The Emperor's Ears

This year we continued what has become a Father's Day tradition: attending a show at Talespinner Children's Theatre. Their inaugural production, The Tale of the Name of the Tree had just opened last June and while my family offered to just leave me alone for the day (to go running, or go writing, any number of solitary pursuits) I preferred to spend time with my favorite people in the world, my wife and children.

This year they are presenting the Serbian folktale The Emperor's Ears. Last winter I sat in on the annual auditions for the 2013 TCT productions, because I wanted to be able to weigh on on casting for Adventures In Slumberland, which opens November 30. I watched as six sets of actors collaborated very fast to tell this same tale of a young prince born with goat's ears, I saw it reinterpreted six different times.

They were working from a brief synopsis, not the script as presented in this fully-produced version, written by Michael Sepesy (who also wrote Name of the Tree) and so I was excited to learn how it would play in an hour-long version, how Sepesy would put his special, sardonic spin on the language, and what beautiful costumes, dance, song and other tricks were going to be employed to bring the tale to life.

Not only did I have my own, immediate family with me, but I also brought my dad. We were all very delighted with the show, in particular I was so happy with all the actor-teachers in the company -- Andrew, Carrie and Katelyn. I thought Andrew was particularly in his element, unrestrained in his consummate goofiness, especially as big, grumpy, hirsute, fat guy.

Most of my glee, however, was for Cathleen O'Malley, who was so awesome at audition, she's the kind of actor who makes you want to write plays for them. 

It's a challenge, I think, to create a protagonist for a children's work. Many opt to make them bland ciphers, someone whose shoes child can theoretically step into easily ... only what child has no personality? But then, so many modern characters in children's stories and movies are just plain awful, too self-aware to have wonder.

Sepesy drew and O'Malley inhabits a young woman with a serious problem and together they are hilarious and very fun, especially when they have such great supporting characters to work against.

"The Emperor's Ears" continues through July 6.

Alison Garrigan

Heather N. Stout is an evil queen in "Magic Flute"
(Talespinner Children's Theatre, 2012)

My friend Ali Garrigan has lived in the creative service of others, and by that I mean she has existed as collaborative partner in all manner of artistic endeavors, always providing an unending fount of positive energy and enthusiasm along with bottomless creativity and joy to whatever pursuit she is currently engaged in.

Quite often toward more than one project at a time. Sometimes twelve.

Since 1996, for this theater artist alone, she has created original music and created soundtracks for, performed in, directed others and directed me in plays I have written, designed and created costumes for and performed in plays I have directed, designed and created costumes for plays I have performed in directed by others, and we have performed in plays together.

We have collaborated in well over fifteen plays in fifteen years. That’s just with me.

This weekend the family traveled to see the second offering from Talespinner Children’s Theatre Magic Flute (a new adaptation based on the original folk tale written by Anne McEvoy) and remained after to witness auditions for the 2013 productions.

Ali’s skill at working as a great collaborator in others’ companies has prepared her for the most creative, collaborative, and positive-spirited environment I have walked into. She is “in charge” but only in the sense that she empowers all participants to step up and confidently contribute to the best of their ability.

It is astonishing how much sound, color, music, movement and magic is compact onto on small stage, with seven actors, in one hour during Magic Flute. The production does not represent one theatrical discipline, it samples from plenty, whichever suits the situation, from Far East to Africa to European folk tradition, with one or two contemporary quirks thrown in, but only one or two.

At the risk of quoting myself, she suits the action to the word, the word to the action.

I owe Ali a script for Adventures In Slumberland. It will come. Attending Magic Flute was necessary, even after witnessing The Tale of the Name of the Tree last summer. I wanted to pay attention to the text, and how much was text, and what they do with it. She calls our work “Guide Scripts” which I like. I like the opportunity to be that kind of collaborator, that the writing is as fluid as the direction or the performance, or any and all of the technical elements.

Watching her, as I am right now, leading actors who (in some cases) have never met, to discover how they move, and think, and collaborate, and take imaginative risks with each other … well, it’s a lot like auditioning to be a GLT actor-teacher, honestly (which means I am in my comfort zone) but unique to the task at hand, and unique to Ali, as director.

How often does someone have the opportunity to consider the company before writing the play? It happens. It is rare. It is a gift. I got a lot of dreams for Slumberland. I have confidence that Ali will make them reality.

UPDATE: Talespinner Children's Theatre presents "The Boy Who Stole the Sun," adapted and directed by Alison Garrigan, now through October 7 2019.

Talespinner Children's Theatre

One year ago, during the Cleveland Public Theatre annual artists' meeting, artistic director Raymond Bobgan raised a very good question: What does the Cleveland theater community not already have, that it might benefit from? There were many interesting answers. Somebody suggested a children's theater.

Ali Garrigan was not the person who made that suggestion. However, she was the person who not only could not stop thinking about it, but who resolved virtually that moment to make it a reality.

She wasn't "stealing" any ideas from CPT, the whole point of a professional children's theater is exactly that, to be a theater whose sole mission is to produce works for the entertainment of a child audience, and CPT was not going to become that.

In 2007 when visiting my brother and his wife in the Twin Cities, they took us to the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, where we saw an adaptation of Sally Wittman's A Special Trade. It was an eye-opening experience; the theater is in a wing of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, a charming, intimate space with a variety of seats that range from floor cushions, which get taller and taller as they move back row after row. "Big people" are instructed to sit in the back, where their charges can see them, but you know, out of the way. The performance is for the children.

The other major Ohio cities have them -- The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati, the Columbus Children's Theatre. Well, for the past twelve months, Ali has been working tirelessly to make this happen, and she has had enough experience working with theater start-ups (most of them mine) to know the right way to go about it, establishing an identity, a mission, raising funds, going non-profit and finding a permanent home first, before even opening a show.

Talespinner Children's Theatre officially opened this weekend, their inaugural production an original adaptation of the Bantu fable The Tale of the Name of the Tree. The family asked what I wanted to do for Father's Day, and that's where I said I wanted to go.

What we shared was remarkable, at once simply-told, and yet packed with energy. Five performers played all of the animals, and though the script was created by local artist Michael Sepesy, each actor (several of whom I am familiar with) seemed to have had the character written especially for them, as each animal tapped into some special talent uniquely their own.

The space is right downtown, off the Shoreway, in the Reinberger Auditorium in the West Side Ecumenical Ministry building at 52nd and Detroit. Even the space is special, at once appearing as a traditional, three-sided space, and yet with dimensions that make it feel intimate, close, homey, and with excellent sight lines for small people. How do I explain it, the action is so close, but not too close, if you follow me. That has a lot to do with the gentle, welcoming touch of the performers, and their director.

The Tale of the Name of the Tree continues Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM, with 7 PM evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays through July 8. If you have small children, you must go, it's absolutely delightful.