Today I had the privilege of enjoying a lovely show in the pleasantly icebergish Long Center. It's 106 every day here, I cannot express how nice it was to sit in a space and just feel cool. But even if I hadn't been thrillingly not melty, I still would have thoroughly enjoyed the show we saw, Pattern Nation, as produced by Pollyanna Theatre Company.

I hadn't heard of Pollyanna before and didn't know what to expect when I saw the write up in the Chronicle. But now I am very interested in seeing what they do in the future, including their children's version of The Tempest coming up in August. One of the shows I remember seeing as a small one is a shorter version of Macbeth at Stage One, so even though I think Ollie might be a bit young for Shakespeare, there's no harm in trying. 

Pattern Nation owes a fair debt to the Paperbag Players, my favorite historical children's theatre company. Like the Paperbag Players, their sets and costumes were simple and looked made out of homemade things, the main set piece/prop was a cardboard box. The set consisted of a backdrop that said Pattern Nation with different scraps of fabric on it, there were some platforms to the right, and three circles in green, blue, and yellow painted on the floor. The two dimensional props, representing food and other things, were all charmingly decoupage with different papers and fabrics for a vintage patchworky feel. I was really impressed with how cute they were.

When we came into the theatre, Red was snoozing fitfully on the platforms (making up the fourth color circle) and his wiggling and flopping made the kids giggle. The show had no real narrative, though I guess it is the third part in a series. Red, Blue, and Green were anthropomorphized guys, each with a distinct personality. Yellow was a woman. A voice announces overhead that "Today's Pattern is Boxes" (a touch I thought maybe overtly too much like preschool television) and the characters begin a series of sketches about patterns and shapes and colors that Red, who is tired and not feeling well, resists taking part in. When he does try to get involved, he can't get the patterns right. The kids all thought this was hilarious, as they knew what shape was supposed to come up next and here this goofy grown up couldn't get with the program. Red in particular was hilarious, with a mugging expressive face that perfectly brought his rebellious character to life.

The main sketch was a large cardboard box being delivered to the friends and them figuring out what it was (a box) but then what it could be used for (a cat bed-- the cat being spot on embodied by Blue, a pirate ship, a limeade stand, a puppet theatre). Along the way there were songs and silly dancing, different emotions expressed, and unlike the rote Annie, though the audience today was unfairly tiny, the four actors in this show acted their hearts out for their child audience.

I loved this show. I thought it was extremely well written, fantastically acted, and well designed and directed. I have to say, I wish the story had been a bit more of a through line and a bit less of a sketch comedy thing, though I do know from reading about educational theory that this is supposed to be the way to best keep small one's attention spans. So since this show was all about entertaining the small one, my personal structural preference takes a back seat.

This was not quite the visual extravaganza The Very Hungry Caterpillar was, but this was in every way my definition of good children's theatre and I encourage anybody with a small one to go see the next Pattern show that pops up.  

So today I have a new feature for the blog. I've decided to write reviews of the children's theatre shows we take Ollie to see. This is a review of the original musical "The Story" as performed at ACT theatre.

ACT Children's theatre is theatre for and performed by children. "The Story" is a full length musical using metatheatricality, literary theory, and outmoded and alarming gender politics. The play is set up with a framing device of a Story Teller, who was written as a man and is played by a rather sarcastic older girl in an unflattering costume. While I get the sense that in a few years she'd be really fun to hang with at a bar, she had no charisma on stage and looked as though she were sneering at the proceedings of the play. But, can you blame her after all of the characters (all sixty of them) sang and danced on stage pointing at her and declaring, "She's the man!" over and over? There's nothing a young teenage girl likes better than to be called mannish.

The Story Teller is tired of telling stories and so takes on an apprentice. An adorable moppet with a lisp and no ability to remember his lines. They begin a story about a Goat Herder named Gus and a woman named Mona Moneybags with a lot of daughters all given money related names (Nickel, Goldie, etc), except for the youngest, Ernestine. At this point in wafts Inspiration, a tall lithe blonde in a Blue Fairyesque floor length dress and minimal make-up. She is perky and upbeat and loves everybody. She calls us "beautiful creatures" throughout. Given the lack of plot to this point, the audience should be happy when Conflict rushes on, alongside her minions including Woe and Discord who are dressed in sort of Spanish Matador costumes. In contrast to the demurely and conventionally attractive Inspiration, Conflict has been decked out as a whore, in an unflattering tight red satin dress that ends above her knee and a truly astonishing amount of blush. The story, as it develops, is that Mona Moneybags first born was Gus the Goat Herder, who was caught in a violent gust of wind and whooshed off to Goat Island. He comes to the city looking for his mother and his fortune with only a locket with her picture in it to guide him.

Mona Moneybags, I should add, was by far the best performer in the show. She managed to project sadness and concern for her children, a gravitas that belies her 12(?) years of life. She had a lovely singing voice. I hope that she keeps performing.

I don't remember the rest of the myriad of plot complications and confusions except for a couple of highlights. One is that there is an entire number built around the notion that every single day Mona's children (as the wealthiest children in the world) get a pair of new shoes and that this occasions a dance number about how all women love shoes more than anything. And at some point Mona's children began sneaking out at night through a conveniently located secret passage and that Gus the Goat Herder saves the day by physically pushing them with his shepherd’s crook back home. A truly disturbing act of male policing of women's freedom and sexuality through physical force. 

The highlights of the show were Mona Moneybags, Narrators 1 and 2 (who rebel against the stupidity of their roles and wear awesome hats), and the girl who looked EXACTLY like the kid in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants who dies of cancer. Well, not her so much as figuring out why I thought I must know her.

Ollie watched with rapt attention throughout. However, though I was told on the phone the show would be appropriate for small children, I have no doubt he followed almost none of the plot or story and had no idea what was going on. Luckily the kids sang and danced with enthusiasm, for the most part, and the costumes were colorful and fun (I also particularly admired a very well cut and sewn green dress one of Mona's daughters was wearing. If a mom or dad made that, they did a really good job). He was also very into making sure he followed the cues of the audience. I got the giggles really badly when one of the boys in the show, dressed as a detective, said completely woodenly, "Your daughter does not appear to be here right now." It reminded me of all the parodies of CSI I've seen and I think he needed to whip off his sunglasses for the full effect. After a second Ollie got very upset and declared "That not funny! Stop laughing Mama!" And when I couldn't, he insisted on sitting with Eric, he was just that mad at me.   

All in all I would say that the kids did a great job, by and large, with some of course better and more charismatic than others, but all seemed to be having a good time. As I indicate in my review, largely I was caught up in my horror at the script and costuming choices and how unfortunate the depictions of women were.

Eric went upstairs and grabbed a pair of brightly striped Zutano pants for him, as they are light weight and 18-24 month. When they got back downstairs Ollie threw a fit. You see, he wanted to wear the pants. So we changed him into them. Then he explained to us, by pointing at them and making siren noises, that he wanted to wear them because the stripes remind him of the flashing lights on emergency vehicles. Then he wanted to wear his hat. At this point he was wearing rainbow striped pants, a white t-shirt that says "I heart London" and a red hat with primary colored critters all over it.

I guess if you're starting your first day of school in the new classroom you should do it in style.

It has also been fun watching Ollie make friends. A lot of our friends have noted how their kids are suddenly interested in other people and in developing relationships as well. Ollie has made very good friends with his classmates at school. He spends a great deal of time talking about Coco, Finley, and Lola, who are all about his age and who play together. He talks some about Scout and Josie and the other smaller babes, but it is the ones his age he really likes (along with Dre and Toni his teachers. I think Crystal, who is there in the mornings sometimes is too difficult to say). The other day as we were leaving Lola was sitting by the door and he said "Lola" and waved goodbye to her and she smiled happily and waved back. 

What is interesting to me is that Ollie seems to be a lot like his parents in some respects. One of which is social. He is far more comfortable in familiar spaces where he knows the other people well. We went to a surprise baby shower for our friend Paige on Saturday. The hosts thoughtfully threw the party at Gymboree so all the kids could come and have a blast. While Ollie knew a lot of the kids, he doesn't routinely spend time with them lately. And though Ollie loves singing and dancing, he was unwilling to participate when the leader asked them to do hand motions or sing along (though he did them for Eric days later on his own). Instead he gets overstimulated and freaked out when a new kid tries to make friends with him (poor Sabrina) or stares thoughtfully when the teacher asks him to do a dance or sing. It takes him awhile to warm up to situations or people. If we went to Gymboree all the time, I'm sure he'd have no issue with it. He just wants to acclimate himself to places carefully. He hangs back, or sticks close to me when he's not sure what's going on.   

Last nights was when we were snuggling him to sleep. I was singing "Feed the Birds," from Mary Poppins, to him. I was singing along, him snuggled against my chest, and when I got to the chorus I sang, "Feed the birds..." only to hear my small boy chime in singing, "bawk, bawk, bawk."