I think most people are at least somewhat familiar with C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It has been a popular book for decades, and has even had some of its lore borrowed for other fantasy stories like The Magicians. I was thrilled to take my ten-year-old niece to see this play, and she was equally thrilled to be going.
Some not-so-enchanting changes are on the horizon for The Enchanted Playhouse Theater Company, a charming little theater company that has been bringing family-friendly live theatre to Visalia from its location inside the Main Street Theater since the '90s.
Peter Pan opens at the Enchanted Playhouse in Visalia this weekend. We took a moment to chat with the show's director Kelly Ventura.
I think it is safe to say that almost everyone is familiar with the classic children's story, Charlotte's Web. It is the story of an unlikely friendship between a pig and a spider--a friendship so strong that Charlotte the spider would do anything to save the life of the silly little pig named Wilbur.
Take a book of fairy tales (Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.), rip out the pages, put them in a blender, add three scoops of puns, and flip the switch. When you’re finished, you might have A Walk in the Woods, the Enchanted Playhouse production now playing at the Main Street Theatre in Visalia through October 21.
Most of us are familiar with the old Hans Christian Anderson Fairytale the Princess and the Pea--especially the part about a young woman who claimed to be a real princess, and how the Queen gave her a test of whether she could feel a pea under 20 mattresses--if she could, then she was a real princess and fit to marry the prince.
Everyone knows the story of the three little pigs, right? A big bad wolf huffs and puffs and blows their house down--or is that the real story? This weekend at the Enchanted Playhouse in Visalia, they presented a very different version of the story told from the perspective of the "Big Bad" Wolf.
For a director, the best thing about Shakespeare is that he’s dead, and he can’t complain about how his script is interpreted. It gives a production freedom to interpret the text in any number of ways. In the Fourth Wall Theatre Company’s Hamlet, at Visalia’s Main Street Theatre until August 16, that interpretation is modern and sleek, with hide-a-beds and headphones.
Mr. Fox is a thief. He is a thief without a tail, thanks to the local farmers, but he is a fox with a family, friends, and big plans, in Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, adapted for the stage by Debbie Metzler. It’s onstage at Visalia’s Enchanted Playhouse through May 2.
My daughter and I went to see Avenue Q this weekend and since she knows the show so well I thought it would be great to let her share her feelings before throwing in a few of my own. We’ve had the great pleasure of seeing three Tony Award winning shows in a row now—this one being the latest—and I have to say each made me even prouder of the incredibly talented theatre community here in this Valley!
