On Saturday, Eric and I had the pleasure of attending Thank You, Mr. Falker, a new musical at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica.  There were multiple generations on stage, and in the audience.

I have been watching family theater more closely over the past few years, because of my job at the Museum.  Having multiple generations in one audience is a very specific, and difficult challenge.  I’m working towards a family-friendly production of The Tempest at the beach this summer, too.  There has to be something going on for everyone all the time- if the dialogue is over the kids’ heads, they will get restless, so your palette has to have lots of visual, physical and aural components to keep their attention.  If the dialogue is too simplistic, the adults and older kids will feel talked down to, alienated...and they will not take anything from the production.  You have to start with a philosophical question that resonates with everyone.

For Thank You, Mr. Falker, that question is how does one define oneself?  A child, Trisha, played very authentically and with great sophistication by Sophie Smyth, can’t read.  She is subject to self-doubt, teasing, and fear that she is worthless.  It could have been overly sentimental, maudlin, but it wasn’t at all.  The commitment of these children really engaging with the questions of the theater made it so real, that the adults in the room sat up a bit straighter in their seats to listen.

At the talkback after, the composer Sarah Ellis revealed a bit of the process.  They had started with a popular children’s book of the same title, but fleshed it out with a cast of classmates.  They cast child actors who worked together as a true artistic ensemble.  These children created their characters, collaborated with costume designers and a choreographer, and really created the horror, drama and excitement of a classroom where everyone is struggling with learning to read.  Each child actor was completely in the moment, and I walked away with my heart warm, glowing, inspired- which is not what usually happens when I leave a family theater show, and sometimes not what happens when I leave an adult actor show either.  The producing and artistic staff’s commitment to putting these kids through a real artistic process was just amazing, and it paid off.

This runs for one more weekend.  Whether you have kids or not, it’s worth it to remember those early classrooms, how hard it can be to define yourself, or to remember why you got involved in this theater business.

Go read a book now!  One you can hold in your hands! 

xo JB