Final preparations have been made and Prairie Fire Theatre's minivan is packed with a pop-up castle and music munching machine. Count Sticky Fingers and Princess Poco are hitting the road on their way to a school near you.
This year’s children’s opera produced by Prairie Fire Theatre is Treble Trouble, a musical hero's tale featuring protagonist Princess Poco [a role shared by Gillian O’Donnell and Zinnia Manning]. Poco seeks to save the Land of Melodia from a silence curse that's turning Melodians to stone.
“And in the meantime, Count Sticky Fingers, played by Bob Mangialardi, is going around stealing music and feeding it into the music munching machine,” said Twin City playwright Nancy Steele Brokaw.
Treble Trouble is Brokaw’s 14th original script for Prairie Fire’s children’s opera that tours to more than 40 schools, presenting assemblies each May. Apart from Mangialardi, the cast comes from Illinois Wesleyan University’s music and theater schools. They are hired as paid professionals, but routinely cite the children’s opera as one of the best parts of their education.
“It really prepares them,” said Brokaw. “If you want to be in the arts, it’s hard. I can’t think of anything harder than loading in a set, performing in front of 500 kids, loading the set out, moving on to the next place — and doing that four times a day.”
Treble Trouble’s primary objective is to cultivate classical music fans in a fun and accessible way. Brokaw said it’s a “revelation” to kids who might not consider that opera is for them.
“They know sports is out there, but they don’t know the arts is out there,” she said.
Treble Trouble teaches students about the notes on a music staff, counting and constellations, with original lyrics set to classical pieces, wrapped in a whimsical bow enhanced by sets from John Stark and costumes by Marcia Basolo and Cathy Holbrook. Charlie Berggren plays piano accompaniment for each show.
“It’s 40 minutes of absolutely delightful children’s theater,” said director Rhys Lovell, who began working with the children’s opera about two decades ago.
“Kids are great, because there’s no filter,” he said. “If they love something, they really love it! If they feel like they’re being patronized, they’ll tune out.”
Lovell said the key to a tough crowd of kids is taking them seriously.
“If you can draw them into the world of the story without being condescending about it, they’ll go on that ride with you,” he said.
As for crowd management, the cast and crew have figured out ways to glean audience etiquette to hundreds of kids at a time. Master of ceremonies Lord Chamberlain [Evan Carlson] has a signal for getting an audience’s attention if the crowd gets unruly.“Most scripts culminate in a chase scene where all of the actors chase Bob through the school’s gymnasium over and around the kids,” Lovell said. “The kids eat it up, but sometimes getting them focused is like, 'OK, we’ve got a little more of the play to do!'”
Brokaw estimates up to 10,000 children will see Treble Trouble this month. The show then gets shipped to the University of California-Merced, where thousands more will meet Princess Poco and her crew.
While the show is geared toward children, Brokaw said Treble Trouble’s message is universal:
“Music is for everyone, anyone can step up and do the right thing and you’re braver than you think,” she said. “Those are great lessons for all of us to remember.”
Four public performances of Treble Trouble take place May 8-17 at various locations. All shows are free. For details, visit prairiefiretheatre.org.
