Smart Cookies

Watching the Brown Bag Players’ children’s theater production of Karen Boettcher-Tate’s “Little Red and the Hoods,” this reviewer flashed to a new commercial--one of those merchandising tie-in deals. In it, a boy watching the movie “Anastasia” interacts with the screen images and is magically transported to a fast-food joint.

“Little Red” is all about that kind of interaction. Indeed, without the legion of young theatergoers joining in, this slightly hipped-up version of “Little Red Riding Hood” would be pretty thin goods.

This is a show to take the kids to if you want them to get a taste of play-acting in front of a friendly audience. Bring them before the 12:30 p.m. curtain, and they can play with makeup or chat with director Bunny Lawson’s perky cast. It offers an interactive experience that kids can’t get through their computer or at the movies.

The play sets up a slightly clever framework, in which actors Roni Jacobson, Linzee Parz, Paul Smet, Deen Richards and Marla Shari play a haggard troupe of traveling players who’ve ended up in Mission Viejo--actually, they’re north in Lake Forest--instead of their destination of Uppington Puppington, England. They’ve lost half their company and the wagon carrying most of the set pieces, but they have an audience--us--so the show must go on.

Jacobson chooses the group’s slightly funky version of “Little Red Riding Hood” as the play of the hour and tussles with Richards as the troupe’s prima donna over casting. Once the portly, stentorian Smet emerges in full costume as the Wolf, we have a play on our hands.

Still, it’s nothing without the kids. Saturday’s show was packed with a lively enthusiastic audience. Lawson has clearly coached her actors on how to achieve maximum rapport, so that all ages (4 to 10) felt free to jump in. They volunteer to play the “hoods” scheming to steal Little Red’s cookie recipe, or a coach drawn by horses or a cheering section to encourage Smet--frustrated by his Shakespearean ambitions--to play the Wolf.

Above all, “Little Red” encourages children to listen closely while losing their inhibitions in front of an audience. The final sequence--turning the Wolf into a nice guy--may be boring and protracted, but that doesn’t take away from the show’s value as an introduction to theater.

BE THERE

“Little Red and the Hoods,” Rancho Canada School, multipurpose room, 21801 Winding Way, Lake Forest. Saturday-Sunday, 12:30 p.m. (714) 581-5402. $5. Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes.