BWW Reviews: STORY THEATRE Spins Tales for the Audience

I went to the second showing of Story Theatre presented by Encore Theatre Company Etc. on Thursday, October 26th. It was hosted by the Nampa Civic Center known as "found space" (a space not originally designed for theatre). It was being held in the South conference room of the Nampa Civic Center.

All of the stories were enchanting. The actors were very engaging and very energetic. They had a costume change for every story and as you will read below, there were many so for the actors to still have energy at the end of the night after all of those quick changes was impressive. They projected and, I find more surprising, annunciated. One of the actor's voices made me think of audio books or radio, I could have listened to him do the entire show. All of the actors were well voiced, his just stood out to me. They were interacting with the audience even though there were not many youths in the audience. It made us all feel like children again; helping us forget the troubles we have during the day.

They built a stage using three flats and quite a number of platforms. There were also many, many curtains [blacks]. The set was mostly black in color with some pennants in primary colors. It was a very versatile set.

Story Time by Paul Sills & Aesop & Brothers Grimm is great entertainment for young audiences. There are many stories that can lead discussions about morals. They acted out stories like: "The Little Peasant and His Wife", "The Bremen Band", "Henny Penny", "The Master Thief", "The Fisherman and His Wife" and a few others that I didn't quite catch the names. There were variations on what is right or wrong, telling stories, being true to yourself and other lessons to be learned.

I did not realize that this was going to be a show for youth. It was a bit of a pleasant surprise. I would definitely go again! It was a charming night.

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