Friends we are fat! Fatty fat….we collectively carry around enough avoirdupois to fill the Burj Dubai. Chester Cheeto must be defeated. But how do we vanquish the lovable, but deadly, orange fuzzy, you ask? What will conquer our craving for the enemy who nourishes our souls, but pads our tushies, with teeth staining, neon colored powdered cheese coating and extruded corn like product? Vegetables…lovely ripe, succulent, delicious, colorful vegetables. But vegetables are very expensive and we are still paying off college loans having only graduated in 1976. How do we get our vegetables? By selling our children to witches! Witches are more than happy to supply our daily recommended allowance of garden made nutrition and they don’t want money…only children. How come I didn’t know about this before? Do they take husbands too? I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to ask.

I found out about this at Studio 3’s Rapunzel at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. And the opinion is ….awwww … (cue doggies, kitties and Judith Lieber handbags)….. how charming…..

Director Caren Hearne has fractured the time-worn fairy tale and recreated a delightful and humorous experience for children and their adults. The Workhouse Theatre is a beautiful space that can transform itself from black box to proscenium arch complete with legs and that ability is used to superb effect in Rapunzel. Our Witch (Kindra Cook) here is a parody of a parody….Witch Hazel from the late Jay Ward’s Fractured Fairy Tales….. and she is as threatening as the cauliflower she trades for the Baker’s daffy wife’s (Amanda Spellman) daughter. Cook has a voice as strong as her beautiful profile and she takes over her Witch’s duties with obvious pleasure as she extorts the baby for vegetables (I wish I had known, I like veggies…). Jesse Baskin as the bumbling Baker is very funny as he tries to appease his wife who is about 26 months pregnant as the show opens. Baker and Spellman have great chemistry in their bumble and daff and the children loved watching their scenes. The adults weren’t complaining either.

The witch raises the girl she names Rapunzel, after a lettuce involved in the vegetable trade, in a closed tower so that Rapunzel will not see or be seen by anyone or anything. This is popularly known as attachment parenting. The turnip doesn’t fall far from the tree, however, and Rapunzel (Ashley San) is as daffy as her rutabaga stuffed, biological mother. However, all of that towering isolation and no scissors leaves Rapunzel with hair so long that it is the only means of accessing ingress to and egress from the tower. Trust me when I tell you that there is plenty of hair and everyone is getting into and out of the tower with it…go see the show and you’ll see what I mean. I was exhausted just watching all the climbing.

Rapunzel is sort of bored day after day in the tower and takes up singing. She is heard through the forest by the handsome Prince (Eben Kuhns) and his faithful manservant, The Squire (Jason Krage). They are able to elude the vicious two-headed Monster (Anna Jackson, Chris Galindo), rescue Rapunzel, do something wicked with the Witch and everyone lives happily ever after…just as always. There’s a lot more to this story, but it’s not my job to tell you all that.

Hearne has created a perfect storm; sophisticated enough for the grownups, yet charming and ingenuous for the children. She relies on professional discipline to gentle and humorous effect because comedy is not funny. The Witch may be casting the spell but it is Baskin as The Baker who transforms himself into a glassy-eyed, floppy, gurgling guppy gasping for air without water and turning green at the gills. The Prince and The Squire are reminiscent of The King and his Man in Spamalot; dopey enough to be comical but valiant enough to save Rapunzel, her parents, the Monster and the forest from The Witch. Remember how they got to Broadway? There was an abundance this afternoon.

The show was inclusive of the audience from Hearne’s opening announcements to the Prince and his man hiding in the audience from The Witch and the Monster. The children shouted out hints and warnings about the action and Reviewer’s own daughter even contributed by complaining that she wishes she had been named after a lettuce instead of Thomas Jefferson’s maternal great-grandmother. I suggest Fiddleheads.

The set was as charming as the show and the technical crew did it justice. Hearne was Reviewer’s snarky daughter’s Director about 10 years ago in an exercise we can commiserate over together after all these years of not seeing each other and she has not lost her attention to detail and touch for comedy. The costumes were pristine, colorful and new.

There’s not a lot more to say about Studio 3’s Rapunzel except that it is disarming and an innocent way in a guilty world to spend some time with children…preferably someone else’s….before we trade them to The Witch for broccoli.

Director’s Notes

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your lovely hair.”

In one sentence we are transported to a magical place where men are princes bent on rescue, being confined is a tragedy, witches are clearly evil and girls have amazingly strong and glorious hair. To children it is all so clear in a fairy tale what is right and what is wrong, and that it is all true for them. That life really can work this way. As adults, sadly enough we see a little more grey area. I like our version of the story of Rapunzel because not everything is what it seems to be. It does make you ask why a little bit. Although Tam sure that many of you as parents would like your children to stop asking “Why?”. But you can turn the tables on them this time and ask them “Why?”. Why is the witch evil (or is she)? Why is the monster called a monster (and what is a monster)? Why it is that Rapunzel doesn’t know things? Why does the Baker’s Wife give up Rapunzel? Our version of Rapunzel tells the story with much humor and also much heart. It is in the silly humor and jokes that we get to see the real people of the story and how they really feel. And it gives us the chance to see that fairy tales can be tales of people that do turn out beautifully.

I hope you enjoy the fun.

Caren Hearne

Photo Gallery

Ashley San as Rapunzel and Kindra Cook as the Witch	Eben Kuhns (The Prince), Anna Jackson and Chris Galindo (two-headed monster), Jason Krage (The Squire)
Ashley San as Rapunzel and Eben Kuhns as The Prince	Kindra Cook as the Witch
Eben Kuhns (The Prince) and Ashley San (Rapunzel)	Cast

Photos by Melanie Beus

Cast

• The Witch: Kindra Cook
• The Baker: Jesse Baskin
• The Baker’s Wife: Amanda Spellman
• Two Headed Monster: Anna Jackson, Chris Galindo
• Rapunzel: Ashley San
• The Prince: Eben Kuhns
• The Squire: Jason Krage
• Understudies: Barbara Lawson, Jason hammock

Production Staff

• Artistic Director, Director: Caren Hearne
• Lighting Designer: Joseph Wallen
• Composer /Sound Designer: Alex Aucoin
• Stage Manager: Kevin Laughon
• Assistant Stage Manager: Katie Cairns
• Costume Designer: Kristen Jepperson

Disclaimer: Studio 3 Theatre for Young Audiences provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Think back to the joy of being a kid again. You remember those wonderful mornings, sleeping in, birds chirping, your best friend living next door, a nagging mother, geography quizzes, and bullies at school. Miss Electricity follows the adventures of Violet, a fifth grader dealing with all the regular things all kids face. But since Violet believes she’s destined to be special in some way, so she puts all her efforts at becoming special. Her getting hit by lightning twice was an unexpected surprise, causing new problems.

This cute play was a great introduction to theater for children. The story was simple, presented straightforwardly. Scene and costume changes happened quickly, there were few times when the pace lagged, so children did not have the opportunity to get bored. There were a few special effects with the lights and sound which were well-timed. All four actors made their roles engaging and understandable.

Anna Jackson as Violet (who always wore shades of purple) was a lot of fun to watch. Her belief in her powers after being struck by lightning was believable. Eben Kuhns played Freddy, Violet’s assistant. He was more ground in reality, but he still believed in Violet, and supported her though all of her adventures. Chris Galindo and Sabra Michelle tackled multiple roles with lightning-quick costume changes, and both were successful at making all of their characters interesting and convincing.

The one weakness in the production was an aspect of the script. Near the end of the story, Violet’s problems overwhelmed her with no one to turn to, and is helped by the Greek goddess Athena. The deus ex machina used in this manner was quite unexpected, and the fantasy aspect of that solution to Violet’s situation really pulled me out of the show. Kids probably won’t be bothered by this.

Miss Electricity is the second production from the new Studio 3 Theatre for Young Audiences, part of the Workhouse Arts Center and Lorton Arts Foundation. Future productions include Sinbad, Rapunzel, and Winnie the Pooh. Definitely check out this very young theater company.

Director’s Notes

“I’m trying, but the 5th grade is hard.” Violet and very other 5th grader don’t realize yet that this sentence will be repeated throughout the rest of their lives, just changing the situation. Like Violet, we are all struggling to figure out how to do the best of what we are capable; how to be “special” and leave a mark. Expending time and energy to surpass our limited perception of ourselves, and sometimes overlooking the things we already have. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz finds out that if “I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard, because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” Violet is on the same journey. In the age of the media blitz, technology overload and instant gratification, economic pressures and the pressure to over achieve, we often overlook the less complicated parts to our lives. The emotional connections that make us human give us the stability and strength we need to “keep trying” even though the 5th grade is hard. When we lose sight of those connections, or deny them; we lose our own path. As we move into a new year, Miss Electricity is the perfect choice for us her at Studio 3. Our personal connections to each other and to you the audience are what give us the great future we know is ahead. Thanks for being our “Freddy”, and enjoy the show.

Caren Hearne

Photo Gallery

Eben Kuhns	Sabra Michelle, Chris Galindo
Anna Jackson, Sabra Michelle	Eben Kuhns, Anna Jackson

Photos by Melanie Beus

Cast

• Violet: Anna Jackson
• Freddy, Owl: Eben Kuhns
• Narrator, Billy-the-Bully, Zeus: Chris Glindo
• Mom, Connie-Can’t-Do, Mrs. Waldo, Athena: Sabra Michelle
• Understudy for Anna: Ashleigh Howard
• Understudy for Sabra: Megan Malone Behm
• Understudy for Eben and Chris: Calvin Register, Jr.

Technical Staff

• Director: Caren Hearne
• Assistant Director: Samantha Jalejel
• Technical Director: Joseph Wallen
• Sound Designer, Sound Board Operator: Alex Aucion
• Stage Manager, Light Board Operator: Kevin Laughon
• Assistant Stage Manger: Katie Cairns
• Costume Designer: Kristen Jepperson
• Program Designer: Calvin Register, Jr.

Disclaimer: Studio 3 Children’s Theatre provided a complimentary media ticket to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Schoolhouse Rock Live! are songs (noun) set to music (noun). The upbeat (adjective) songs (noun) creatively (adverb) teach children (noun) to learn (verb) in a fun (adjective) setting. Wow! (interjection) that’s hard (adjective) work (noun)!

Saturday morning’s performance featured seven performers who through music and dance taught a few basic grammar, math and social studies topics. And they definitely showed that knowledge taught with creativity, lights, sounds, and music can be fun.

We attended the inaugural performance at the theater at the former Lorton Reformatory, a prison originally built for the District of Columbia, in Lorton, Virginia. The facility is now operated as The Workhouse Arts Center, as a project of the Lorton Arts Foundation. The theater itself was small, and the Workhouse Arts Center will continue to tweak and learn how to use the space effectively.

Schoolhouse Rock Live! was an excellent choice for the space, and for the newly formed group, Studio 3 Theatre for Young Audiences. A very simple set, designed by Paul Tompros, was featured, made up of colorful cubes and a blackboard, with the cast carrying props onstage from the narrow wings or getting them out of the cubes. The blocks could be arranged in all kinds of patterns.

The small audience was receptive to the songs, such as “Just a Bill,” “Interplanet Janet,” (Pluto was still mentioned, but the lyrics were updated for Pluto’s new status) and “A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing.” The ensemble cast all seemed to really enjoy themselves. A few of the quick-paced songs were a little hard to understand if you weren’t familiar with them. A few songs, such as “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage,” dealt with concepts that were a bit abstract and may have been confusing to the younger audience members. “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly” was well performed, with great choreography and strong singing, but without the bright colors and fast cartoon changes may not have been as clear a concept as seeing it on TV. All of the actors were very engaging and upbeat.

Schoolhouse Rock Live! was a family friendly performance for everyone that will make learning fun. We are looking forward to see how the Workhouse Arts Center uses the space in the future. Darn, that’s the end!

Director’s Notes

Welcome to Studio 3 and our inaugural production of Schoolhouse Rock Live! This production marks a milestone for the Workhouse Arts Center. Finally theatre has a home here after planning for several long years. It is a personal milestone for me as well. As an actor, I have always felt that performing for children is one of the most rewarding and challenging things we do as performers. It is also a genre that does not have a lot of venues dedicated to professional performances just for children. To be able, as a director, to bring the thought and creative exploration for them is more than exciting. Choosing Schoolhouse Rock as our first show was an easy decision. It says all the things about who we are in one show. It is a fun, fast paced show that appeals to all ages, parents included, and you might even learn a little something without even knowing it. So take a ride with us; sing, dance, laugh!

Caren Hearne

Photo Gallery

Photos provided by Studio 3

Cast

• Teacher: Anna Jackson
• Ensemble:
  • Rebecca Lynn Cznadel
  • Julia Sowers
  • Anthony Williams
  • Calvin Register, Jr.
  • Shannon Kingett
  • Chris Galindo
  • Harrison Lee: Male Swing

Technical Staff

• Director: Caren Hearne
• Music Director: Artur Lockamy
• Choreographer: Kevin Laughon
• Set Construction: Paul Tompros
• Lighting Designer: Joseph Wallen
• Sound Board Operator: Alex Aucion
• Stage Manager: Kevin Laughon
• Assistant Stage Manager: Katie Cairns*
• Crew: Molly Kaufman*
• Program Designer: Calvin Register, Jr.
• “Closing Capitol” Painting by Mary Gallagher-Stout
• *Spot-LYTE Apprentice

Disclaimer: Studio 3 provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.