Author: Mirin Fader
One Los Angeles Times writer called it a “regrettably only once-in-a-year event.” Another deemed its slick combination of “rambunctious charm” and “whiz-bang physicality” one of Los Angeles’ “little gems.” Another praised its “dynamic mix of creative physicality, storytelling, puns and slapstick.” It may be the best thing about Occidental you’ve never heard of, and it is, in the collegiate diction of yet another Times writer, “downright epic.”
This summer, the Occidental Children’s Theater completed its 16th annual production season with “Trumpelstiltskin,” an original comedic hybrid of the classic children’s fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin and the larger-than-life character of real estate developer and TV personality Donald Trump.
The six-player troupe also performed three cultural folktales from around the world, the Native American “Coyote, Iktome and the Rock,” Chinese “Ma Liang and His Magic Brush” and Mexican “The Three Simpletons.”
The hour-long shows ran every Thursday through Saturday from July 7 to Aug. 20 at the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater.
Occidental students and alumni formed the entire cast, which consisted of Tristan Waldron (senior), Derwyn Johnson (junior), Robert Lundgren (junior), Claudia Gomez ’10, Kaja Martin ’08 and Dana Vigran ’10. Assistant theater professor James Angell founded the Children’s Theater and wrote the script for this year’s performances. Nick Erickson, an assistant theater professor at Louisiana State University, was the show’s choreographer and movement coach.
In addition to his screenwriting duties, Angell acted as Trumpelstiltskin’s artistic director. Each season, Angell crafts performances designed to simultaneously interest children and adults. Angell sees this dual engagement as fundamental to the Children’s Theater’s success.
The plays’ mature humor and cultural allusions appeal to adults, while an easily accessible storyline and exaggerated acting appeal to children; all audience types are engaged in the classic storytelling with a unique twist that the Theater provides.
“To have an opportunity where the adults and kids can genuinely enjoy and laugh at the same thing at the same time is a communal experience way too rare these days,” he said. “We want to appeal to everybody. The children may not understand the references to Trump, but they can enjoy the physical aspect of our work.”
From its beginning, the Occidental Children’s Theater has distinguished itself from other theater companies by abandoning props, elaborate costumes and ornate sets that many productions depend on for storytelling.
The result forces actors to add a physicality to their work; without objects and costumes to rely on, the actors must creatively depict scenes with just their actions.
“The less you have, the more you rely on imagination, and the more places you can ultimately go,” Angell said.
As the Theater’s movement coach and choreographer, Nick Erickson ensures that Angell’s scripts translate into physically-charged storytelling by the cast.
Each year, Erickson trains the cast members through a rigorous rehearsal process designed to enhance their physical movement skills. The program lasts from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, over the two weeks following graduation in May.
Erickson says he dedicates so much time to developing the necessary physical acting skills in his performers because he shares Angell’s belief that acting in a highly physical and animated manner in place of using traditional devices like props and sets can produce a more vivid mental picture for the audience.
“We believe strongly if we do our job as actors and directors, the audience will do the rest with their imagination. There will be no problem for them to fill in the background,” he said.
When the approach goes right, Erickson says, “You see the story come alive.”
The creative partnership between Angell and Erickson began long before their collaboration at the Theater. While both were pursuing an MFA in Acting at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, they discovered a shared passion for frenetic shows with austere sets and limited props.
Shortly after graduating from CalArts, Angell founded the Occidental Children’s Theater, which completed its first season in 1995. Erickson went on to work for a Los Angeles-based acting and dance company called Diavolo. It promoted similar theatrical styles that influenced both Erickson and Angell.
When their collaboration at Occidental finally began, they found they made an ideal duo.
“James’ theater is exactly in line with my values and aesthetic theater. His approach is my approach. I love what he does. He knows exactly what to do to make a successful show,” Erickson said.
In 2001, Erickson moved from Los Angeles to Louisiana. Though unable to travel to see the final show live, he continues to train the cast in Los Angeles at the beginning of every summer. It is the quality of the cast and his 16-year creative partnership with Angell that keep him coming back to Southern California season after season.
“I love the enthusiasm, intelligence, imagination, and most of all, the professionalism of the actors,” Erickson said.
The selection process for the Children’s Theater’s actors is competitive. Prospective cast members audition early in the spring semester, and Angell announces the final cast around the end of March. For Trumpelstiltskin, ten students auditioned for three open parts. The other three spots went, without auditions, to returning actors and actresses.
According to Angell, “returners” always get an edge over first-timers in the selection process. “The difference in performance and knowledge between newcomers and those who have done it for a year or two is astonishing,” he said.
In previous years, Angell utilized a cast that also included students from nearby schools such as U.C. Irvine, Cal State L.A. and CalArts, but since 2005, all cast members have been Occidental students or alumni.
Those fortunate Occidental students who make the final cut are each paid $4,000 for their work. Some cast members are also paid to help Angell teach at the Summer Institute of Fun, a camp which teaches local kids basic acting skills.
Tristan Waldron was one of three current Occidental students and the only senior cast for the 2011 season. Although he has acted since he was ten years old, Waldron appreciated the highly physical acting that the Children’s Theater introduced him to.
“Since there are no props or costumes, we rely heavily on our own bodies to create characters and images from the stories we tell. We need to decide the best way possible to make each character unique and interesting,” he said.
Just as they play a role in developing their characters, cast members help decide which three folk stories will be performed each year.
As part of Erickson’s training at the beginning of the summer, the troupe reads an assortment of folktales, supplied from Angell’s personal library of 350 children’s books. The cast then selects around 40 of the most interesting tales for consideration. Through a series of group votes, this number is narrowed down to the three folk stories that will be performed.
To uphold Occidental’s diversity mission and to introduce new, unfamiliar tales to the community, the three folktales usually represent the time-honored legends of distant places.
This year’s folk stories originated in Chinese, Mexican and Native American tradition. In previous years, stor
ies have been borrowed from Russia, Japan, the Sioux tribe and Laos.
The title of the headlining performance, like this year’s Trumpelstiltskin, often takes the form of a humorous portmanteau, or a Wheel of Fortune “before and after” category. Past shows have included “Beauty and the Beatnik,” “Han Solo and Gretel” and “1001 Arabian Nights of the Living Dead.”
Once the cast members know which stories they will be performing, they are filmed improvising the selected tales. This allows the cast to test out the physical aspects of the performance. Their improvisation is then transcribed and delivered to Angell, who writes the scripts.
Even after Angell’s script is delivered to the troupe, what happens on opening night is far from set in stone.
“The show comes together in the process of performing it through various improvisation. It’s a different show at the end of the summer than at the beginning,” Angell said.
Because so much of the show is built on the actors’ improvisation and physical creativity, the cast wields substantial responsibility in crafting the performance at all stages.
“It all starts with the cast,” Angell said. “They have to own the characters.”
During the process of rehearsal and performance, the troupe faces not only the challenge of ‘owning’ the characters and refining the play, but also the challenge of actually performing it. Most shows take place outdoors at the Hillside Theater in the scorching summer sun.
“The cast performs outside in the heat for an hour. Six of them portray about sixty characters in that time,” Angell said. “It can be very hot.”
Despite such difficulties, or because of them, the Children’s Theater provides its participants with invaluable experience.
“It’s really hard work, really demanding, but this work gives you a lot back. It teaches you in a way you can’t be taught in a class. Though it is very difficult, it is extremely rewarding,” Angell said.
As for the actors, the sextet that sweats together gets close together, and inter-group bonds quickly form. These bonds help offset the challenges and all-around arduousness of the job.
“I have made some great friends through doing the Children’s Theater. It is a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun too,” Waldron said.
In addition to creator-cast collaboration, fluid show development and explosive physical acting, another tenet of the Children’s Theater is the importance of giving back to the local community through outreach programs.
“It’s important to acknowledge the community we live in,” Angell said. “The youth around us, we owe them something.”
In order to do this, the cast performs occasional community outreach shows in locations all over Northeast Los Angeles, including outdoor venues in Highland Park and Glassell Park and community centers in Eagle Rock and Pasadena.
Whatever the venue, turnout is high. Adults with young children are the biggest chunk of the Theater’s loyal audience, but the Theater also has a strong following with the Boy and Girl Scouts of America and the Glendale Unified School District. Despite the opportune location of the performances, Angell said very few current Occidental students attend the shows.
Occidental alumni and former cast members, on the other hand, constitute a veritable cult following for the Theater. Waldron said he was impressed by the legacy the Theater carries, as evidenced by the high number of graduates and former participants who attend shows.
“I got to meet many Oxy grads that I didn’t know but who had done the Children’s Theater before, or have been coming to the shows regularly,” he said.
That the Children’s Theater should appeal to so many demographics is not surprising to Angell, who believes in the universal joy that bare-bones live theater can provide an audience.
While many groups appreciate the Theater, it is the children who display their appreciation the most overtly.
After the shows, children, unprompted, often ask the cast for autographs. Knowing the wide-eyed wonder the show brings them, Angell sets aside time at the end of each performance for children to speak to the cast.
Waldron and Angell agree that the children’s reaction is one aspect of the Children’s Theater that makes the months of hard work more than worthwhile.
“Seeing how much fun the kids had with the show,” Waldron said, was his favorite part of his summer work. Angell added that the joy the kids have in watching performances is “phenomenal.”
Many of the children who come want a more immersive experience than seeing the show just once. Many come back, some over and over again. Some respond by trying to mimic the crew’s voices, characters and movements.
“The kids will try out voices after the show is over and try to do what they saw. They will try to tell their own stories. It’s wonderful to see,” Angell said.
Some of these children want real training in basic theatrical skills, like imitating voices and telling stories, so the Children’s Theater hosts the Summer Institute of Fun every year for children ages six to fifteen. During the week-long camp, participants work with Angell and the cast to develop their acting chops. The sold-out camps run most of the length of the performance season, from mid-July to mid-August.
Those who complete the Summer Institute of Fun walk away with the ability to tell a story, expressively and movingly, with themselves as the only prop. Although the Institute is only open to a select age group, Angell emphasizes that anyone can tell a captivating story using just body and mind, and the Theater’s goal is to demonstrate this to its audiences.
“We do what we do to show that anyone can do this, anyone can tell a story. You don’t need fancy costumes or a set. All you need is your imagination, your body and your voice,” Angell said.
For a visual sample of the Theater’s work and acting style, search YouTube for “Trumpelstiltskin.”
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