Getting a Clue

Who is that mysterious lady lurking about the Orange County Performing Arts Center? Only the Shadow knows.

OK, make that the Shadow, one conductor, an entire orchestra and the several hundred people in the audience for “Mysterious Madam,” the next family concert in the Pacific Symphony’s “Strings of Clues” series. The 45-minute program, designed for children 4 to 13 and their families, will be presented Saturday.

Led by Pacific assistant conductor Elizabeth Stoyanovich, “Mysterious Madam” will include an appearance by storyteller and actress Carole Cooney. Cooney’s character, along with Stoyanovich, will help listeners detect musical “clues” that deepen their understanding of the selections, said orchestra spokeswoman Mindy Franz.

An interactive “Musical Treasure Hunt” will be held in the center lobby one hour before the first performance and one hour after the second performance, Franz said.

Concert highlights include Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Rouget de Lisle’s “La Marseillaise.”

* “Mysterious Madam,” a family concert by the Pacific Symphony, will be presented Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 10 and 11:30 a.m. $10-$12. (714) 740-7878 or call (714) 755-5799 for information.

On Your Toes: If your child thinks a grande jete is a big French airplane, he or she is a prime candidate for “That’s Ballet.”

The 45-minute family program was created by the Anaheim Ballet for Brea’s Curtis Theatre as an audience-friendly intro to things balletic. In two performances Sunday, the company (formerly Coast Ballet) will provide a simple primer of basic styles, followed by dance excerpts.

The presentation, part of the Curtis’ Kids Culture Club, is appropriate for ages 6 and up, said spokesman Chris Wolf, but anyone who wants to parlez the language of dance is welcome.

* “That’s Ballet” will be presented Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. in the Curtis Theatre, 1 Civic Center Circle, Brea. Tickets: $6, reservations recommended. (714) 990-7722.

Hit or Myth: At the Children’s Museum at La Habra, “Reading Railroad” will offer a bilingual tour through several literary ports of call on Saturday, including Greek myths and modern fairy tales.

Using a blend of puppetry, magic and storytelling, performers Bob Stone, Oscar Arguello and Michael Sousa--a.k.a. Teatro de los Puppets--will bring to life such stories as “Pedro, The Angel of Olvera Street” and “Yeh Shen.”

The 45-minute program, part of an ongoing pro-literacy series sponsored by PacifiCare Foundation, is recommended for youngsters in preschool through early elementary school.

* “Reading Railroad” will be presented Saturday at the Children’s Museum at La Habra, 301 S. Euclid St. Noon. Free with museum admission of $4; children under 2 are free. (562) 905-9793.

Fantastic Voyage: 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 Shapeshifter.”

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 girl who “lived on the morning-glow edge” and liberates a kingdom of flying squirrels from the villain Shapeshifter and the evil All-Dark that “hung like the wrong side of brightness.”

During last Sunday’s first show in Los Angeles, 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 and her “gumption.”

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

Times staff writer Lynne Heffley contributed to this report.