Created by Keith Galloway
Directed by Jo Galloway and Darren Portilla
Children’s theatre has got to be one of the hardest forms of entertainment to get right. After all, you are trying to impress the toughest audience on the planet…kids.
I can never get enough of really good children’s theatre though, and there is a distinct lack of it in LA that’s for sure. But now we have a new company in town, and more importantly, in our town, NoHo!
Aesop’s Fables have been around since around 500 BC, and have been retold in so many different weird and wonderful ways, becoming so integral to our childhood and helping us form the beginnings of our moral compass, that it’s easy enough to forget that these stories are so ancient.
And what stories they are!!! These wonderful and hilarious actors portray just a small selection of them, the stories adapted for the children’s stage and for their, and our (grown-ups) enjoyment, education and allegorical delight.
With brilliant skill the actors prance and pirouette their way through such classics as The Wolf and His Shadow, The Ants and The Grasshopper and The Peacock and The Crow.
They sing and contort and shimmy, with a wink and a smile and all the while including and involving every youngster in the audience, leaving every child’s face beaming with glee.
The set is simple and colorful and ingenious, created with childlike imaginations clearly in mind and it all comes together marvelously!
This is a performance piece that is clearly loved and revered by the cast, written many years ago by the co-founder of the company’s father, Keith Galloway - a hugely successful international performer and one of Bob Fosse’s most prominent dancers no less!!
Well there is plenty of pizzazz to this show I can tell you, and it wasn’t just the kids who were beaming by the final bow.
Amidst all the lessons and reminders to be kind, and what happens to you if you are not, there is a really funny and warm hearted show here, something well worth bringing your kids to, and their friends, and even a few grumpy adults who need some reminding that life is what you make it, and to listen to your mother more!
I had a really lovely time, and my granddaughter Faith was thrilled, especially when she was invited onstage to be part of the jury to convict the thieving doctor, for which she received a round of applause and a lollypop…perfection!
If only life where always as simple and worthwhile, but for an hour, in the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, it truly can be.
I highly recommend "The Fabulous Fables of Aesop."
It’s a limited engagement so don’t dawdle!!
WHEN: August 13th through September 11th, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm
WHERE: The Secret Rose Theater, 11246 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, 91601
TICKETS>>
The Fabulous Cast
Jo Galloway
Christopher Worley
Emmanuelle Girard
Arturo Lopez
Production Crew
Darren Portilla - Director/Sound/lighting
Jo Galloway - Director/Choreographer
Greg Archibeque - set construction
Seth Doebler - set construction
Ryan Amborn - set construction
Sean Holmes - set construction
Ashley Snyder - costumes
Lisa Cornellier - props