This post had inadvertently been misplaced. I felt I wanted to post it even though it was originally written in January 2007.
I have spent a considerable amount of time in my own career and certainly through this platform exploring and questioning genres of magic and themes that have, at their core, elements of magic and/or magic realism. It is perhaps because I spent my childhood years reading stories from the classic literary canon of children’s literature—works by Andersen, Grimm, Grahame, Tolkien and contemporary writers such as McCaffrey, Asimov, LeGuin, Cooper among others. It is this element of magic, of the dark mysterious unknown that draws me to these stories. It is this mystery that often compels a second read or tenth. And it is what intrigues me when a theatre company geared for children and families decides to commission and produce a large scale production that deals with magic in a society that spends an inordinate amount of time kowtowing to religious conservative organizations and political action committees bent on re-writing history and obliterating the marvel that is the childhood imagination.
In the recent production by Seattle Children’s Theatre, Linda Hartzell weaves a magical spell with her theatre’s premiere of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice—by playwright OyamO with music by Carman Moore. In brief, the story follows a young boy, Charles as he struggles to find acceptance and a place in his world. He wanders into a magical forest with talking flora and fauna to the garden of the Sorceress Marguerite. He asks for a job as her apprentice and with considerable persuasion is given three chores/chances to prove himself. Marguerite warns though that if he disappoints her, even once, that she will send Charles packing. Charles accepts this challenge, but because he is a head-strong young boy with ambition and attitude in abundance, his greed and arrogance begin to get the better of him. He is tricked by Jeremy Groundhog into pulling up spinach rather than weeds in the garden. He is tricked by the minions of Big John King, an evil sorcerer bent on stealing Marguerite’s magic—failing to deliver special herbs as directed by Marguerite. And in a final task to clean Marguerite’s magic chamber, Charles’ curiosity gets the better of him and he tries to use his untrained magic. The result is a magical deluge of streaming water from many sources within the room. Marguerite enters in the nick-of-time and puts all to rights. In her anger and disappointment she tells Charles to leave.
In his anger, Charles falls under the influence of Big John King. He agrees to switch out the magic stone in Marguerite’s turban that will weaken and diminish her power thus giving Big John the upper hand to rule over the magic forrest and land. Marguerite places the turban on her head unaware that Charles has snuck into her chamber to make the switch. Her powers falter and Big John makes his move in a battle of magic between the two sorcerers. At the last moment when it looks like Marguerite will fail in her struggle to defeat her enemy, Charles reenters and takes responsibility for his actions by finding the strength and his own magic to save Marguerite and defeat Big John King. Marguerite sees that Charles has taken a very important step in becoming a more responsible individual and appoints Charles as her official Apprentice.
In the usual high standards of the Seattle Children’s Theatre, this new production is a feast for the eyes and for the most part ears of its young audience and their families.
The designs, both scenic and costumes are by the designers who brought last season’s production of Sleeping Beauty to life—Carey Wong and Catherine Hunt respectively.
The set design is very similar to Sleeping Beauty and seemed to utilize many of the larger scenic elements such as the tracking “inner-stage” and several rolling pieces. What I love about Mr. Wong’s designs is his attention to detail—cut drops, flown pieces and the meticulous care in the props all help to create a visually stunning world. The same can be said for the imaginative costumes that, even from the back of the house where I was sitting, were obviously of great complexity utilizing many tricks of the costume technology trade with elaborate headpieces, built in armatures and wonderful use of textural and patterned fabrics. There is always a richness to the magical productions helmed by Ms. Hartzel. Kudos too to the lighting team for creating atmospheric lighting as well as the vibrant scenes that included musical numbers with movement and choreography. The lighting was also a great asset to the magic effects used throughout the production.
The music was some of the best that I have heard from SCT premiere productions of late. There was a cohesion to the music by composer Carman Moore influenced by southern jazz, Cajun, Caribbean and Latin Rhythms that really helped to solidify the unexpected setting of this fanciful tale in what appeared to by Louisiana or perhaps Mississippi. There was bit of an anachronism with some of the dialogue coupled with the undefined time period, music, and the designs but it didn’t hurt the overall production or hinder the creativity of the production team.
As usual, this public performance was nearly filled a week before the end of the run. I would estimate that the house was at seventy per-cent occupancy plus or minus. After a series of performance cancellation due to the very strange winter weather we had been having in the Pacific Northwest this past winter, I wondered how this figured into this particular performance’s attendance numbers, but the crowd was enthusiastic, filled with children anxious to find just the right seat. I always enjoy listening to the children as they shuttle past me down the aisles as they discuss with their friends, siblings or parental units the pros and cons of locations. The children that have attended regularly will undoubtedly quip that the seats they had for ‘such and such’ were much better than the ones they had for ‘this or that.’ SCT employs festival seating with the center section designated as “A” and the two side audience sections designated as “B.” Beyond that, it is the responsibility of the patron to sit in their appropriate sections. I heard at least a handful of children correcting their adult counterparts as to the “correct” section that they must sit. Allowing their younger patrons to learn the value of honesty and responsibility in such a simple way can not be underestimated. If only the adults could learn by the example set by the children it would be a wonderful experience for all.
I hope the reader will forgive me when I get on my soap box to lament the common sense of decency that parents of toddlers and babes in arms seem to be guilty of when attending the theatre. I have seen it countless times—a parent that allows a toddler to slink out of their laps to then go traipsing up and down the aisles with the inevitable parent trying, as unobtrusively as possible, to corral the child back into their arms to then return to their seats to then have the whole sequence repeat itself. At this particular performance, a woman fitting the description above, sitting in the front row of the house- left section of the audience spent the whole first act of the play trying to restrain a young toddler completely oblivious to the action onstage. What this did for me and I’m assuming the several hundred people who were sitting behind her, was to provide an unforgivable distraction to what would have been a very well-mannered audience. To his credit, the House Manager did slide in through a side door to ask her to keep the child in her seat after managing to wander onto one of the far downstage right playing spaces.
As someone with an extensive background in theatre, it amazes me that people still think that this behavior is acceptable. To think that the performers can’t see you might seem plausible especially with certain lighting, etc. but to just assume this as a blanket truth needs to STOP! The actors CAN see you; they CAN hear you and your talking, and cell phone ringing and candy wrapper twisting. And guess what? The audience CAN hear and see you too! We see the announcements at the beginnings of films as slides or moving images—some are even crafted now to dupe the audience initially into thinking they are watching a movie trailer. As the young protagonist from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice would say, “Golly-gee something!.” Is this really necessary?! Shouldn’t we all know better as adults?! Common manners, courtesy and decency is a learned behavior; taught by example.
Getting back to my initial thesis pondering how a professional theatre would choose repeatedly to produce plays dealing with magic; Seattle Children’s Theatre should be applauded not only for its quality product, but for its unflinching courage in producing plays that do not shy away from the wonder of magic and its place in the intellect and imagination of young people. I would say that Seattle is a very sensible community unwavering in its, dare I say it, liberal pragmatism. But I fear that even here in Western Washington the cloud of social and intellectual conservatism has shadowed somewhat of late the freedom that has been taken for granted for far too long. I’m hearing now every other day about yet another school board that is questioning and black-listing Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Will the libraries, the theatres and the other avenues of humanistic education be next? Until then, we must support in any way we can those organizations that carry on the good work and the struggle to keep the wonder, imagination and innocence of childhood alive and healthy.
