Children’s Fest Isn’t Just for Kids

Wacky characters with a helium bounce, slice-of-life vignettes with marionettes, a fragile world of paper and shadows, a Great Depression-era adventure: The Ventura County Children’s Festival is not kids’ theater as usual.

Professional, crafted to cross generations, the 16-year-old festival’s annual slate of national and international dance, music, theater and puppet companies, presented at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Fred Kavli and Scherr Forum theaters, is one of the most family friendly, eclectic performance series in Southern California.

Started by educator Brian Bemel in 1985, it is now part of Performances to Grow On, a nonprofit that also features the adult series “Pieces of the World” and the annual “Village of Tales Storytelling Festival” each May in Ojai.

Bemel’s goals for the Ventura County Children’s Festival are to avoid the usual and to create experiences for adults and children to share.

“With a lot of children’s programming,” Bemel said, “the adults are there because the kids are there. I wanted to create something for adults as well, so that even if you found yourself in this space without kids, you wouldn’t feel out of place. And the flip side is that kids are stretched; they get to see things that make their world bigger.”

The festival’s 2001-02 season kicks off Saturday with the weird and comic Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Company. A constant visual surprise of a show, it features dance and movement with physical clown Fred Garbo, Brazilian ballet dancer Daielma Santos and bouncy, huge inflatable costumes and props.

Garbo is followed by the equally unusual “No Show,” a one-man show by mask, mime and circus artist Doug Berky (who was the original Barkley the dog on “Sesame Street”). The show is about a “passing fool” who’s drawn on to a stage when the real actor fails to arrive and turns a bunch of props and masks into a comic roller-coaster ride crafted with elements of silent movies, circus and vaudeville.

Other internationally touring artists on this year’s schedule are the Cashore Marionettes--the only show that is not recommended for children under age 6--and Leland Faulkner, who presents “a compelling kind of visual theater,” Bemel said, creating stories from around the world with an Asian flavor, turning delicate paper cutouts and hand shadows into a multitude of characters.

The series ends with more traditional offerings from New York’s venerable Theatreworks/USA, a nationally touring professional company whose repertoire includes works for young children and for general audiences.

The shows in Bemel’s series are in the latter category: “The Boxcar Children” is a family musical based on Gertrude Chandler’s book series about the adventures of four homeless orphans in the 1930s; and “Peter Pan” is a very different version of James M. Barrie’s classic. It is based on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, adapted by John Carid and Trevor Nunn. In it, seven children in Edwardian England use what they find in their attic playroom to bring the tale to life.

Bemel, who is also the visual and performing arts specialist for the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools, plans his series a year in advance, scouting groups at international theater festivals in Canada, at national presenters’ showcases and by networking with other presenters of family programming. His criteria, he said, besides quality acting and production values, are subtlety, creativity and layers of content that reach all ages.

“With Joe Cashore’s Marionettes, for instance, the depth of each piece touches the child and moves the adult at the same time. I want shows that stimulate dialogue,” he said, “so that kids ask their parents questions and create family conversation.”

Bemel recommends that children be at least 6 years old for this show; 5 is the youngest age recommended for other shows in the series.

“People who come to our series are not going to get the run-of-the-mill,” Bemel said. “We try to present things for the adventurers at heart, and we like to present a variety. I want audiences to see the whole [spectrum] of the arts that is out there. I guess that’s the teacher that’s still in me.”

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“Performances to Grow On: The Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Co.,” Saturday, 7 p.m. $15-$18. “No Show,” Oct. 13, 7 p.m. $12-$15. “The Cashore Marionettes,” Nov. 10, 7 p.m. $12-$15. “World of Wonder,” Jan. 18, 7 p.m. $12-$15. “The Boxcar Children,” March 8, 7 p.m. $14-$16. “Peter Pan,” April 13, 7 p.m. $14-$16. At Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. (805) 650-9688, (805) 646-8908, [805] 583-8700. Tickets for entire series: $70-$85. https://https://www.ptgo.org/.