ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 3, 1996 TAG: 9612030040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: MARGARET BROWN SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
She's a perfectly proper professor (well, ex-professor) who has written about perfectly proper penguin propriety because penguins always mind their p's and q's. She sings these lines from one of her musicals for children with a glint in her eyes and a gentle smile.
She's Kathryn Obenshain, recently retired from the Music Department at Radford University, but not retired at all. "I've got three plays in production right now," she says as if she can hardly believe her good fortune. "I'm either blessed or cursed with a lot of energy."
But she's hit the big time, she says, with Radford University's upcoming production of "The Heartmender," Obenshain's first play written for adults to perform for children.
"It's wonderful," she says of having her play produced by a university, which can afford a full-scale production. "I don't have to worry about sets or make the costumes."
For one play she wrote, she needed to create Magic Ant People in an instant with an any-size-fits-all costume for children. The solution? Adult-sized red T-shirts plus red caps with antennae she fashioned herself.
No proper penguins or Magic Ant People in "The Heartmender," though. Her musical play, an adaptation of the book "Sofia and the Heartmender" by Maria Olofsdotter, tells the story of a little girl who's afraid to go to sleep because she sees shadow monsters in her room. Her parents fret that she's getting too old for a night light and turn it off. After staying up all night to keep shadow monsters away, the little girl sees a crack in her heart.
School is no better. A teacher won't let her draw shadow monsters but makes her draw a tree instead on a sheet of paper that must be 8 x 11. Obenshain laughs at the rigid details. "You know, some kids run into a teacher like that," she says.
After the teacher fusses at her, the little girl sees her cracked heart fall to the floor. So Sofia, aided by her loyal cat and dog, sets off to find a Heartmender.
"The parents and the teacher aren't mean," Obenshain explains. "They just have a hard time remembering that children are people, too. I used to tell my students that if they didn't think so, they shouldn't teach."
Obenshain, now watching her musical play at rehearsal in costume with full sets, praises the director, Dr. Roberto Pomo, chairman of the university's Theatre Department, and everyone working on its production. "Dr. Pomo will level with you," she says. "He suggested spots in my play where I needed a new song" - she ended up writing thirteen songs - "or more fleshing out. It's become a much stronger play, thanks to him. And the cast members are terrific."
Obenshain received permission to adapt Olofsdotter's book, and, in fact, the author and her editor from Free Spirit Publishing decided to attend the grand opening of Obenshain's play, "The Heartmender," on Dec. 7, after hearing some of her songs.
Olofsdotter will also sign books, which will be available for sale at the performance. "I must have bought twelve or thirteen already and given them away," Obenshain said. "It's such a wonderful book about respecting others and learning self-confidence."
Three other special people in the audience will be her two grandchildren, Janna, 12, and Maura Kay, 9, who now live in Kentucky, and her godchild, Kathryn, 11. She dedicated her musical to them, "with hope that they will always find a Heartmender when they need one, and that they will grow up to be Heartmenders for others."
But she's writing with all children in mind, really. After the two performances on Dec. 7, the other six scheduled performances on Dec. 9, 10 and 11 are reserved for kindergarten and elementary school children.
"I've never seen a child who didn't absolutely love music or relate to funny characters like cats and dogs on stage," Obenshain says. "I remember taking a 2-year-old to a musical play. He was so small, the seat kept going up, so we had to hold it down for him. But he wouldn't look away from the stage, not even during intermission. He was afraid he might miss something."
This is the magic Obenshain hopes for when "The Heartmender" is performed.
"But I won't be able to see the children," she says, disappointed. "I'm backstage playing the piano the whole time."
Committed to children, she's a volunteer reader for several elementary school classes in Christiansburg. "I always read to my grandchildren," she says, "so I started going to schools. It's a real joy to read. I'm a certified bookworm."
She has just finished her latest project, a little opera, as she calls it, based on "The Cat That Walked By Himself" from the "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling. "It was an awful lot of work," she says. "I'm not sure it's high-falutin' enough to call it a libretto. But there aren't many for children." She shrugs and smiles. "We'll see."
Are children hard to write for? "Not for me," Obenshain says with a wide smile.
"I guess I'm not grown up."
"The Heartmender," a children's musical by Kathryn Obenshain, opens Saturday, Dec. 7 in Porterfield Theatre at Radford University for two performances for the public. Performance times are 10 a.m. and 12 noon. Tickets are $2 adults, $1 for children. Call the box office at 831-5289 from noon until 6 p.m. for tickets or further information.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WENDY GREGG Radford University. Kathryn Obenshain,by CNBrecently retired from the Music Department at Radford University, on
stage during a dress rehearsal of her play. color.