OSWEGO – A little slice of Arkansaw has been growing at Oswego’s Frances Marion Brown Theater in the form of a 12-foot tree at the center of the Oswego Players’ production of Aurand Harris’ “The Arkansaw Bear.”
The Player’s resident scenic artist Adele Cronk employed chicken wire and papier-mâché on a large scale to bring her vision of the piece into reality. She began in the basement shop of the theater, only to run out of ceiling space when the tree trunk reached seven feet.
“It was too big for both our backstage and lobby stairs,” said Norman Berlin III, director of “The Arkansaw Bear.”
The logical solution was to move the set-piece up the basement stairs from the Oswego Art Association’s pottery shop to the parking lot, then around the entire length of the building to the stage door entrance.
Once onstage, Cronk resumed her work, bringing the framework tree to its full 12-foot height. From there, she addedtexture and color to create a finished work that Berlin is keeping under wraps to ensure that audiences will be in for a magical treat.
An important work by America’s foremost playwright for young audiences, “The Arkansaw Bear” blends realism and fantasy, pathos and humor. It is delightfully theatrical – with music, magic and dance – and has been enthusiasticallyapplauded by children and family audiences alike.
It features Tish who, saddened and bewildered at her grandfather’s approaching death, runs to this, her “special tree,” for comfort. There, in a world of fantasy provided by her wish upon a star, she meets a dancing bear. He is old, like her grandfather, and running away. In trying to help him, she begins to understand the meaning of both life and death, which helps her to cope with her own sorrow.
“The Arkansaw Bear” features the talents of: Nina King as Tish, Joely Sloan as Star Bright, Lilith Pape as the Mime,Stephanie Johnson as the World’s Greatest Dancing Bear, Richard Carpenter as the Great Ringmaster, Mallory Gordon asLittle Bear, Lori Blackburn as Mother and Adele Anesko Cronk as Aunt Ellen.
The play is part of a double-bill collaboration with the Oswego Opera Company which presents the children’s opera“Brundibár” by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása, with libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister and directed by Juan LaManna.“The Arkansaw Bear” is presented by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
The show begins at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6 with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, April 7 at the Frances Marion Brown Theater, known as “the little theater on the water,” on Barbara Donahue Drive in Oswego.
For more information and ticket sales please visit oswegoplayers.org or call the Oswego Players’ box office at 315-343-5138.
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