Chicago Children's Theatre - | Chicago Tribune February 3, 2006

Chicago Tribune February 3, 2006

Play Time

By Janet Franz

Try these theater tips for entertaining the youngsters in your world

The Chicago Children's Theatre, with its debut production “A Year With Frog and Toad,” is the newest kid on the block. It joins, among others, the Emerald City Theatre Company, now in its 10th season with a production of “Charlotte's Web,” and the real veteran of the bunch, Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences, which was founded in 1925 as the Goodman Children's Theatre. Like all its productions, Playworks' current show, “The Boxcar Children,” is produced by the DePaul University Theatre School.

What these and other children's theater groups share, their directors say, is a desire to present shows that are smart enough to appeal both to kids and their parents. “The stories of Frog and Toad just speak to the child in all of us,” says Jacqueline Russell, artistic director of the Chicago Children's Theatre. “We can relate to them.”

It's also “important to find work that doesn't talk down to [children],” she says. “We need to find more work in a theatrical realm that's comparable to children's literature.”

Perhaps it's no wonder then, that many of the current productions are based on favorite kids' books. Here's a look at a few current shows:

“A Year With Frog and Toad” Chicago Children's Theatre

This infectious musical (expect several of the songs to get stuck in your head) is based on Arnold Lobel's terrific children's books about two best friends, worrywart Toad and level-headed Frog, and their small bird, mouse, mole and turtle pals. “There's such a beautiful, almost Zen quality to Lobel's storytelling,” which conveys a real sweetness and gentleness between the friends,” Russell says, and the musical is “an incredibly true adaptation” of the books. The amiable amphibians experience a year of adventures. Will snail ever deliver the letter? Will Frog and Toad be able to resist the cookies? Will Toad look funny in a bathing suit? You'll have to hop on over to find out.