BRINGING THEATRE TO KIDS

 On Tuesday, I took a break from the polls to sit among a crowd of bouncing eight-year-olds, enjoying the simplicity of gag jokes and silly props.

Four actors from Mammoth Lakes Repertory Theatre performed Pinocchio this week at Mammoth High School in front of an estimated thousand children from Mono and Inyo counties over the course of four days. Each actor wore white overalls and several hats … literally and figuratively.

This is the fourteenth year that Director Shira Dubrovner has produced a play for local K-12 school children, she said. The program, Theatre for Young Audiences, provides children with their first live theatre experience — free of charge through their schools.

“Some of these kids—it’s their first time ever being introduced to theatre,” Dubrovner said. “I’m trying to introduce them at a young age so they can appreciate theatre as they grow older and develop a curiosity for it.”

The performance of Pinocchio, a childhood classic, took place against a backdrop of painting supplies and draped white sheets—an inventive way to conceal the set for The Heiress, Dubrovner’s other impending play, which opens Friday, just a day after the final show of Pinocchio.

The Tuesday 10:30 a.m. show was attended by Bishop second-graders and homeschooled children, who filed in row by row and received a short lesson on theatre etiquette from Dubrovner. Then Maurice Cooper, as narrator, addressed the young crowd: “What are you guys doing here? There’s no show,” he boomed, prompting laughter from the children.

With some encouragement from the eager kids, he agreed to proceed with the performance and rallied his fellow actors to tell the story of Pinocchio. Cooper handed a paint roller to Geppetto, Pinocchio’s father, played by Brenda Belaunzaran. The paint roller became an axe, and the story of Pinocchio began.

Wooden puppet Pinocchio, played by Abbs Stoiber, longs to become a “real boy” and is torn between prioritizing school and family or indulging in the temptation of playtime. His first dilemma arises when he encounters music on his way to school and loses focus of his goal, despite his father selling his only warm coat to buy him a book.

The puppet steps down from the stage to dance to the music, exaggerating every movement. Stoiber asks the students whether they should keep listening to the music or continue to school. The audience’s advice was loud and mixed, with advocates for both options spread across the room. Ultimately, Pinocchio decides to stay focused on his education.

Students are required to complete a worksheet after the show, reflecting on the play and how its lessons apply to their own lives.

“This program was created to expose children to theatre at a young age,” Dubrovner said. “But it’s not just to make them want to be actors—it’s to help cultivate their creative and critical thinking skills.”

The story progresses as Pinocchio continues on his path, but is tricked and robbed by a mischievous fox, another role played by Belaunzaran, and the fox’s dim-witted cat accomplice, played by Tyler McManus. 

Pinocchio is kidnapped by a puppetmaster, turned into a donkey, taught a lesson by a fairy, then swallowed by a whale all before he is eventually reunited with his father. 

Performing for a young audience is a unique challenge, the actors said.

“It’s way more fun performing for a young audience,” McManus said. “You can be way sillier, and the whole script is very playful. But a lot of things we think are funny as adults go right over the kids’ heads.”

And some things children find funny, adults won’t understand at all. 

“If you get a laugh, you hold it,” Belaunzaran said.

This production is Cooper’s fourth Theatre for Young Audiences performance. Over the past four years, he’s watched the children grow and learn theatre etiquette as they progress from kindergarten to fifth grade. They’ve begun to recognize him, he said.

The play ended just as the students’ attention spans were nearing their limits, and they started wiggling in their seats and looking around. 

Once the final scene concluded, the children walked out in single-file lines, grabbing snacks and continuing to their regular curriculums.