Sierra Madre Playhouse Director on the Upcoming "Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Director Estelle Campbell of the Sierra Madre Playhouse shared her thoughts on the upcoming show "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," the state of the Playhouse and more at the L.A. Stage Times website.

In the piece, Campbell writes:

We are a theater in transition.  We have just begun a year-long process to decide who we are and what kind of theater we want to produce.  We’ve taken a look at our audience demographics and realized that, as at many other theaters, our audiences are graying, even though we’re located in a small town brimming with young people and families with children.

We have co-produced June Chandler’s Fairy Tale Theatre, which focuses on young children, at the Playhouse for several years. But we saw the need for plays aimed at families and older kids in the San Gabriel Valley and thought that the timing was ripe to launch a family series as part of our regular programming, committing to producing at least one play a year, suitable for the entire family. How else can we ensure that we’ll have audiences into the future?

As we looked for the perfect play to launch our new initiative, I remembered my summers in D.C. and immediately thought of Mark Twain — as a kid, I think I read everything he wrote.  So it has been an absolute joy mounting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as these lazy days of summer come to an end.  Laura Eason’s terrific adaptation of Twain’s novel celebrates not only his storytelling but also the essence of storytelling — a compact between the storyteller and the audience to find truth in the moment

The show starts Friday night at the Sierra Madre Playhouse.  For more information on the show and ticket sales visit the Playhouse website.