Kids Get ‘Week at the Theatre’ With Variety of Events

Never been to live theater? Unfamiliar with theaters in your neighborhood? Ever wanted to take a peek backstage, or watch your children take an acting workshop?

The third annual “Kids’ Week at the Theatre,” with family-friendly events happening throughout Los Angeles County, is your ticket. It was created to spark kids’ and families’ interest in theatergoing, and has been greatly expanded this year.

Presented by A.S.K. Theater Projects and Theatre LA, and supported by a $20,000 grant from the California Community Foundation, the designated week--April 30-May 7--is loaded with special events, free dress rehearsals, theater arts workshops, theater tours and discounted performances of everything from Shakespeare, Moliere and classic musicals, to wild satire, intensely personal stories, thought-provoking contemporary dramas, live radio theater, puppet fantasies and fairy tales.

“There are more than 40 groups participating and there are more events than that,” said Nathan Birnbaum, A.S.K. artistic associate. “We now have groups calling up wanting to participate, so it’s no longer a question of getting on the phone begging people to do it. So we have many more neighborhoods covered.

“And we’ve added a day, so there’s room for more participation. This year we also have a Web site that we’re hoping will continue beyond ‘Kids’ Week,’ possibly year-round, as a place to go for information about discounted or free youth tickets or special events.”

A sampling of the week’s special offers: The purchase of a full-price adult ticket includes two free kids’ tickets to Santa Monica Playhouse’s “Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party” (ages 2 to 14); the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Circus Theatricals’ “Hamlet” (ages 12 to 18); A Noise Within’s production of Moliere’s “The Misanthrope” at the Luckman Theatre (12 to 18); and “Inappropriate,” the off-Broadway rock musical, about teenage pain and triumph, at the Coronet Theatre (12 to 18).

One full-price adult ticket gets one free kid’s ticket to “The Scarlet Pimpernel” at the Ahmanson Theatre (ages 6 to 18).

And there are eclectic presentations expressly for the week. The offbeat Fabulous Monsters, for example--decidedly not noted for kids’ stuff--will reprise its critically acclaimed, darkly comic “Project: Alice,” a “grown-up take” on “Alice in Wonderland” for adults and teenagers (at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, May 7 at 2 p.m.). In the company’s signature, gender-bending style--featuring puppetry, elaborate costumes and makeup--Lewis Carroll (played by Bennett Schneider) is transformed into Alice.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of this strange, stuttering Oxford don who wrote this psychedelic dream book,” said director-actor Robert Prior, who plays the Caterpillar and other roles in the show. “And it’s ever timely, [saying] significant things about the human mind and society, and the absurdity of both.”

Prior defines theater as “a temple of imagination. If you’re going to produce healthy theater, you’ve got to initiate people early and let them see that it’s an exciting part of their lives while they’re still open to it.”

“Theater is a mirror,” said artistic director Carl Weintraub, whose We Tell Stories troupe is taking a comic look at Y2K. “And it’s an expansive experience for kids. It opens them up, especially if they can get involved in it. That’s why we’re concerned with our stuff being interactive. It allows a sense of imagination, play and creativity.”

In “Why Too Kay???,” for ages 8 to 18 (at the Los Angeles Central Library, May 6 at 3 and 4:30 p.m.), the audience will be able to join in the company’s sendup of an Aztec creation myth, a poem by Maya Angelou and a spoof of the ‘50s sci-fi movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

In “Looking for Papito: Family Stories From Latin America,” his free solo show at the 24th Street Theatre near USC (May 6), Antonio Sacre springboards from autobiographical stories about growing up Cuban American in Delaware to folk tales from around the world. Taken from his CD (a 1996 Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner), the production weaves Spanish and English together in a bilingual narrative for all ages, designed to connect with native speakers of both languages.

“There’s such a level of excitement possible in the theater,” said Sacre. “When you see [kids] making connections and figuring things out, you’re watching learning happen.”

For Sacre, theater is “kind of a sacred space [that] doesn’t exist without the audience and the actor. Movies exist on their own; they will always be there. But a theater piece without an audience is nothing.”

Actress Sheila Scott-Wilkinson, founder and artistic director of Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, hopes that the group’s free, three-hour storytelling and theater workshop on May 6 at the Coronet Theatre for ages 8 to 12 “will whet their appetite” for theater and the creative arts in general. “It’s like throwing a pebble into the ocean,” she said. “We hope this will have a ripple effect.”

The “Kids’ Week” goal, A.S.K.’s Birnbaum said, is “to give young people the experience in the theater which makes them [and their families] want to come back. We hope that people will realize that there is a theater in their neighborhood doing a variety of things and that tickets may be more affordable than they thought.

“It’s kind of curious,” he added, “that in America we have to convince people of the value of the performing arts, while in many places around the world that is considered evident. But we’re hyper-aware of the mass media here and that tends to block out other things.”

* “Kids’ Week at the Theatre,” April 30-May 7. For complete schedule information, including events, an age appropriateness guide, theater addresses, dates, times, ticket prices and discounts, and reservation numbers, visit https://www.kidsweek.org, stop by any branch of the Los Angeles Public Library or call (310) 281-1910.