Story Theatre

Manic antics work well in 'Story Theater'
By: Jennifer de Poyen - Union Tribune

As the holiday season rears its head, local theater companies scramble to put up family-friendly shows, preferably ones that yield morals and lessons in keeping with the spirit of the season.

So the San Diego Rep has its "Christmas Carol," the Old Globe has its "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (along with a couple of fresh offerings, "Striking 12" and "La Pastorela de Felicidad"). And this year at North Coast Repertory Theatre, the story is "Story Theater," Paul Sills' theatrical adaptation of Aesop and Grimm Brothers fables.

Sills, an original director of the Second City troupe, developed his "Story Theater" with some of the best comic actors of his day. Built on a long rehearsal period in which the actors were encouraged to use improvisation and theater games to develop their characters, Sills' adaptation and direction brought together narration and dramatics (in which the actors tell the story in the third person, then act it out) underscored by movement and music. In 1971, the show went to Broadway; it has played all over the country, on and off, ever since.

North Coast Rep's version, which opened Sunday night, follows Sills' basic formula. As directed by David Ellenstein and played by a team of nine actors, it's teeming with comic business and inventive sound effects generated from a few props and shrewd vocalizations. The actors, many of them newcomers to the Solana Beach theater, work hard to animate their tales, which include the familiar "Henny Penny," "The Golden Goose" and "The Robber Bridegroom" as well as lesser-known fables such as "Is He Fat?" and "Venus and the Cat."

All of which played well on opening night; the audience appeared to be charmed by the often-manic onstage antics, which included an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation (by the talented Randall Dodge) and a rooster with an ear-piercing screech (by the often delightful Jonathan Scott Meza).
There were also moments (better, in my view) of richer, more subdued storytelling, in which the audience was invited to witness the conjuring of theatrical magic (actors on the sidelines cooing like birds, or striking a drum) while following the mimed action of the scene's principal players. This is true child's play, in which the enchantment of the story is enhanced by the realization that the magic is achieved through ordinary, observable means.

In the dark-themed "The Robber Bridegroom," a maze of trees is embodied by a handful of actors swaying as if stirred by a gentle breeze, their arms raised to suggest branches reaching out at the terrified maiden (Season Hamilton) who seeks her husband-to-be. In "The Fisherman and His Wife," Hamilton and Laura Bozanich rustle a piece of cloth to suggest a sea roiled by the gathering storm of the wife's greedy self-aggrandizement, which ultimately dooms the couple to a meager fate.
Some of the comic moments are memorable, too: Fred Harlow is terrific as a "little gray man" in "The Golden Goose"; Kim Strassburger delights as a pompous judge in "The Little Peasant"; and Meza brings the house down with his James Brown-inspired Foxy Woxy, who preys on Henny Penny and her "sky is falling" fellow critters.

Other scenes would benefit from being toned down. "The Bremen Town Musicians" grows tedious with its Willie Nelson shtick, and "The Golden Goose" would be more consistently amusing if the actors weren't trying so hard to make us laugh. Even when they overreach, though, the actors are sporting; here's one show in which no one is wary of making an ass of himself.

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'Story Theatre' strips down to the essence of live theater

David Ellenstein has been auditioning actors for more than a decade, but the auditions he held for "Story Theatre," opening Sunday at North Coast Repertory Theatre, were the wildest he can ever remember.Ellenstein didn't ask auditioners to present a prepared monologue or read from the script. Instead, he asked them to astonish him using only their voice and body.

"I asked them to come in and blow me away," said Ellenstein, artistic director at North Coast Rep. "I called back those people who blew me away, assembled them into six groups of six people, threw a story at each group, told them to do it in a certain style, and then said, 'I'm going to light you on fire and watch you burn.' It was wild."

Ellenstein chose the unorthodox audition process because of the unusual nature of "Story Theatre." Paul Sills' 1971 play, which retells 10 of Aesop's fables and Grimm Brothers fairy tales in new ways, relies entirely on the storytelling skills of its cast. There are no sets or costumes for this play and only minimal props. Each of the eight cast members plays eight or nine characters, including animals, and they have to create their own music and sound effects.

"What this play does is celebrate the imagination of the actors," said Ellenstein, who first saw "Story Theatre" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles when he was 14 years old. "This show demands that the actors go for it. There is no set or costume to hide behind. They have to create everything before your eyes. It is the very essence of live theater."

The playwright, Sills, was the original director of the Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s and he taught workshops in storytelling and improvisation. "Story Theatre" was an outgrowth of the experimental theater scene in Chicago at the time. The play features 10 familiar stories by Aesop and the Grimm brothers told in different styles, from realistic, to broad slapstick, to contemporary. Among the stories are "The Robber Bridegroom," "Henny Penny," "The Golden Goose," "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "The Fisherman and His Wife."

Although these stories are traditionally associated with children, the original production was created as a commentary on the political scene at the time, including the Vietnam War and the violence-plagued 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

Ellenstein said the North Coast Rep production will not have a political message, though audiences may find their own connections between the moralistic stories and today's times. He said the production will appeal to a broad audience.

"It's not a kids' show," he said. "It's an adult show that kids will enjoy too. Kids won't get all the references, but they'll be entertained. I want to draw the audience into the magic of what is happening onstage. People have never seen theater like this. I love it and I think the audience will love it too."

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STORY THEATRE - THEATRE REVIEW
Written by Cuauhtemoc Kish - Gay and Lesbian Times

One of the earliest confections to tempt the holiday taste buds is North Coast Repertory Theatre's Story Theatre. Competently directed by Artistic Director David Ellenstein, this well-chosen assortment of fables and stories of the Brothers Grimm and Aesop is a yummy, sugary morsel to be savored by all ages.
Written by Paul Sills, Story Theatre starts off by taking the moralistic ingredients out of the 10 story-recipes in this production. Sills sweetens up the mix so that what we are left with is simple fun and games and a bit of improvisation. It is imaginative, choral theatre where the actors continuously play off the antics of other actors to move along the action. They often engage the audience.

On a side note, it should be mentioned that Paul Sills is the son of Viola Spolin, who has been called "the great space mother (theatrical reference)." She wrote the definitive book on improvisation called "Improvisation for the Theatre" Spolin is not only responsible for birthing Sills, she is responsible for imbuing her love of storytelling to her son as well, inspiring him on his life journey into para-theatrical improvisation.

As with most improvisation troupes, freespace is a given on the North Coast stage where all of the actors remain visible throughout the show. They choose instruments and noise makers, and add sound bites throughout the fast-paced production. The actors pull props (hats, scarves, rooster feathers) from the upper stage wall and even provide a vocal soundtrack (bird chirps, wind, eerie sounds, etc.) for many of the storylines.

"The Little Peasant" was the first of the stories to be presented. The Peasant (Fred Harlow) tells his tale with both narrative and dialog. The peasant is so poor that he invents Little Moo-Moo, an imaginary calf to graze amongst real cows in the pastures of the Village. He herds this animal into a family franchise that eventually outdistances all the other wealthy members of the community. He accomplishes the goal through the language of "Sooth" (soothsaying) and other semi-treacherous devices that work against the greedy side of human nature.

"The Bremen Town Musicians" is a quirky story of an ass and a hound and a cat and a rooster, who form a communal band of escape to get away from their respective masters who all want to kill them. They pull their musical and verbal resources together to stay alive and succeed they do. Jonathan Scott Meza is outstanding in the role of the rooster; truly terrific is Laura Bozanich as the hound; purring-ly delicious is Jerry Lee as the cat; and quite entertaining and politically but delightfully incorrect is the leader of this mad-cap group, Randall Dodge. They sing and crow and purr and bark and hee-haw, to the audience's sheer delight.

"The Robber Bridegroom" is introduced with simple interpretive dance movements by Season Hamilton, who portrays the daughter betrothed to a suitor who lives in a dark forest where evil things happen. She convinces her father through the telling of a dream (based upon direct observation) that her flesh-eating future husband would not be the ideal family man. His head is resoundingly chopped off.

There are some other, more familiar stories, turned out nicely and they include "Henny Penny," "Stone Soup," and "The Golden Goose." Monique Gaffney struts her stuff as Henny Penny and newcomer David Stinnett strums a very telling guitar as the fisherman's son in "Stone Soup."

"The Fisherman and His Wife" allow Kim Strassburger to take on the personas of an angler's wife, a king and even the Pope. Her portrayal is endearingly ambitious.

The magic within the storytelling was enhanced by the visual paintings of the troupe. They created a human forest with their bodies, a body of water with the slow ruffling of a long, extended cloth, and a cave with the placement of moveable cubes that were used to redefine each story segment.

There's something for everyone in Story Theatre. They offer up kings and princesses, squawking crows, the goddess Venus, and even a promiscuous parson. It pulls at the heart strings, it tickles your funny bone, and it satisfies your sweet tooth for sugar and spice and all that's nice.
GO: take the kids and granny and everyone in between.

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Story Theatre
By: Rob Hopper - San Diego Playbill
From time out of mind, generations of children have grown up on stories from Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales. Full of magic, adventure, lots of talking animals, and unforgettable circumstances, these have long been the most popular and pleasant way to learn important lessons that will carry children through this dangerous world and the good morals for which we will be rewarded (as well as the bad morals for which we will be severely punished!). In 1971, Paul Sills took ten stories from Aesop, Grimm, and other legendary fables and created a fantastic new medium through which to enjoy them - on stage!

The stories are brought to life by a vibrant and talented nine-member ensemble directed by David Ellenstein. Shunning the modern frills and trappings of typical theatrical productions, they opt for a refreshingly simple and effective style of telling the stories dressed in bland peasant garb, using a few versatile black boxes that can be quickly placed or stacked for a variety of purposes, and creating sound effects from the ensemble's own mouths - all in all making you feel like you're watching a troupe of wandering minstrels who have stopped by your medieval village to entertain you with these age-old stories using good old-fashioned storytelling skills.

What follows is a show of humor and suspense, nostalgia and wonder, and the kind of easy fun that you just don't want to end. Fred Harlow starts it off as The Little Peasant whose cleverness and ingenuity keeps getting him in and out of trouble on his way from rags to riches. Fred also stars as a simple fisherman with an extremely high-maintenance and greedy wife (Kim Strassburger) who asks a lot of him and a generous fish-prince in The Fisherman and His Wife, and Fred later becomes a funny and kind of creepy "Little Gray Man" who tests the generosity of three brothers in The Golden Goose. Randall Dodge makes an amusing ass out of himself as the donkey who leads a bunch of other mistreated animals (including a hysterical rooster played by Jonathan Scott Meza) on a memorable journey in the hopes of becoming rock stars in The Bremen Town Musicians. We get a well-done glimpse into the many darker stories when cautious bride-to-be Season Hamilton makes a grisly discovery at her betrothed's home (but not too scary for most kids, and lightened here and there with touches of dark humor). And then we see that "it takes a village" in the charming tale of Stone Soup.

But the best scene is the most hysterical Henny Penny in which Henny leads the march to warn the king that the sky is falling. Joining her are Cocky-locky, Turkey-lurky, and Randall Dodge as an Arnold Schwarzenegger-ish Ducky-lucky who is chasing the skirt of the sexy Goosey-poosey (Laura Bozanich). Jonathan Scott Meza is the crafty Foxy-woxy who uses their fears to lure them into his foxhole. The whole skit is a riot that, on the day I went, got capped off by one of the best adlibs I've seen. After Fox-woxy stuffed the second bird through the arch of black boxes marking the entrance of his foxhole, the boxes in the center slipped down. Unable to slide back through the fallen arch, he said he needed someone strong to help him re-open his foxhole. Naturally Randall Dodge, as the Schwarzenegger Ducky-Lucky, made a big show as he stepped in to help, claiming that he was fixing California one foxhole at a time!  :)

With their remarkable knack for storytelling and comedy, this group puts on a show that is truly ageless. Whether you're a child hearing the stories for the first time or an adult enjoying the nostalgia of childhood and seeing new aspects to the stories you hadn't seen before, this production is sure to delight everyone.

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Theatre: Object Lesson
North Coast's Story Theatre
By: Martin Jones Westlin - San Diego City Beat

The North Coast Repertory Theatre's current Story Theatre, a sweet, kindly and well-produced spectacle of childhood fables, may evoke a contrary adult circumstance or three.

Like, the recent Department of Agriculture report that states 3.8 million American families experienced hunger last year due to the price of food.

Or the mail-order marriage that led to the shooting death of a King County, Wash. woman and her unborn child in 1995.

Or the group of Italian gays who're campaigning for a female pope (I am not making that up).
When the theater is doing its job, these and myriad such connections are not that difficult to construe. Story Theatre author Paul Sills has built a 35-year career on just such associations. He routinely taps ancient and modern allegory in staging our life stories, often without changing a word of dialogue.

The North Coast installment features his take on the human condition through 10 tales by Aesop and the Brothers Grimm - and like the gentle teacher who leads by example, this show connects way beyond its unadorned storylines and production values. It's an unfettered pleasure to report that this Story Theatre is an object lesson in the theater itself.

Director David Ellenstein and his nine-member ensemble craft multiple roles with a minimum of affectation, not unlike what you get with Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. There's a lucid quality to the play, a bucolic disposition that invites scrutiny without overdrawing parameters between actor and audience.
Story Theatre takes Keillor's neighborliness a few surreal steps further - Lake Wobegon's above-average children have nothing on this jumbled and hearty landscape, rife with benevolent young fish, demented old knaves, falling blue skies, street-wise foxes, talking guitars, promiscuous geese, godly ambition, untimely death, flagrant betrayal and communal understanding.

In a sense, Sills underscores allegory with allegory. Most of the pieces feature animals to some extent, and the writer exploits our interest in his tales with our affinity for creatures of nature. Ellenstein ensures that the animals' physical characteristics comport with Sills' intent - witness Laura Bozanich's leggy Goosey-Poosey in the "Henny-Penny" segment and Monique Gaffney's cantankerous blackbird in "Two Crows."

Actors Jerry Lee, Jonathan Scott Meza and David Stinnett eventually take a turn at animal mimicry - but they're a big part of the show's successful initial entry, "The Little Peasant." The Grimm story is about a place "where golden snow falls" - the peasant (Fred Harlow) inherits the hamlet's riches but gains nothing as the townspeople die. It's theatrical justice come alive, laying the groundwork for internal discourse on the real-life aftereffects of hunger, homicide and a gender-bent Holy See.

Take heart, for example, in Aesop's infamous "Stone Soup" and its hungry travelers who trick a stingy community into sharing food. Randall Dodge excels as the soft-spoken mastermind, patiently stirring an imaginary pot of broth as the suspicious townspeople natter about. Season Hamilton particularly succeeds in the Grimms' "The Robber Bridegroom," wherein the gruesome murder of a beautiful young girl (Bozanich) is recounted in a dream and the perpetrator brought to justice. Harlow and Kim Strassburger are histrionically sound in "The Fisherman and His Wife." In that Grimm story, the latter seeks the papacy through collection on a debt, only to lose everything amid her greed.

Strangely, not a single kid was spotted at a recent Saturday show. While that may be a minor coincidence, it also speaks to the global allure of performance - the enormously complex medium that fuels human self-awareness through the simplest of re - enactments. The theater thrives on its role in that equation; accordingly, North Coast is to be congratulated on an excellent contribution to the integrity of the art.

Though children will certainly enjoy this entry for its interconnectedness and fun, its deeper lessons are suitable particularly - nay, eminently - for adults.

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