Operetta
for younger
folks opens

A YULETIDE feast for the eyes
and imagination opens at Cen-
tennial Theatre this Friday.

Moon Lake, an operetta for
young people, piays Dec. 21 to
23 and Dec. 28 to 30th, with
four evening performances and
two Sunday matinees.

The innovative children’s
operetta combines music,
drama, comedy, dance and
puppets by Fran Dowie of The
Canadian Folk Puppets. it is
based on an award-winning
picture book by Bulgarian-born
illustrator, lvan Gantschev.

The production, presented by
the North Shore Children’s
Entertainment Society, and
directed by UBC music pro-
fessor French Tickner, has been
adapted for the stage, with
music and text by Robert Gor-
dy.

It stars many talented Socal
actors and dancers, among
them 12-year-old David Sewell,
who played Gavroche in Les
Miserables.

Net proceeds from the one-
and-a-half hour show will go to
the Lions Society for Crippled
Children. Tickets are available
from Ticketmaster (280-4444)
and Centennial Theatre (987-
PLAY).

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Wednesday, December 19. 1990 ~ North Shore News - 29

Norris hopes Kids Series will continue

From page 27

“Aiter Cinderella, Boby got
swamped with kids,”” he says,
“They were coming up to her
telling her how great they thought
she was.””

The Kids Series opened Nov. 3,
and it wasn’t long until it was con-
sistenty attracting regular crowds
of children, This weekend is the
final show of the series, but Norris
is making his New Year's resoiu-
tion early: he’s determined it will
be back next year.

Right now he’s just itching to go
home and begin work on his next

show — The Emperor's New
Clothes for Dec. 15.

He usually turns out a loose
script a few days before each per-
formance because the demands of
presenting a different fairy tale
each week barely leave him with
enough time,

“For The Emperor's New
Clothes we're examining the con-
cepts of honesty and vanity,”
notes Norris. ‘““What | want to do
is challenge Saturday morning car-
toons.””

Working with kids isn’t new to
Norris, a former Cap College

learho

E, N.VAN

drama student and Vancouver
Playhouse Acting School grad.

He toured 8.C., Alberta and the
U.S. for three months with
Carousel Theatre, presenting cap-
sule versions of Shakespeare to
elementary and high school stu-
dents.

He also taught scene study and
improv to students of Carousel’s
acting school.

Since its inception in 1988, Nor-
ris has overseen Fend Players’
Theatre Street, a program that pays
street kids to attend theatre classes
and heip write plays in which they

periurm,

And he’s an actor in his own
right: past credits include major
roles in Fun with Dick and Jane
and Calling the Play.

But lately the Kids Series has
monopolized all of his time. In fact
Norris’s current reading list could
rival that of any five-year-old: jack
and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The
Three Little Pigs — a full libvary of
children’s classics.

At $2 a pop for kids and $10 for
the entire family, a Norris-altered
Scrooge would recommend the
Kids Series as money well-spent.

q
oy

* 3

YOUTH SIZES $49.99