The Phantom Tollbooth

Her timing was excellent. In the middle of summer, high school students are so bored that they will jump on the back of a fire-breathing porcupine if they have hopes that it will liven up their summer vacation. In the summer of 2003, Katie Yow asked me if I wanted to help her out with One Song's annual outdoor show, for which she was the Technical Director. Always up for a ride on a fire-breathing porcupine, I signed up. For the first few weeks, the job entailed driving around with her as she searched for props. I remember picking up a giant pencil from somebody's house.

I think the summer shows have been among One Song's most successful. It's one thing to command an audience of high school students who know the people onstage, but it's something quite different to command an audience of families with small children, many of whom have no direct connection to the members of the cast and crew. The summer shows were the first to reliably pull audiences of this type. Besides ability to attract audiences, though, the summer shows are entertaining. Costumes are over the top, characters are humorous, and the storylines are exciting. One Song is uniquely equipped, I feel, to perform shows for kids. Because the people involved with One Song are youths themselves, they have the energy, perspective, and imagination to engage other youths. Plays don't have to be sophisticated or intelligent to be good.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a dramatic retelling of Norman Juster's book for kids entitled The Phantom Tollbooth. The young boy, Milo, finds a tollbooth which transports him to another world, a world in which everything is different and awesome. There's a giant dog named Ticktock with a clock embedded in his side, kings and queens and evil people and markets that sell words and a boy who is actually only three-quarters of a boy. There is also a happy ending, and it's a good show. It was my first experience with the Forest Theatre, and I liked it. While it is a theatre of limited means, it's fun to work outside. During the actual run of the show, I was essentially a props assistant, which means I hung out by the props tables and made sure the various actors had all of their regalia. In rehearsal, I was a general techie. I painted blocks, fixed props, and ate the actors' food. Really, my purpose was to keep Katie sane and, failing that, to keep her company. I'm fairly certain I failed the first but I probably came through on the second.