Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050142
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KAREN L. DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Biff Baron, former associate artistic director for Mill Mountain, is directing the children's musical. ``Charlotte's Web'' is Baron's fourth children's show with Mill Mountain. He directed the first two productions that the theater did in association with the Junior League of Roanoke Valley, ``Cinderella'' and ``The Wizard of Oz.'' Last year, he directed ``The Velveteen Rabbit.''
This year's show is short, about an hour and 15 minutes long.
``It is designed to introduce children to live theater,'' said Martha Wiese, the theater's director of marketing.
The most challenging aspect of children's theater, said Baron, a former Roanoker who now lives in Pittsburgh, ``is making it not talk down to children, and making it equally fun for the adults. It's not fair to talk down to children and assume that they won't understand.''
The action should represent real behaviors, he said. ``The secret of a successful children's show is making it so that the adults enjoy it as much as the kids do.''
The other major challenge was cutting the book down to size, without sacrificing its flavor.
Joseph Robinette's original script was two hours long and written for adult actors. Baron's version is pared down for a younger audience and uses approximately 16 local children as actors, puppeteers and puppet voices.
``The book covers a lot of important themes in a subliminal, fanciful, fun way,'' said Baron.
The change of seasons, for example, represents death and rebirth. The play begins and ends in the spring.
``The theme of life on the farm is a pragmatic approach to death, looking at death as a part of life,'' Baron said. ``The whole idea of Wilbur the pig about to be killed and turned into bacon lets children deal with death through fantasy. A character they love is being threatened.''
The story, of course, centers on two unlikely friends, Charlotte, a spider, and Wilbur the pig. Charlotte takes it upon herself to save Wilbur from the butcher.
Another important theme, said Baron, ``is that people who are different in every way and who have nothing in common can still be the best of friends.''
The show was originally written to have Charlotte played by an adult actress. But Baron has designed 13 spider puppets, 10 of them to be Charlotte with an off-stage voice by Juliet David.
Hand, rod and marionette puppets and dolls pop up all over the stage to lend action and ``to keep the audience guessing,'' Baron said. He said he adapted the technique from the famous Muppets. Each puppet has a voice and a manipulator, and synchronizing the two is a technical feat.
Costumes by Mitch Baker are appropriately colorful and fanciful. For example, Goose and Gander (played by Amanda Claytor, a seventh-grader at Northside Junior High School, and Barret Wertz, a student at Hidden Valley) are attired entirely in feathers, with big flippers for feet.
The narrator, Templeton the hard-hearted rat (played by Nick Ruggeri, who appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association), wears an appropriately scroungy costume made of old socks and bandages.
Aaron Dalton, a sixth-grader at Andrew Lewis Middle School, plays Wilbur the pig.
``We wanted to make him the All-American pig, just like the All-American boy,'' Baron said. ``Wilbur is the runt of the litter; he's not special, except he's a nice guy with a real good friend. He's someone all kids can relate to.''
Elizabeth Melchionna, an eighth-grader at North Cross School, plays Fern Arable, the young girl who adopts Wilbur. Melchionna worked with Baron previously, when she appeared in ``The Velveteen Rabbit.''
Larry Bixler directs the music of Charles Strouse, who also wrote music and lyrics for ``Annie'' and ``Bye, Bye Birdie.'' The small orchestra consists of a piano, synthesizer and drums. Cartoon-like sound effects riddle the barnyard and country fair scenes with cow bells, whistles, horns and cymbals.
``The music was written for adults. The songs are very difficult and challenging for the children, using three-, four- and five-part harmonies,'' Baron said.
Choreographer Eva Kay Sheets, who worked extensively with Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre in Winchester, comes aboard for her first production at Mill Mountain.
Baron has planned some interesting special effects to enhance the play's action and entertainment value. For example, inventive scene changes happen in front of the audience's eyes. Full-stage barnyard sets, designed by John Sailer, fly apart or move out on a winch and are replaced by a country fair scene complete with ferris wheel, rides, concessions and arcade.
Other cast members include Doug Patterson, Danny Ryan, Tyler Godsey, David A. Barnhart, Nicole Phillips, Kathryn Temple, Kate Preston, David Parrish, Benjamin Parrish, David Paul ``Trey'' Mitchell III, Patsy Shields, Missy Patterson, Tanya Sinha, Leah Greenberg, John Mastin Jr., Tina Herbert and Anne Logan Forsythe. Several performers serve in dual roles, as voices or as puppeteers.
``Charlotte's Web'' opens Wednesday at .Mill Mountain Theatre in Center in the Square for 20 performances, several of them primarily for school groups. Friday's and April 13's shows are sold out. For reservations, call the box office at 342-5740.
by CNB