saens’ music by the same title, in repertory through Aug. 26 on the main stage of the 29th annual Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach.

Performances of “It’s in the Bag” continue today, Saturday and Aug. 11, 14 and 26. “Carnival of the Animals” continues Friday and Aug. 8, 13 and 20. The Sawdust Festival, an annual outdoor arts and crafts event that opened earlier this month and closes Aug. 27, offers other family-friendly acts, including comic jugglers Aerial Symmetry, Steve Cody and Bob Mendelson; magician Jeff Martin; South Coast Storytellers, and singer Debra Anne Suhr. All performances, as well as daily art workshops, are free with festival admission.

Human-size bags are the pivotal ingredient in “It’s in the Bag.” Constructed like jumbo pillowcases, the vividly colored bags cover the four performers from head to toe for most of the show. But instead of hindering the storytelling, the bags actually add another, if somewhat bizarre, dimension to the tale.

“I’m not crazy about the term, but I’m calling it the mime of the ‘90s,” Doyle explained in a phone interview from her Santa Ana home.

“The thing about the bags is that they are fluid,” Doyle continued. Instead of relying on the actors’ words or facial expressions to tell the story, viewers follow the story “through pure movement [and] pure body language. Your mind just naturally fills in the blanks.”

It may sound abstract, but Doyle says “It’s in the Bag” is accessible for even the youngest viewer. The story opens with the arrival of three actors in bags: Poppa Bag (played on alternating days by Eric Patterson and Trevor Illingworth), Momma Bag (Leslie Barkemeyer and Debra South) and Baby Bag (Allison Young and Sarah Doyle). The trio is joined on stage by a “definitely weird old lady character,” played by Caprice-Rothe.

The four characters “basically play together” on and off stage, said Doyle, forming various shapes and images through their movement (and the occasional Hula-Hoop) until, through a bit of theater magic that Doyle won’t disclose, the old lady is transformed into Grandma Bag. For the balance of the show, the four characters are in and out of the bags, ending with the four of them sharing one massive pink bag.

“They’re family,” Doyle explained.

Doyle, who is wrapping up a one-year hiatus from her job as South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory director, isn’t the first artist to get into bags. The Swiss theatrical troupe Mummenschanz has wrapped performers head to toe in plastic garbage bags.

Doyle and Caprice-Rothe, who teaches movement at SCR’s Young Conservatory, introduced the bags two years ago to their advanced students. The bags stepped out in public last spring in a performance piece at Costa Mesa’s Crystal Court for organizers of the Imagination Celebration.

“It was amazing, seeing these 16 bags marching down the mall,” recalled Doyle, laughing. “It looked like something out of ‘Fantasia.’ ”

Even after she rejoins SCR, Doyle said she will continue to work with Mind Stretch, taking the shows to schools and festivals across the Southland. She’s also looking into a collaboration with other performance companies; St. Joseph’s Ballet of Santa Ana is high on her list.

Caprice-Rothe, who leads a company similar to Doyle’s called About Face in the Long Beach area, says that working in the bags demands a unique blend of skill, trust and courage from the actor, but the performer and the audience are amply rewarded.

“Working behind masks is one of the most liberating kinds of performing you can do; you can get away with almost anything,” she observed. “The bags [blur] some of the delineation in movement . . . so that it’s not real literal storytelling. It evokes images that go way back to a different part of your brain.”

* What: Mind Stretch presents “It’s in the Bag” and “Carnival of the Animals.”

* When: Shows continue today through Saturday and on Aug. 8, 11, 13, 14, 20 and 26. Call for show times.

* Where: Sawdust Festival main stage, 935 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway or the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, exit at Laguna Canyon Road and drive west.

* Wherewithal: $5 for adults; $4 for seniors; children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult. Limited metered parking is available on site, or visitors can park at private lots along Laguna Canyon Road (ranging from free to around $7) and take a free shuttle to the festival.

* Where to call: (714) 494-3030.

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