A year ago, The Actors’ Gang did what we think would be unthinkable – they originated a new holiday play for the entire family – Children of the Winter Kingdom; The Bonkers Adventures of Holly and Spruce – and created a seasonal classic. And now it’s back for an encore run November 19 to December 20.
Last year, The Actors’ Gang’s Artistic Director, Tim Robbins, approached company members Adam Dugas and Mary Eileen O’Donnell about creating a show for the holiday season. Putting aside subjects like elves, menorahs, or Santa keeping a behavioral watch, the authors wrote an original fantasy play with music, striving to give audiences “that holiday feeling” with entirely new characters, storylines, and songs.
The production is a storybook that has come to life. Set both in a traveling circus and a magical forest, the work is infused with the authors’ sense of what makes the holiday season special – kinship, spirit, and wonder: when orphan twins Holly and Spruce escape from the circus, they get lost in a wintry forest in the enchanted kingdom of Glassenvale. Pursued by an evil circus queen and her strongman accomplice, the children meet a series of extraordinary characters — a king and his dragon, a wild girl, a crow, a sorceress, and an ice spider.
Hand-drawn projected backdrops by illustrator and company member Patrick O’Connor create an immersive atmosphere that takes audiences inside circus tents, magic castles, and snowy forests. Costumer Rynn Vogel outdoes herself transforming the actors into circus baddies, a crow, and a glittering ice spider, which are augmented by elegant mask work, and topped off with a host of puppets and theatrical magic.
Dugas and O’Donnell started the process of writing by sharing stories about their own families and holiday memories, and then began mixing in themes and tropes from varied literary sources like Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and, as Dugas puts it, “the ur-texts of my creative life, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.”
“I really went on a deep dive,” Dugas says, “revisiting so many classic and contemporary novels and movies for young people. We made sure the play is appropriate for kids, but we were also careful not to talk down to our youngest audiences. My friends described the show as ‘John Waters does Classic Disney.’”
He continues, “I work with kids through The Actors’ Gang’s Education Department, and I hang out with nieces, nephews, and my friends’ children as well. Kids’ minds are sharp, smart, aware, and open. I also remember what it felt like to be that age, and what my favorite parts of these stores were. We don’t shy away from thrills and excitement, but it is a safe journey.”
“Back in New York, I made a series of holiday shows over nearly a decade called Chaos & Candy, and one of the core purposes of that for me was to give Christmas back to the misfits, to revel in the virtues that the Winter Solstice season has always been about: an explosion of light and hope and community at the literal darkest time of the year.”
Co-author Mary Eileen O’Donnell said, “This show is a supernova of joy in the darkest time of the year. I want people to come together from all over the city, to share space at night in a dark theater and (hopefully) leave beaming and filled with that always-promised, rarely delivered ecstatic warmth of the end-of-year holiday time.”
For tickets, go to /theactorsgang.com
David Barber/ActorsGang
