Last summer saw the Valley’s oldest-established children’s theater uproot and hit the road, while a brand new one took up residence at the old stand. This year PaintBox Theater has settled into what would seem at a glance to be an unlikely new home, while NCTKids is just completing its second season as the daytime adjunct to New Century Theatre.
One afternoon at the first of PaintBox’s three summer shows, founder-director Tom McCabe told me that when he first approached the Northampton Senior Center about performing there, its director, Patricia Shaughnessy, didn’t see much of a fit between kids’ shows and seniors. But that generation gap turned out to be a perfect match.
“In this day and age,” McCabe said, “with a lot of moms and dads both working, we’re seeing a lot of grandparents bringing the kids to the shows.” That opening production was likewise a perfect fit for PaintBox’s template: three rambunctious adult actors (Troy David Mercier, Myka Plunkett and Linda Tardif) playing all the parts — in this case, the Three Little Pigs, in paint-spattered overalls (for house-building), while the whole audience became a composite wolf, huffing and puffing on cue.
The theater’s other signatures include projections of kid-painted scenery and written phrases for the audience to shout out, encouraging both participation and literacy, plus jokes that the grownups can appreciate. (This show gave the pigs groan-worthy names, including Pigmalion and Francie Bacon.)
Surveying the audience of kids and adults, many of them seated cross-legged on the floor in front of the platform stage, McCabe remarked on his company’s new, more intimate venue, in contrast to the large auditorium of bygone years. “It’s small in such a way that we can be right down in the audience with the kids,” he said approvingly.
That auditorium at Smith College is now home ground to NCTKids, founded last year by Cate Damon. Where PaintBox involves its audience directly in the action, she aims to create “a different experience” that prepares youngsters for a lifetime of theatergoing, “with the belief that children of all ages can be captivated by theater that is intelligent, thought-provoking and joyful.”
NCTKids specializes in small-scale musicals based on familiar kids’ books with spirit and sass. This year it’s Junie B. Jones, the Musical, adapted from Barbara Parks’ popular early-readers series, with musical direction by the multi-talented Mitch Chakour. It’s performed by a youthful cast of six, with the mercurial title character winningly played by seventh-grader Molly Damon-Rush, daughter of NCTKids’ and New Century’s directors — a real family business.
Three large flats reflecting the books’ colorful style adorn the expansive Theater 14 stage, two of them giant representations of Junie B.’s Top-Secret Personal Beeswax Journal, which fold out to become backdrops for her first grade classroom and the school cafeteria. Most of the cast take on multiple roles, with Ethan Graham-Horowitz as shy, adenoidal Sheldon among others, Hayley Hemminger-Martin as pretty proto-diva May, MacMillan Leslie as half of the Chenille/Camille twins, Alana Young as tough kid José, and Ben Meck as three grownups.•
Junie B. Jones, July 22-23, 10:30 a.m., Mendenhall Center, Smith College, Northampton. Tickets $10, 585-3220 or boxoffice@newcenturytheatre.org. Info at newcenturytheatre.org/nctkids.
PaintBox Theater presents Puss in Boots July 22-25 and Treasure Island Aug. 5-8, 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., $10/door, Northampton Senior Center, 67 Conz St.. Info at TomMcCabe.com, (413) 210-1898. Tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com.
Chris Rohmann is at StageStruck@crocker.com and valleyadvocate.com/author/chris-rohmann.
