Valley Troupes Help Draw Kids to Theater

Where are the future audiences for live theater coming from? That’s a particularly interesting question in this electronic era, when youngsters are spending most of their time in front of computer screens or television.

The answer is simple. Today’s young theatergoer will be tomorrow’s adult theatergoer. Children who see live performances regularly, even at the preschool level, begin to appreciate the collaborative process, not only from being in a room with performers, but also through the interactive style of most children’s theater today. It’s an experience that cannot be duplicated by the electronic media.

One of the most venerable of children’s dramatic groups in the San Fernando Valley is Estelle Busch’s Synthaxis Theatre, co-produced by writer Mary Mann. The group has been providing continuous live entertainment for kids since 1972, with performances in their theater and on school tours.

Recently relocated to the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood, Busch’s group is presenting Mary Mann’s “Thugun and Natasha,” directed by Bruce Nelson. A drama with rap, the play explains simply the danger of guns and why they shouldn’t be around.

“We feel,” Busch said, “that theater is a very vital instrument, not only of entertainment, but of education. We felt we wanted to be an educational tool as well as a performance company. We are very much involved, not only creating the future audiences for theater, but to bring messages. And it exposes the children to an art form.”

Barbara Mallory Schwartz, along with husband, writer Lloyd Schwartz, operates the professional Storybook Theatre at Theatre West. Lloyd Schwartz’s “Blast Off,” described as a “Fairy Tale Visit to Mars,” is the current production.

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Their group began doing youth theater 10 years ago to expose their then 4-year-old son Andy to the experience. “We had to start a theater to do it,” Lloyd Schwartz said. He agrees with Busch that early exposure is lasting.

“If you get them at 3 [years],” he said, “you can keep them forever. We do field trips and things, and we really try to make that part of an experience, weaning them away from television, seeing that there are live actors. They’re so honest, and they immediately accept all theater conventions. They go with you, and they’re involved.”

Schwartz vividly remembers a performance before a group of developmentally challenged kids when a boy jumped up and yelled at the Wolf to leave Little Red Riding Hood alone. Later, the group’s teacher told Schwartz that that was the first time the boy had spoken.

At another professional group, Burbank’s Serendipity Theatre, where they are staging Mary Hoffman’s book, “Amazing Grace,” producer Katy Henk Realista also aims at building new audiences.

“If a child is raised in going to quality theater,” Realista said, “they tend to continue to attend theater. And they become more discriminating as to what theater is, to have discerning tastes.”

As if to prove the point, the Schwartz’s son Andy, now 14, is still involved with the theater his parents started for him. He runs the Storybook box office.

But even if these young audiences don’t become a part of theater, hopefully they will continue to attend. As Realista put it, “When these children grow up, they will be attending L.A.’s theaters, a broad and strong base of discerning theatergoers.”

* “Thugun and Natasha,” Synthaxis Theatre, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; $6-$7. (818) 752-2253.

* “Blast Off,” Storybook Theatre, Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles. 1 p.m. Saturdays; $7. (818) 761-2203.

* “Amazing Grace,” Serendipity Theatre, 1100 W. Clark St., Burbank. 1 p.m. Saturdays, 1 & 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 31. $8-$14. (818) 557-0505 (No. 2).

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On another front, an unusual bicoastal switch is taking place this week. Michael Kavanagh’s one-man “Bein’ with Behan,” which recently had a successful run at Studio City’s Two Roads Theatre, is opening Sunday at New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre while Irish Rep’s production of John O’Keefe’s “Shimmer,” with Jud Myers, opens Sunday at Two Roads. Both stagings are co-produced by Two Roads’ Edmund Gaynes.

* “Shimmer,” Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. 7:30 p.m. Sundays, indefinitely. $12.50. (818) 766-9381.