THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510100081
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Parents will find a welcome break from Saturday morning cartoons when a new program called ChildsPlay opens at the Generic Theater this week.
``And a break from Saturday afternoon doldrums,'' adds ChildsPlay director Frankie Little Hardin, herself the mother of a 4-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy.
She says this ``performance series for children of all ages'' begins its monthly productions Saturday with a new dramatization of ``The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,'' the tale that gave us the enduring Halloween figure of the headless horseman. Hardin's script, from the Washington Irving short story, lets the children be part of the action. The audience will, for example, provide sound effects and take the part of students in Ichabod Crane's schoolroom.
Motherhood gave Hardin the guiding principle she uses in staging ``Sleepy Hollow'' and in directing the entire program.
``Would my kids enjoy this?'' she asks herself repeatedly.
This first production draws not only on Hardin's parental experience and theatrical accomplishments but also on the similar personal and professional backgrounds of her cast members.
George Hasenstab, proprietor of the Virginia Beach restaurant and dinner theater ``Rosie Rumpe's Regal Dumpe,'' earned his living as a professional actor during his young daughter's infancy. He has performed in films and on television, and toured the country for several years with the Broadway company of ``Man of La Mancha.'' He hasn't been on any local stages since the old Tidewater Dinner Theater closed several years ago, and ChildsPlay marks his first unpaid work since long before that.
Hasenstab speaks of the ``ease in front of people'' that his 6-year-old girl has gained from having seen him on stage.
``I think it's important that children be exposed to the whole world of live theater that transcends the little box,'' Hasenstab says.
``Most kids don't get that,'' he adds, making the point that live theater offers a two-way interaction between audience and performer that is more real than the ``one-way interaction'' of television.
Hasenstab plays Brom in ``The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,'' a character he compares to Gaston in the film ``Beauty and the Beast.'' Ethan Marten has the role of Ichabod Crane, ODU theater student Cortney Morse plays Katrina and Hardin will narrate.
Like Hasenstab, Marten built his local stage experience into a career of TV and film acting, and is a father. He talks about the pleasure his 5 1/2-year-old child has found coming to rehearsals and into studios with him, and of the broad importance live theater can have for youngsters.
``Theater is sort of storytelling for grownups,'' he says, comparing theater to the oral traditions of ancient times. He's eager for the chance ``to help kids learn to use their imagination'' that audience involvement in plays like ``Sleepy Hollow'' afford.
Generic's managing director, Betty Xander, welcomes the opportunity to ``start cultivating'' children to appreciate theater. She recalls her own experience as an 8-year-old attending her first live play.
``I got bitten right there,'' she says.
``It's great for Generic to do this'' she adds, calling the ChildsPlay concept an ``outreach program'' for the highly regarded troupe. She also notes that theater can be an ``outlet for kids that don't have a lot.''
ChildsPlay has assembled an array of talent for which most area directors would mortgage their proverbial eyeteeth - and which should make the show as enjoyable for adults as for youngsters.
Hasenstab and Hardin were vital members of the company that earned Generic a reputation for fine acting in the early '80s, and each was considered to be in the very top rank of local performers.
Hardin has had her share of national film and TV exposure, including roles in a summer children's serial melodrama with which Generic gained national TV attention a dozen years ago.
Marten, who has been much sought after for community theater roles, displays an inventive energy and lively originality necessary for the improvisational techniques in ChildsPlay's first show. Morse is training in a program that produces some exceptional young performers, and she turned in some effective acting in the original script ``Cock Lane'' last year.
The premiere of the ChildsPlay company also marks the first time a regular series of performances aimed at a very young audience has been presented by trained, adult actors since the Norfolk Theatre Center - ancestor of the Virginia Stage Company - ran its Youth Theatre from 1968 through '74.
Many other metropolitan areas have a professional children's theater company that is as much a part of their artistic community as their symphony, their opera and their regional theater. Hampton Roads children deserve the same.
Marten says he hopes ``the kids just have a good time and appreciate the experience.''
Virginia Beach and Chesapeake parents need to be aware that The Generic is located just a few minutes from the Norfolk end of the Virginia Beach/Norfolk Expressway.
Portsmouth parents will be encouraged to know that the Midtown tunnel will put them in Norfolk just a few blocks away from the Generic Theater.
Calling in advance might be a good idea. It's a fairly small theater. by CNB