Stage Scene
Diverse plays make for entertaining weekend

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hermenigildo "Junior" Tesoro is Winnie-the-Pooh, the lovable bear, in the Honolulu Theatre for Youth production making its debut Saturday. Brad Goda "Winnie- the-Pooh" 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 15, 23 and 29 Leeward Community College Theatre $10; $7.50 students; $5 children 3-12 and seniors; free for children under 3 with ticket 839-9885 "The Clown of God" 7:30 p.m. today, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, University of Hawai'i-Manoa $9; $7 seniors, military, faculty, staff, non-UH students, children; $3 UHM students with valid ID) 956-7655 "The Debutante Ball" 2 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 16 and 23 Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter $6 438-4480

'Pooh' play captures true spirit of characters

No disrespect to Harry Potter and his kiddie-come-lately-storybook-ilk, but for a lot of kids — and ex-kids alike — bedtime stories are still really all about The Pooh.

A.A. Milne created his treasured book series based on son Christopher Robin's favorite stuffed bear Winnie in 1926, imagining a whimsical adventure world for both called the 100-Acre-Wood. Populated with other stuffed inhabitants of his son's bedroom — Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, et al. — and beautifully illustrated by E.H. Shepard, Milne's three short-story collections became instant children's classics, spawning countless collectible bric-a-brac, movies and even a couple of stage adaptations.

One of those adaptations — a semi-musical one crafted by le Clanche du Rand with songs by Allen Jay Friedman — makes its debut this weekend at Leeward Community College Theatre, courtesy of Honolulu Theatre For Youth.

Ex-kid, "Pooh" fan and HTY artistic director Mark Lutwak originally wanted to commission and direct a local-flavored "Pooh" adaptation, but "a year or two ago, Disney bought up all the rights from the (Milne) estate," Lutwak said. "Which means no one can commission any new scripts based on the stories anymore."

Finding only two stage versions available, Lutwak chose one that wove several of Pooh's most popular adventures into a seamless multiple-plot story arc and blended in songs without turning the whole production into "Pooh: The Musical."

"It's really parts of a half a dozen stories put together with some great little tunes," Lutwak said of the story set that includes favorite bits from "Piglet Meets A Heffalump," "Eeyore Loses A Tail," "Kanga and Baby Roo Come To The Forest" and "Rabbit's First Apology." "The songs are not contemporary pop tunes ... but strong, timeless, sometimes quirky theater songs. Songs that have a definite mood, can be sung by non-singers, yet are fun, catchy and really short."

Cast with more of an eye on their acting abilities rather than their vocal prowess, Lutwak's five-member "Pooh" cast has been training with vocal coach Cheryl Bartlett for five weeks.

"Quite honestly, I still would have liked to commission a fresh version of 'Pooh,'" Lutwak said, "but (du Rand's version) is pretty good. Although it uses the stories quite well, it's less worried with being true to the stories. What it does is really capture the true spirit of the characters, which is what I really wanted in a 'Pooh.'"

That plays well with HTY's strong stable of character actors, who will also have to tackle "Beauty and The Beast" later in the season.

"Hand great characters over to our actors, and they'll go to town with it."

'Clown of God' similar to director's own experiences

"The Clown of God" is a freshly written stage adaptation of a decade-old children's book based on a centuries-old European story of a juggler who offered his talent as a gift to the Christ child. Got that?

Adapted for the stage by director/University of Hawai'i-Manoa master of fine arts candidate Mark Branner as part of his degree requirements, "Clown" follows the life of an orphaned street urchin who goes from juggling for his dinner, to joining a traveling band of entertainers, to fame and fortune, to once again finding himself penniless.

"To me, it was almost autobiographical," said Branner, 30, who left his UCLA studies at age 18 to enroll in Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Clown College and become a professional clown. "That's why I was so drawn to it." Graduating to a life of two to three three-hour shows each day and traveling and living on a train, Branner left after one year, joining smaller circuses and working other jobs while going back to college.

"It's a grueling life where show after show after show you think, 'Is it worth it?'" Branner said of his life as a clown. "But along with that, there was a very simple and profound pleasure that I got just meeting people in the audience."

Branner has wanted to adapt and direct "Clown" ever since some friends gave him a copy of writer Tomie dePaola's 1989 retelling of the legend several years ago.

"It's a play about human failing and the realization that our careers and lives are not made up of chasing after what society tells us is the pinnacle," said Branner. "And that simple work is acceptable and worthwhile in and of itself."

Comic drama 'Debutante' focuses on dysfunctional

Beth Henley's 1985 play "The Debutante Ball" may not be among the playwright/screenwriter/sometime actresses' most famous works — those accolades would arguably go to 1981s Pulitzer Prize-winning "Crimes of the Heart" and 1980s "The Miss Firecracker Contest." Still, the comic drama is a goofily bizarre must for fans of the darkly funny scribe's thoughtful examinations of womanhood.

Set on the morning of smalltown Mississippi teenager Teddy Parker's "coming out" ball, "Debutante" chronicles a day in the life of a collection of gossipy, yet strangely secretive, dysfunctional misfits — both male and female. Sandwiched throughout you'll find self-mutilation, dishonesty, an unwanted pregnancy, an illicit romance and — no surprise — murder.

The play's deeply regional text and dialects will be effected by Army Community Theatre actors Sunday as part of the group's four-year-old series of Readers Theatre productions, where actors — script in hand — read and act directly to the audience without the accoutrements of set or costume.

"Henley's characters are so dysfunctional, and that makes them real," said director Vanita Rae Smith, a longtime fan of the playwright's work. "People used to hide all of that stuff from mainstream society, but now all of it is visible. Dysfunctional people are in the news, in the office ... they're everywhere. To see (dysfunction) in a humorous light reminds us that maybe we're not so bad after all."