
Photo by Paul Ruffolo
First Stage 'The Dinosaur Play'
Marko Van Slyke, Emily Dalecky and Adrian Feliciano in 'The Dinosaur Play'
First Stage explores the basics of storytelling for young audiences with The Dinosaur Play. A thoughtfully engaging Adrian Feliciano serves as The Guide into a world of larger-than-life creatures made more manageable for the small stage. It’s a live theatrical experience in-the-round intended for even the youngest theatergoers.
As the show opens, the stage is dominated by the presence of a rather large egg. Feliciano engages the audience in trying to work out precisely what it might be that the egg needs and how it might go about getting it. The egg can only communicate in percussion, but it quickly becomes a strong emotional presence onstage as Feliciano and company interact with it and the audience.
Feliciano is initially aided by a child actor in the First Stage program. The two are soon joined by Jared Brandt Hoover in the role of a gruff but loveable triceratops. Once it becomes apparent the triceratops isn’t in position to be the egg’s mother, the search is on for a suitable caretaker in the form of Samantha D. Montgomery as a brontosaurus in need of a bit of help herself. She’s perfectly capable of helping hatch the egg, but what is everyone to do with the hatchling when it emerges?
Feliciano takes an enthusiastically contemplative approach to the action as he guides the audience through solving a number of simple problems that involve bringing dinosaurs together. The script is simple enough for very, very young theatergoers. A series of very simple problems are posed and ultimately sold with general, mass audience participation. It’s a safe and cozy adventure in that opens up the imagination to a lot of different things, and it serves as a really good initial theatrical experience for kids.
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First Stage’s production of The Dinosaur Play runs through Feb. 16 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For more information, visit First Stage online.