By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Horizon Youth Theatre’s production “The Fabulous Fables of Aesop” begins in chaos.
We have 10 kids talking at once, as fast as they can. They are trying to tell all of Aesop’s fables, and this is the only way they think that they can accomplish the feat.
From left, Mary Helen Delisle, Eli Marx, and Lauren Carmen in “The Sun and the North Wind.”
That’s a hilariously real moment. Kids acting like kids. They do realize telling all the tales, about 600 at last count, even in that chaotic way would be impossible.
What the Horizon Troupe does, using director Keith Guion’s script, is introduce us to the ancient fabulist’s world with a handful of those tales, little more than anecdotes, that continue to resonate to this day.
Our language is spiked with phrases and lessons from the Greek storyteller’s fables, standing with Shakespeare and the Bible as a source for aphorisms and turns of phrase.
Horizon Youth Theatre is staging “The Fabulous Fables of Aesop” tonight (Nov. 11) and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the auditorium for Otsego High School. Tickets are $5. Visit horizonyouththeatre.org.
Beside its exploration of the tales of Aesop, the script offers a look into what it’s like to stage a youth theater production.
Yelia Xu as the milkmaid.
Starting with chaos, the actors go through all the various chores they need to right on stage. The setting is simple a few blocks that the actors themselves mostly move into place from tale to tale. A table is located at the rear of the stage where they collect props and the costumes.
The opening dialogue even talks about scripting, how Aesop’s large output of fables will need to be trimmed down to a manageable number.
They seemingly cast on the spot.
As the moral of the first fable explains, they are stronger working as a team. That’s the message conveyed by a farmer (Lauren Carmen) to his brood of children, who learn a bunch of sticks is harder to break than an individual stick.
True to the democratic nature of this troupe, the roles are evenly parsed out, with everyone getting a chance in the spotlight. There are roles, big and small, human and animal, inanimate and animate.
Even the youngest, second grader Alice Walters and third grader Liam Rogel, get turns to narrate tales in addition to playing mice, pebbles and other roles.
Yelia Xu holds her head high in her solo spot as the milkmaid whose dreams get ahead of themselves. Eli Marx plays Androcles, in “Androcles and the Lion,” one of the more involved skits. That piece includes Gavin Miller as a lion with Rose Walters as the cruel master.
Three fables get wrapped up into one in “Bells.” Edna Motion entertains a group of hiding mice by telling the story of “The Mischievous Dog” while outside the cat (Alice Walters) awaits.
Mary Helen Delisle gets to shine as the sun as well as playing a mouse. Paige Suelzer plays the emperor and a fox while Emma Kate Holbrook adds her talents in a variety of roles.
All this comes together without losing the energy of child’s play. Yes, they are a troupe of actors, but they also always seem like a bunch of kids. Some are small, just old enough to start hanging with the gang, and some are ready to move on. They work together, play together, and take care of each other. That’s a lesson worthy of Aesop.
