Want to understand kids better?
Want yours to hear what you say?
The three little porkers you read about as a child didn’t have the secret. But this makeover by Studio East’s Story Book Theater, has a thought.
Listen.
The storyline kicks off with the three little, curly-tailed cuties singing sweetly about life on the farm. They gorge at will, sleep, gorge some more. It’s hog heaven.
Until lightning strikes and the realization hits. Humans are fattening them up. Why? To slaughter them. Why? To eat them. The horror of it sends overeater-not-anonymous Calla Lily (Amy Jennings) into a tailspin and her looks-obsessed sister, Petunia Blossom (Faith Russell), into complete hysterics.
However, the third sister, a real smarty pants and Piggy Power advocate, Sweet Pea, keeps her head.
Wolf (Chad Jennings) gets into the act with mouth watering, stomach growling and an appetite that won’t quit for pork on the hoof.
All of which is clever enough, imaginative enough, hilarious enough.
And meaningful.
Pianist and music-and lyrics-composer, Susan Bardsley, lets kids in the audience know from the get-go. They have a part to play. They can sing along with actors, ask and answer questions when invited to and need to be quiet when the actors are talking.
Also, the story ends up win-win for pigs, wolf, everybody but only because everyone listens and eventually hears everybody else.
Wolf threatens to “huff and puff and blow the house down.” Piglets won’t let him in, “not by the hair of their chinny-chin chins.” Yet, Wolf rings the doorbell, disguised as a delivery boy from “foodtogo.com.” But Porky Pig’s people don’t open the door because of the “stranger-danger rule.” The language mixes familiar expressions with updated lingo. It is simple, easy to follow, fun to hear.
Story Book has been around for five years, head quartering out of the East Side. Plans are to secure venues in Burien and Federal Way and eventually to make Edmonds Centre for the Arts, their home. Kids respond. Parents respond. People respond. They are a theater on the go.
Owing to a production team headed by story-adapter and director, Lani Brokman; musical director, Susan Bardsley; and a cast like this one in “Three Little Pigs.” They are funny, friendly, message-imparting.
Story Book is community service, first rate.
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