Imagination Stage announces its 2021-2022 season, welcoming audiences back to in-person performances in December 2021, while continuing to offer innovative digital programming.
Over the past three months, Imagination Stage successfully offered an 11-week in-person summer camp program, serving more than 1,300 children, and a 3-week live, outdoor production, reaching over 940 audience members. Imagination Stage’s rigorous COVID-19 policies and plan ensured the safety of participants at these programs and will continue to support visitor safety when performances at their Auburn Avenue location begin in December.
“It will be an extraordinary pleasure to welcome children back to the theatre,” says Producing Artistic Director Janet Stanford. She continues, “A children’s theatre performance is a happy and hopeful place to be, but we anticipate even more wonder from our young audiences because of the long time since they have been able to be inside a theatre like Imagination Stage. For some, it will be a much delayed first experience, and we want to catch them up on what they’ve missed.”
“A children’s theatre performance is a happy and hopeful place to be, but we anticipate even more wonder from our young audiences because of the long time since they have been able to be inside a theatre like Imagination Stage"
— Janet Stanford, Producing Artistic Director.
Prior to the start of in-person performances, Imagination Stage’s immersive, interactive online show S.P.I.E.S. & the Lost Treasure of Atlantis (formerly Spy Academy) returns for an encore run from November 13-28. The show combines high-stakes spy adventure and interactive hi-jinks with a live-on-Zoom actor leading the fun. S.P.I.E.S. is conceived and co-directed by Strother Gaines, written by Doug Robinson, and produced and co-directed by Jeffrey Eagle.
The first in-person performance begins in mid-December with Corduroy (December 11, 2021 – January 23, 2022), based on the “Corduroy” and “A Pocket for Corduroy” books by Don Freeman and adapted for the stage by Barry Kornhauser. The play, to be staged in the Lerner Family Theatre, is directed by Imagination Stage Associate Artistic Director, and Helen Hayes Award-winner, Kathryn Chase Bryer. We all need a friend, and Lisa is instantly drawn to the perfectly imperfect teddy bear on display at the department store. If only she can convince her stressed-out mother to buy Corduroy for her! Meanwhile, Corduroy is determined to find his missing button and become worthy of going to a real home. After the store has closed, he goes on a hilariously destructive search—with the Night Watchman in comical pursuit. Full of mischief and clowning, this story of unconditional love captures both the humanity and the merriment of the holiday season.
Up next, in the Lerner Family Theatre, Imagination Stage revives a Psalmayene 24/Nick “tha 1da” Hernandez hit P.Nokio: a Hip-Hop Musical (February 23 – April 10, 2022) The show is a fresh, musical take on Pinocchio directed by Tony Thomas and with a cast that includes Jay Frisby, Danielle Gallo, Drake Leach, Tre’mon Mills, and Alana Thomas. G.Petto is an ingenious computer games designer who one day discovers that his newest game character, P.Nokio, can live outside the computer! G.Petto is thrilled at the prospect of having a “son,” and with the help of the Graffiti Fairy, he teaches P.Nokio how to become a real boy. But, P.Nokio falls in with con artists and finds himself in a web of lies that endangers his father. To save G.Petto, P.Nokio must wise up, keep it real, and learn that words and truth are the mightiest weapons of all.
Following that is Mr. Popper’s Penguins (June 22 – August 7, 2022). The musical has book by Robert Kauzlaric, music and lyrics by George Howe, and is based on the novel by Richard and Florence Atwater. Nathaniel Claridad directs, with cast and production team to be announced. Mr. Popper, a painter of modest means, dreams of taking an Antarctic adventure. So he’s thrilled when a penguin named Captain Cook waddles out of a mysterious box left on his doorstep. The zookeeper donates a female companion and soon…the patter of 20 baby penguin feet! To feed all of these mouths, the imaginative Mr. Popper and his wife turn his talented penguins into a must-see traveling vaudeville act full of song and dance. But the rigors of performing take a toll on them all, and they must make a difficult decision. This musical play, featuring expert puppetry, depicts a wild and witty way to follow your dreams–and your convictions.
Two productions in the intimate Reeve Studio Theatre are for the youngest audiences: ages 1-5. For the past decade, Imagination Stage has been a national leader in Theatre for Very Young Audiences (TVYA), and this season brings back a favorite show, Balloonacy (January 15 – February 20, 2022) written by Barry Kornhauser and directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer. Balloonacy is a beautiful, movement-based show that revisits the classic film The Red Balloon. Nothing can go right for the character of the old man, whose days are gray and dreary—until he is visited by a friendly red balloon. In the playful physical style of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the old man—an adult version of the boy in the film—regains his youthful spirit, with the help of the red balloon.
The second Theatre for the Very Young show is Mother Goose (March 11 – April 10, 2022), the newest in a series of successful partnerships between Janet Stanford and Kathryn Chase Bryer, who are writing and directing. A brand new, music-filled piece by the creators of Wake Up, Brother Bear and Mouse on the Move! Mother Goose leads the audience through some of her most beloved nursery rhymes, using puppets and props to bring to life Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, the Eensy Weensy Spider, and more. The magical Mother Goose invites your little ones to join in with each rhyme’s story – teaching them that the very best way to do what needs to be done is to do it together.
