If it can be done in the fairy tale world of Rumplestiltskin, why not in our own?
Three dozen parents Saturday afternoon applauded the nifty way their kids turned straw into gold, a Ponzi story courtesy of the Brothers Grimm that is indeed not only for all time but especially for our time.
The play was performed with brio by the thespians of the Alliance Children’s Theatre to an appreciative house at the Wilson Branch Library in the Hill.
On Friday night 125 people attended the play’s premiere at the Augusta Lewis Troup School’s splendid new auditorium.
The Alliance Theater, which offers all its training and performance free to the kids of New Haven, depends mightily on parental support. It got a lot of it for Rumplestiltskin. Eight-year-old Charley Tiernan, for example (top photo on the right), who played the star wizard, had her mom Amanda drive to the FedEx depot. They arrived with only five minutes to spare on Friday night.
“The wizard’s hat and the shoes,” explained Tiernan, “were arriving, and Charley was desperate to get them in time.”
Parents provide costumes if they can, especially if their daughters have demanding taste in wizard accessories, do playbill printing, marketing and flyering, baking, and organizing fundraisers. They, of course, also do a tremendous amount of chauffeuring.
For example, Ken Cooper, the proud father of the play’s huntsman, Alana Cooper, drove his daughter to some dozen rehearsals at three different sites.
“Alana gets so much out of it,” he said. “She does theater in her school in Hamden,” he said, “but in this company, she gets different kinds of exercises, meets all kinds of people, and I’ve noticed too that she’s gained in self confidence.”
After the performance, one of the actors, Jason Lampo, passed around his jester’s cap. Cooper happily contributed.
Until a few years ago, Alliance, which is headed by Carol Penney (pictured with Alana Cooper and her proud mom Raquel) and Ellen Most, was headquartered at the University of New Haven.
That’s where Tiernan brought 6‑year-old Charley, then not a wizard, to see a performance of Annie. When Carol Penney announced that the company was looking to audition orphans for another performance of Annie, Charley got that look in her eye. Ever since, that is, for the past two years, said Tiernan, “It’s been voice lessons, auditions, one most recently at the Ivorytown Playhouse, and even last week an interview with a Broadway agent.”
When Tiernan, an attorney, recovered from the shock of discovering her daughter’s new calling, she happily pitched in as one of the lead organizers last year of the Alliance Theater’s 30th season benefit fundraiser.
Charley played Rumplestiltskin with a strong voice that belied her small frame and bravura bossiness, as befit an arrogant Puck-like wizard who dislikes mortals and wants to mess up their recession-ridden world.
Other notable performances were put in by Ariel Martinez, (pictured at the top) with the huge gray witch wig, who played Griselda, the evil witch who does good in the end by foiling Rumple’s devious designs on the human race; Madeline Diaz, pictured with the wizard and the witch, who was a townsperson; and Jacqueline Williams (pictured here), a tenth-grader at Hamden High who plays Laura, the miller’s daughter of faux straw-weaving fame, opposite Darius Melton’s steady Prince Tom.
All the roles are double-cast, so as many kids as possible get performance time. Approximately 40 are involved in the after-school and weekend activities, all provided free by the Alliance Theater. During the summer, the company for six years has been running its Swinging Star Camp, a theater camp utilizing public school buildings and the services of the city’s parks and rec staff.
Penney said she hopes the recent cuts in municipal staffers will not affect the summer camp. Penney is also eager for the city to offer Alliance a new home. For most of its 30 seasons, the company was headquartered at the University of New Haven. “Now,” she said, “we’d love to call the Troup School our new headquarters. The mayor and superintendent have given us hopeful signs.”
With the ability to turn straw into gold, why not?
The performances are funded in part through the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and its PACK (Parents and Community for Kids) family learning initiative. For information about donations as well as bookings of Rumplestiltskin, Seussical, Jr., and The Wizard of Oz, also in Alliance’s traveling repertoire, for school or community events, call Penney at 888‑5656 or 789‑1198.
