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Children's Theater Runs Through Aug. 19
The critically acclaimed Occidental Children’s Theater will present “Dracula and the Beanstalk,” an original story, plus three adaptions of traditional folktales for a seven-week outdoor run in the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater on the Occidental campus.
In about an hour, a cast of six recent Occidental alumni will perform four energetic and funny stories without props, sets or special costumes, relying only on their acting and acrobatic skills. “The cast carries it off with the unflagging charm that has made this reliable company one of the Southland’s – and the summer’s – most entertaining children’s theater offerings,” says the Los Angeles Times.
The scripts and the action for the tales are company-created and the result of weeks of improvisation and revision. The three traditional stories, which are yet to be chosen, will be the troupe’s versions of existing folk tales from around the world. The title story was developed by actors and Jamie Angell, the theater’s founding artistic director.
“We work in the round, so the audience is right on top of the action,” Angell says. “The unconventional material and the absence of props or costumes force both the actors and the audience to rely on their imaginations. It’s remarkably different from most anything else you see in children’s theater today.”
Beginning July 6, “Dracula and the Beanstalk” will be performed in the Hillside Theater at 10 a.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Aug. 19. Tickets are $9 for adults and $6 for children. Group rates are available.
For more information, please call (323) 259-2771.
Occidental College is located at 1600 Campus Road in Eagle Rock. For a campus map and directions to the college, click here.