THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
LATELY, SHADOWY WALLS and dark corners have been keeping 8-year-old Molly awake at night. So when her father tucks her in, she asks him to please keep the light on.
As she falls asleep, her world tumbles magically - like Dorothy's house in the eye of a tornado. Suddenly, Molly's in Angel-Land! Angels of every size, shape and ethnic persuasion are dancing in gardens and dangling from tree limbs. They're singing and telling stories, too.
There's even a theme song:
Angel-Land is special
Just close your eyes and see.
The place to start is in your heart
The warmest place to be.
Last week, Garland Waller was wishing she could be in that sweet region, too.
Waller is co-producer (with Mimi Doe) for the video ``Concert in Angel-Land,'' a 25-minute pilot for an ``Angel-Land'' series she is striving to sell to a cable company.
Major networks have expressed serious interest, she said. No contracts have been signed yet, but the show recently aired on Boston's ABC affiliate.
A former Virginia Beach schoolteacher, Waller, 44, is an Emmy Award-winning, Boston-based documentary producer known for socially redeeming television shows, many of them geared to youngsters. Her subjects have included poverty, nuclear war and sexual abuse, each in relation to children.
Not all of her work is for kids. On Sunday, ``The Kennedy Women,'' an hourlong documentary she co-produced, will air nationally on the Lifetime cable channel.
A week ago, Waller was staying up until 2 a.m. to complete the piece. It's a prestigious credit, yet Waller would rather be working on ``Angel-Land,'' her quintessentially New Age, multicultural, nature-honoring children's show with music. The show's glowing hosts are New Age songwriter-performers Megon McDonough and Victor Cockburn, who pen lyrics about oneness with all living things and other constructive thoughts to a pop, jazz or Latin beat.
Authorities have seen the video and recommended it.
``If the music, voices, script and messages in `Angel-Land' could seep through the walls of every preschool in America, our educational system would surely get off to a sweet, fresh new start,'' wrote Diana Huss Green, editor-in-chief of Parents' Choice magazine.
Linda Berg-Cross, director of clinical psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C., called the show ``a super-stretcher, expanding children's problem-solving strategies and entertaining them with very imaginative characters that will promote many wonderful hours of creative play afterward.''
On Wednesday and Thursday, Waller will be in Virginia Beach, talking to patrons at the Friends School Book Fair, which takes place Wednesday through Saturday. Her ``Angel-Land'' video will sell for $19.95 at the fair, with sales benefiting Quaker-run Friends School, which Waller attended for first through seventh grades.
After the fair, the video may be purchased locally at the Heritage Store in Virginia Beach or ordered by calling (800) 777-ANGEL.
``I love Friends School,'' Waller said, explaining why she would travel here for such an event. ``I am really very grateful for the quality of education I got there.''
She was raised a Quaker and went to Friends meeting with her family as a child. Her mother, Jane Dreifus Smith of Virginia Beach, still attends regularly.
The philosophies espoused in ``Angel-Land'' reflect Waller's upbringing. ``Quakers believe that each person has goodness in them,'' she said. ``Some Quakers call it God. Others would call it good.''
Early Thursday, she plans to show the video to a group of Friends School students. Afterward, Waller will encourage the children to draw their own angels, and tell their own angel stories.
Some of these pictures and stories could end up in a book called ``Drawing Angels Near.'' Waller is helping to put together the book, which will be published in 1995 by Simon & Schuster's Pocket Book division.
(Waller's student encounter is private, but children may send their drawings and stories about angels to Waller's Pink Bubble Productions, P.O. Box 157, Concord, Mass. 01742.)
``What Mimi and I are doing, that nobody has done so far to my knowledge, is recognize a truly magical connection between children and angels,'' Waller said, speaking from her home in Newton, Mass., where she lives with her lawyer husband Michael Avery and their 3-year-old daughter, Samantha.
``Grownups are seeing angels, but nobody is paying attention to this other connection. Simon and Schuster saw that and said, `Aha!' ''
It was early 1993, when Waller and Doe had that same ``aha'' experience. The two first collaborated on a ground-breaking 1984 show about child sex abuse and had remained friends and associates.
When she gave birth to Samantha in 1991, Waller quit her job as a producer for WBZ-TV, Boston's NBC affiliate. Doe, an educational television specialist, also was not working.
The two were sitting around one day, watching their children swim. Waller recalled: ``We were talking about how we needed to create jobs for ourselves that we would love. And Mimi said, `Angels. Angels are it.'
``That was way before every time you turn around there's an angel book on the shelf.''
They began researching the subject, learning that ``every single culture has a winged creature or angel that inspires or leads,'' Waller said.
She developed her own ideas to explain the growing popularity of angels.
``It's not just trendy and hip. I think angels represent help. And I think people need help. I think they're beginning to believe they need it either from somewhere deep inside them or from outside.
``They're worn out, depressed, hungry. They feel they can't do it themselves. Life is so tough today. From Rwanda to the inner cities, domestic abuse.
``People in our culture are reaching out for something, and I think it's not a surprise that it's angels.''
Waller, who holds a literal belief in angels, said: ``When I was a little girl, I woke up in the middle of the night once, very frightened. And I saw a figure in flowing lavender at the foot of the bed. She said: `You don't need to be afraid. I am your angel and your friend. And I am here to protect you.'
``I never doubted that. Mimi has had angel experiences, too. So we know they are there. We just know it.''
The point of ``Angel-Land'' is not to dictate a given view of angels, nor is it a religious show, Waller said.
``Our angels tell children: `You have the answers within. Who you are inside is rich and wonderful and vital. Who you are inside will hold you in good stead, if you get in touch with it.' ''
The show's goal is to build self-esteem in children.
``Our children are our greatest gifts, but we don't always treat them very kindly,'' Waller said. ``We wanted to create something children can turn to, where they can say, `I'm scared,' and there will be some answers.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
``Concert in Angel-Land'' features songs and stories for children.
Photo
On Wednesday and Thursday, Garland Waller will be in Virginia Beach,
talking to patrons at the Friends School Book Fair
Graphic
BOOK FAIR FACTS
What: Friends School Book Fair, featuring new children's books,
art, fine crafts, a bake sale and more.
Where: Friends Meeting House, 1537 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach
When: today and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday until 9 p.m.;
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
How much: admission is free
Call: 428-7534
Special programs: Producer Garland Waller will be at the fair
Wednesday and Thursday to speak to patrons about her ``Concert in
Angel-Land'' video. At 7 p.m. Friday, author Joy Hakim will speak on
her history series, ``The Story of US.'' At 10:30 a.m. Saturday,
children's book author Gardner McFall, who wrote ``Naming the
Animals'' and ``Jonathan's Cloud,'' will read from her latest book.
by CNB