Setting Sail for an Adventure With Robert Louis Stevenson

“You were made for the journey and your soul is in the struggle.”

That heart-to-heart observation about living life isn’t your run-of-the-mill children’s theater dialogue, but “My Bed Is a Boat: The Adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson,” at the Lex Theatre in Hollywood, isn’t a run-of-the-mill children’s play.

Performed with dexterous grace by well-spoken adult actor Lee Look, this solo show by Beverly Trader, presented by Blue Sphere Alliance, is a quick guided voyage through the life and work of the Scottish novelist, with particular focus on his classic adventures: “Kidnapped,” “Treasure Island,” “Jekyll and Hyde” and “A Child’s Garden of Verses.”

Deftly shifting between humor and drama, Look is the author as a sickly child living through his imagination, and then the adult Stevenson, finding the adventure and travel he sought, despite continuing frailty.

Hats represent a host of characters, including Stevenson’s nanny and mother; his disappointed, disapproving father; Jekyll and Hyde; and “Kidnapped’s” David Balfour, scheming Uncle Ebenezer and the Scottish Jacobite Alan Breck. Using comical puppets, Look also shares the stage with the conniving, kidnapping sea captain and with Long John Silver.

Audience participation is invited throughout, and Look is comfortably up to the challenge when it seems that no one in the audience is familiar with Stevenson or even his most famous stories. Look picks one child to come up on stage and take over the role of Balfour. A question-and-answer opportunity follows the show.

* “My Bed Is a Boat: The Adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson,” Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Blvd., Hollywood, Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Ends April 17. Adults, $8; children, $5. (323) 957-5782.

Beloved Tale: With respected professional director Jessica Kubzansky at the helm, the all-female Nine O’Clock Players are putting on a lively, well-sung and well-designed version of E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” at the Lantz Magic Auditorium (formerly the Assistance League Playhouse) in Hollywood.

Written by Joseph Robinette, with tuneful music and lyrics by Charles Strouse, this community theater production about humble pig Wilber (Michele Engemann), saved from a bacon-ham-pork chop fate by his spider pal Charlotte (Linnette Temple), plays to the company’s musical strengths.

It’s a faithful telling of the tale, from Wilbur’s rescue as a runt piglet by tender-hearted young Fern (Audra Henry) and his county fair triumph to Charlotte’s last, sacrificial effort and Wilbur’s reciprocal act of kindness to honor her memory.

A clever, unexpected touch of spidery darkness is added, too. When Charlotte does her nocturnal web-spinning, she’s joined in her ballad-style “Spinning Song” by a bat and an owl in nightclubbing finery; Temple’s own nightclub chanteuse-look is enhanced by her gauzy, dark, figure-hugging costume.

* “Charlotte’s Web,” Nine O’Clock Players, Lantz Magic Auditorium, 1370 N. St. Andrews Place, Hollywood, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and March 28 at 4 p.m. Ends March 28. $8. (323) 469-1970.