‘Cinderella’ Masks Tell Classic Story

The ornately painted fold-out stage might have sprung from the pages of an antique pop-up book, the Prince is so shy he does magic tricks to compensate and Cinderella levitates: When Landis & Company Theatre of Magic is in town, it’s never fairy tale theater as usual.

“Cinderella,” the Philadelphia-based company’s latest national touring show, is making stops at the Haugh Performing Arts Center in Glendora on Saturday, Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on Sunday and the McCallum Theatre in Palm Springs on Wednesday.

A poignant and funny telling of the familiar tale, it weaves together stylized physical theater, magic, music and visual treats, with an aim to appeal to adults as well as children ages 6 and up.

And, as in the similarly staged “Beauty and the Beast,” which the company toured here two years ago, “Cinderella” features an unusual cast: actors that never speak, their faces concealed by puppet-like masks, playing opposite eccentric, life-size puppets.

The puppets, including buffoonish stepsisters and a rather alarming stepmother, are manipulated by dark-garbed actor-puppeteers who also move props and scenery and play other characters in the show, from ball guests to the lizard-turned-coachman and mouse-turned-horse.

With vivid period costumes, a romantic, Prokofiev-inspired score and an evocative lighting design in soft pastels and swirling patterns, the rags-to-riches story unfolds through limited recorded narration and the actors’ tightly choreographed movement.

“The challenge is to [express] through the body very clear ideas,” said artistic director Landis Smith, “so that you almost think they’re talking.”

Gail Grigg, “an extraordinary physical actress” and alumna of Northern California’s respected Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, is the person behind the wistful Cinderella mask. Unable to use face or voice to communicate, she portrays a full range of emotion using her body to create what she calls “mobile sculpture.”

Her performance, Smith said, takes the language of movement further than in “Beauty and the Beast.”

“You think it’s mechanics,” he said, “but associated with those mechanics are feelings and ideas. In some ways, the body can be more eloquent than words.”

“There are certainly elements of mime, which is almost a four-letter word,” Grigg noted wryly. “I think that’s why we say ‘physical theater,’ because everyone’s afraid of the ‘m’ word.”

Working with a mask, however, opens a wealth of options for an actor, she said. “You’re not limited by your type or your age. It’s about figuring out how different parts of your body are displayed, or if you’re reaching forward in a certain way, how does it read [to the audience]? It’s through that extreme technicality that you get those moments when you’re someone else.”

Because there is limited narration, the central expressive “voice” of the play is provided by composer Andy Tierstein, whose work includes many PBS and BBC films. His classical score reflects the play’s origins: It began as a short musical pantomime piece commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, choreographed to a suite from Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” ballet.

This “Cinderella” is unexpected in other ways. According to Smith, director Leslie Reidel, who wrote the script with Smith and his wife, Jennifer Blatchley Smith, “dug deep” in researching the tale, which appears in 9th century China and many other cultures.

It begins with a “subtle” dying scene, as Cinderella’s mother--another life-size puppet--says her last goodbye to her daughter and husband. The Prince departs from his usual role, too, not only wooing Cinderella with card tricks and other playful bits of magic, but traveling around the world to find her, and encountering Spanish, Balinese and Alaskan princesses. (The Alaskan encounter provides a laugh-out-loud visual gag.)

And, among the show’s magic and illusions--a company specialty--are Cinderella’s “levitation” scenes.

“It’s a rather spectacular illusion,” Smith said, “but it doesn’t come off as a spectacular feat. The fairy godmother gets carried away helping her with her chores, and when Cinderella comes back from the ball, she’s just floating on clouds. We choose stories that have transformation and magic in them,” he noted. “We try to have it all come out of the story, not just add it on.”

There are “ooh and ahh” moments in the production design itself as well. Some are earned by set designer and painter Jessie Walker, a scenic artist for such films as “Illuminata.” The romantic celestial motif of the fold-out, stage-within-a-stage set, topped by a glowing sun and moon, was inspired by artworks of the zodiac and representations of the heavens that date from the time of French author Charles Perrault’s 17th century version of the Cinderella story.

Walker was influenced, too, by theaters of the Baroque era, “where everything would be moving, everything was mechanical [and] cut out, like a pop-up book come to life,” she said.

Scenes and action in the show were also created through a sophisticated use of color, abstract patterns and the movement of light, crafted by theater and opera lighting designer Thomas Hase, (among his recent credits is Meredith Monk’s science-fiction chamber opera “Magic Frequencies”).

The company’s next major touring show is Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”

“Cinderella,” Haugh Performing Arts Center, Citrus College, 1000 West Foothill Blvd., Glendora, Saturday at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. $5. (626) 963-9411. Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach, Sunday at 2 p.m. $12-$15. (562) 985-7000. McCallum Theatre, 73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., $5-$15, (760) 340-2787, (866) 889-2787.