Children’s theater that’s a bruiser to do

A few gasps. A muffled, disbelieving “oh, no.”

Oh, yes. The slender young woman in the precarious position on top of a fellow actor’s shoulders is indeed about to take a flying dive into the air.

Eyes widen in the audience seated on the green at Occidental College’s Remsen Bird Hillside Theater. Four other actors weave their outstretched arms together and brace themselves. Will they be able to catch her?

Such “ooh, aah” moments are a trademark of the Occidental Children’s Theater, whose shows offer family audiences a dynamic mix of creative physicality, storytelling, puns and slapstick.

Several such moments occur in the company’s 10th annual outdoor summer romp, “Little Red Frankenhood,” a bill of three folk tales and an original spoof running through Aug. 20.

As the stories unfold -- a stonecutter’s lesson in strength; why rabbits’ ears are long; how a farm boy wins a princess; and how Little Red Riding Hood, Einstein’s brain and some dancing Teutonic woodsmen mix it up with Frankenstein -- the six-member cast is in constant acrobatic mode.

Somersaulting in and out of scenes, the actors play multiple characters and all sets and props.

They hurl themselves to the ground and into the air, whip into shoulder stands, and slam their bodies together to form the show’s rivers, rocks, cooking pots, caves, trees, houses and furniture.

They lift, carry, spin and toss one another, while the sweat of exertion in the morning sun challenges vital grips on hands and wrists.

“We have to get ourselves up to this crazy level,” says cast member William Kaminski. “It takes 100% effort. You’re telling yourself, ‘do not drop, do not drop, count the leaves on that tree,’ anything you can” to maintain concentration.

Much of the show’s physicality is inspired by movement coach Nick Erickson’s experiences as a founding member of Los Angeles’ Diavolo Dance Theater. Erickson, who teaches stage movement at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, puts the Occidental actors through a bruising two-week boot camp to give them a physical and creative foundation for the show.

Athletic conditioning is essential, he says. “I also try to create an ensemble of performers that are dependent on each other and will be there to help each other.”

In collaboration with director Jamie Angell, Erickson then gives the cast a “vocabulary” of such moves as the helicopter, the frog, the tornado and a two-person bear.

Bruises and scrapes are common. The first week of the six-week rehearsal is particularly risky. The process means “shock and readjustment” for bodies in training, and since the actors must support one another physically, trust is essential.

“You learn really quickly that if you don’t commit to the moves and you don’t trust the other person, that’s when the injuries happen,” says actor Daniel Campagna.

Still sore from an over-the-shoulder throw early in rehearsals, cast member Colleen Robertson has kept her chiropractor busy. “I was intimidated, and that’s when I injured myself,” she says.

When Angell takes over rehearsal in the third week, the actors begin plotting out specific images in the folk tales: How to play a mountain, an alligator and a cloud.

But sometimes, Angell says, the company has to admit defeat. “One story we’ve come back to a number of times, we haven’t been able to solve physically, where one person has to pick up a pot that someone is hiding in and throw it out a window.”

Throughout rehearsal, the actors continue their strengthening work.

“Instead of using weights, they use the other actors,” Angell says. “We do a lot of games built around endurance. I drive them crazy.”

There’s reason behind the madness. The actors perform three days a week, have a rigorous rehearsal before each show and strike the set afterward, including audience chairs and tenting. And on Mondays through Fridays, they teach some of the show’s moves to children who sign up for the company’s three-hour afternoon acting camp.

Betsy Hume, meanwhile, whose flying dive makes the audience gasp, has gotten over her terror of the “too high” -- what Erickson and Angell call one actor standing on another.

“It was a struggle. It was just like bees in my head, all these thoughts like, you’re falling forward, you’re falling backward. I couldn’t quiet my brain.”

Now, Hume says, she enjoys it as much as the audience does.

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‘Little Red Frankenhood’

Where: Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock

When: 10 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays

Ends: Aug. 20

Price: Ages 2 to 12, $6; adults, $9

Contact: (323) 259-2922

Running time: 1 hour