Interview: Playwright/Director Adam Dugas of CHILDREN OF THE WINTER KINGDOM

The Actors' Gang is presenting the World Premiere of Children of the Winter Kingdom – The Bonkers Adventures of Holly and Spruce, an original family-friendly fantasy fairy tale for the theater written by Adam Dugas and Mary Eileen O’Donnell and directed by Dugas for a limited three-week engagement from December 4 to 20 at the Actors’ Gang in Culver City. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 PM, with two Sunday matinee performances at 2 PM on December 7 and 14.

Madison Davis as Holly, Jacob Dodson as Spruce. Photo credit: Bob Turton Photography

The story begins when orphan twins Holly and Spruce escape from the circus and get lost in a wintry forest in Glassenvale, an enchanted kingdom that is in chaos. While being pursued by an evil circus queen and her strongman accomplice, the children meet a series of extraordinary characters in the forest: a king and his dragon, a wild girl, a crow, a sorceress, and an ice spider. 

Filled with music, puppetry and theatrical wonder, this kaleidoscopic journey in a style that only The Actors’ Gang can offer will grab your heart and fill your cup with the spirit of the holidays.

I decided to speak with playwright/director Adam Dugas (pictured) about the creation and concept of the play, as well as the process of bringing it to The Actors’ Gang.

Thanks for speaking with me today, Adam. How long have you been a company member of The Actors’ Gang? And in what capacity?

I was invited to join the company as an actor in 2022. The following year I began teaching with the Education Department, and have found great fulfillment bringing theatre tools into classrooms across L.A. from Compton to Culver City. The first thing I wrote or directed at the Gang was my short play “Game Show” which was part of NIGHT MIRACLES, an evening of 10 short plays that opened this past January.

What other productions have you been involved there?

My first appearance was in Tim Robbins’s revival of UBU THE KING. I have been in the last three summer Shakespeare in the Park shows, a bunch of Open Workshop/Commedia Palooza nights, and NIGHT MIRACLES.

Tell me about your experience creating other holiday shows.

I began making holiday shows in 2002 with Chaos & Candy, a series of yearly shows that kept growing in scope and scale over eight years. It started as a variety show, but developed into a series of concept musicals with original songs. CHICKEN IN THE SNOW was a haunted honkytonk with a country music theme, and the last one, UNHOLY NIGHT, was a hard rock metal musical about the dark folklore of Yuletide. The inspiration came from researching the history and underpinnings of Christmas, which was once closer to Halloween or a carnival - feasting and overindulging, dressing up in costumes and as animals, spooky traditions, and fanciful beasts. But more than anything, I always want people who feel excluded from the holiday to experience the spirit of the Winter Solstice tradition: an explosion of light and hope and coming together at the literal darkest time of the year. You can’t escape holiday marketing and music, it seems to start earlier and earlier, so I work hard to create something that gives audiences the big, joyful feeling that is promised in all that: an avalanche of fun.

Stephanie Pinnock as the Weasel Guard, Chad Reinhart as Bruno, Jacob Dodson as Spruce, Zoe Molina as Zelda the circus queen. Photo credit: Bob Turton Photography

How did the creation of this play begin? Was it your idea or Tim Robbins?

The Actors’ Gang Artistic Director Tim Robbins pitched Mary Eileen and I about creating a holiday show. We agreed upon an original fantasy play, with new characters, songs and storylines that could give audiences "that holiday feeling" without talking about Santa, Scrooge, or reindeer. Mary Eileen and I began by talking about our own feelings and experiences and favorite things about the holidays and by asking company members about their memories, and that sparked the story, characters and ambiance of the world of the play.

Pierre Adeli as Scrag the dragon. Photo credit: Bob Turton Photography

Have you written any other plays or worked artistically with co-playwright Mary Eileen O’Donnell before? If so, where and when?

I’ve adored Mary Eileen since I met her, and always admired her as a performer. We both wrote short plays that were included in NIGHT MIRACLES, and I appeared in that as Humpty Dumpty in her playlet “In Recovery” - but we have acted together in our company workshops and onstage.

What are some of the classic stories that influenced the writing of Children of the Winter Kingdom?

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated specials. The songs, stories and images from those are embedded in my brain and the anticipation of seeing and hearing those as the holidays approached was always part of the excitement of the season.

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield has been a huge influence on me since I read it last year. For this play, it was the first section when David is a child and challenged with difficult circumstances. We took a lot of cues from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are huge influences on both of us. I also re-read some of my favorite stories and novels to bring into the mix:  Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Julie (Andrews) Edwards’s Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three, Grimm’s fairy tales. I also rewatched a bunch of the classic Disney fairy tale movies, the ones from the 1930s and 40s are gorgeous and have great shades of darkness.

Why do you think the play is well-suited for The Actors’ Gang?

The play is written as a proposal for the company members to play in our inimitable style, what we refer to as “The Style” deeply rooted in commedia dell’arte, especially as practiced by Théâtre du Soleil in Paris. But over 40 years it has grown into its own special technique, and is always being refined. Many of the shapes, moods and colors of this play were directly inspired by our two-week intensive that Tim Robbins led us in this summer. Those intensives help to sharpen and refine The Style, and watching those experiments and explorations planted the seeds for what the play became. So while the story and characters are clear, there are many scenes and characters that are open for experimentation and discovery. I was also deeply influenced by Carlo Gozzi’s King Stag, a fantasy fairy tale for theater that is rooted in commedia dell’arte.

Please describe the plot of the play.

The story begins when orphan twins Holly and Spruce are pawned off by their stepparents to go work at the circus. They then escape from the circus and get lost in a wintry forest in Glassenvale, an enchanted kingdom that is in disorder. While being pursued by the evil circus queen and her strongman accomplice, the children meet a series of extraordinary characters in the forest: a king and his dragon, a wild girl, a crow, a sorceress, and an ice spider. There is a surprise reveal in the end, and the kids end up safe in a happy home in Glassenvale.

Tell me more about Holly and Spruce, the two characters at the center of the play, and the inspiration for them.

Holly and Spruce are classic child protagonists. Alice and Dorothy are both very open and bold characters who find their way through fantasy worlds. They have pluck and a sureness, and embody one of my mantras, which is that the opposite of fear is curiosity. When confronted with new creatures and situations, they ask questions and probe their surroundings rather than collapse or retreat. David Copperfield is very similar, in that he successfully navigates a pretty brutal childhood while maintaining a genuine openness and a beautiful spirit. It was important to have child characters that weren’t ciphers, they take action, and have the complex emotions that I see in the children I know and work with.

Fernando Siqueira as King Villabo, Madison Davis as Holly
Photo credit: Bob Turton Photography

Why do you think this show will appeal to children of all ages, and is there any age restriction to be in the audience?

This play is for people who love a great fantasy story, a surprising tale of adventure. It is filled with music, and embraces every aspect of theatrical magic. Perhaps the youngest kids might find some things intense or hard to follow, but we have worked hard to land in a place that is sincere but not saccharine, equal parts wide-eyed, sharp-edged and warm hearted. Kids are smart, aware, and open. I also remember what it felt like to be that age, what my favorite parts of these stories were. What emerged from the writing is something fresh and exciting, and there’s plenty of silliness and wonder. We don’t talk down to our youngest audiences, they are curious and hungry for new things and ideas, and we treat them with respect.

What elements do you think may be too intense for them? How so?

One of our cast members brought his 4 and 8 year old girls to watch a rehearsal and they loved it, even when it gets intense it is never truly scary. The scariest part is really how bad adults can be to children, but we strive never to make that nasty or ugly, whenever it gets intense in that way it is quickly tempered by humor. Scary things are part of the fairy tale tradition, and also part of life, but despite their hard beginning our heroes find a very happy ending.

Are there elements from your own childhood that influenced the story?

Mary Eileen’s childhood really influenced the loving aunt that protects the children, based on her own aunt who was more like a mother to her. For me it was just honoring my favorite literature and trying to conjure up that anticipation for magic that I remembered about the holiday time.

Who are the Bonkers?

The Bonkers are a trio of nonsense characters that live in the forest. Strange and goofy with a little hierarchy between them, constantly dropping non-sequiturs.

Magali Shukar as the sorceress Borana Vix
Photo credit: Bob Turton Photography

What family or core values are expressed in the play?

Throughout the play there are many instances where people give things away, and for some of them it is difficult to receive a gift or help. Giving and receiving are both powerful acts. There is also a refrain of finding home. Holly and Spruce have escaped the bad place they were sent to, but where will they end up, who will take care of them? Resolving that in a way that felt true and good was important. There’s also a motif of parents and parent figures, friendship, and trusting yourself. More than one person in the company shared how home was a challenging place growing up, and that was harder or more painful when the holiday season came around. It was important for both Mary Eileen and I to honor that, and also provide a finale that gives the characters and the audience a true spirit of home, of belonging, safety and love.
 
The play’s co-author Mary Eileen O’Donnell also shared, “I want this show to be a supernova of joy in the darkest time of the year. For people to come together from all over the city, to share space at night in a dark theater and (hopefully) leave beaming and filled with that always-promised, rarely delivered ecstatic warmth of the end-of-year holiday time.”

How do you think this goal has been accomplished?

I think that between the music, the fantasy world we create, and the exciting and emotional original story, there is so much to be caught up in. We have had a beautiful rehearsal process, and the cast is just amazing. The actors are achieving a powerful depth of emotion that really resonates, all while making us believe that a dragon is flying, a sorceress is casting spells, and cracking us up with expert comic timing. It’s a really special play and this production just keeps getting better the more we shape and develop it.

Anything else you would like to share about yourself, the play, or The Actors’ Gang?

I am really grateful for this whole experience, from Tim’s proposal to create this, to having it emerge in the writing and rehearsal process. We have a fantastic development and workshop process at The Actors’ Gang, where we play and experiment in full image, and rotate through as many people trying on the roles as possible. I was able to give a sketch of what the characters were and the whole company helped to provide the answers to questions like: How do we make a dragon on stage? How do we believe that? It’s also great to try people in a role who would never be cast in that part. I had someone in her seventies do a scene as Holly with a guy in his fifties as Spruce, and it revealed a new truth about the scene. We carry all these discoveries into rehearsal once it is cast, so even though I could only cast twelve people, the power of our ensemble is carried onto the stage in the final product. It’s really unique, and an incredible honor for me to be given the reins. This play is one of my favorite things I’ve made in my career, and I am very excited to share it with audiences of all ages and give them some winter enchantment.

Thanks so much!

Children of the Winter Kingdom - The Bonkers Adventures of Holly and Spruce performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 PM, with two Sunday matinee performances at 2 PM on December 7 and 14, at The Actors’ Gang Theater, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. Tickets are $34.99 + $3 fees; seniors, educators, and students are $25 + $3 fees, and Thursdays are pay-what-you-can for all. Tickets online at www.TheActorsGang.com, via email to boxoffice@theactorsgang.com or by phone at 310-838-4264. Available tickets are sold at the box office prior to each performance.