Breaking New Verse

The second production of Theatre West Youth Theatre’s inaugural season is an inspired choice: poet James Dickey’s rich epic for children, “Bronwen, the Traw and the Shape-Shifter.”

Dickey’s fantasy in verse has been turned into a solo performance by adult professional Bridget Hanley, and although there were a few bumpy moments in the show’s matinee premiere, she engagingly brings to life the heroic battle waged by Bronwen, a little girl who “lived on the morning-glow edge” and liberates a kingdom of flying squirrels from the villain Shape-Shifter and the evil “All-Dark” that “hung like the wrong side of brightness.”

During last Sunday’s first show, the physical demands of the role at times left Hanley breathless, and unintentional tangles with a set piece and a voluminous scarf briefly broke her rhythm, but the fleeting glitches didn’t mar Hanley’s delivery of Dickey’s spellbinding language or her performance as Bronwen and also as narrator and a pair of endearing flying squirrels.

Directed with clarity by John Gallogly, the tale unfolds from Bronwen’s sunlit days working the earth in her flower garden with her “traw”--a trowel-like, clawed tool made by her father--to the magical night when the flying squirrels come to her window and carry her on a net of moss through the night sky to their beleaguered kingdom.

Conveying the poem’s sense of wonder and its gentle humor, Hanley makes the most of her turns as the squirrel king’s messenger and the aged king himself, who implores Bronwen to fight the “monstrous, one-footed terror,” the All-Dark, using her sunflower hat, her soon-to-be magic traw and her “gumption.”

As Bronwen strikes a hard-fought blow for the squirrels and “all the frightened children” of the world, audiences can savor Dickey’s language.

Lee Bauer designed the simple set; Nicholas Pike’s music and sound complement the mood.

* “Bronwen, the Traw and the Shape-Shifter,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles, Sundays, 12:30 p.m. through March 8. $8. (213) 851-7977. Running time: 45 minutes.

In the Beginning: An exhibition of original art for Kathleen Atkins Wilson’s award-winning illustrations in “The Origin of Life on Earth,” David A. Anderson/Sankofa’s retelling of an African creation myth, will have its opening reception at the Kathleen Wilson Gallery on Saturday. The exhibition, presented in honor of Black History Month, will also feature an audio recording of the book.

* “The Origin of Life on Earth,” Kathleen Wilson Gallery, 8479 Stellar Drive, Suite B, Culver City. Reception: Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibition: Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 4 p.m. through Feb. 28. (310) 837-2696.

Make a Note: Ron Casden and Brenda Mutchnick will read from their new children’s book, “A Noteworthy Tale,” Saturday and Sunday at the Los Angeles Children’s Museum. Young attendees can provide musical accompaniment on hand-made instruments for the tale about what happens when Notso Profundo, who is charge of all the musical Notes in the land of Rhapsody, tangles with the ruler of a place where music is forbidden.

* “A Noteworthy Tale,” Los Angeles Children’s Museum, 310 N. Main St., Saturday and Sunday, noon and 2 p.m. Free with museum admission: $5; younger than 2, free. (213) 687-8800.

Musical Morning: Pacific Symphony Orchestra’s next offering in its Mervyn’s Musical Mornings series for family audiences is “Mysterious Madam,” with conductor Elizabeth Stoyanovich and actress Carole Cooney, featuring selections by Berlioz, Bizet, Satie and Gershwin.

* “Mysterious Madam,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Saturday, 10 and 11:30 a.m. Adults, $12; children under 14, $10. (213) 480-3232; (714) 740-7878.