New West Theatre welcomes back some familiar face for their new winter theatre for young audiences production of Nicola Elson’s original production of “ The Legend of the Lost Tooth,” but you may not recognize them under the masks.
Legends of the Lost Tooth runs in the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, Dec. 21-Jan. 4.
“ The masks are a lot lighter than they look. But they really add a lot to the story,” observed Ryan Reese, who is a familiar face in New West ’s December/ January shows.
The devised theatre piece has a lot of action and very little dialogue, compared to New West’s usual Munsch productions, which have been dialogue heavy, though there is still a lot of action.
“Nicola Elson wrote the script and we created the play together,” Reese continued.
“It’s about a little girl who loses a tooth and makes friends with people in a cafe who take her on an adventure in her imagination as they help her try to find her tooth,” described Reese who plays several different characters.
A couple of other familiar faces join Reese in the show including New West mainstay Kelly Malcolm who has performed with Reese in several of the previous Munsch productions and Erica Barr, who was last on stage in September with Theatre Outré’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire. ”
New West Theatre veteran Kathy Zaborsky compose an original score for the production.
“ It’s an energetic show. There aren’t a lot of lines, so we have to tell the story though body movement and gestures,” said Reese, adding they also get to play with puppetry to tell the story. He plays Bernard, the café’s Maitre -De, a puppeteer and several other minor characters.
“We use the puppets to tell the story from different, more distant angles,” he added, noting this is the first time he has been part of a devised theatre piece.
Nicola Elson is directing this production as well as writing it.
She noted her daughter inspired the work.
“She is five and lost her first tooth. We think she swallowed it, but we don’t know, but it we started thinking about magical myths like the tooth fairy,” said Elson.
“It runs in December and January, so we didn’t want to do a Christmas show,” said Elson, who also helped devise another devised theatre production, Hootenanny this past summer.
“It was an outdoor show, which is challenging. It was a half hour long. But this one is 45 minutes long. We had more preparation time for Hootenanny,” she said, adding having Kathy Zaborsky compose the music gave more structure for Legend of the Lost Tooth.
“ I asked her to create a piano and accordion soundtrack like Amelie. and she did. And she also gave the actors some extra ideas. Because there was more choreography, it ended up being tighter,” she continued.
“It was a lot of fun from the get go. I enjoy working this way with all of the actors contributing to devised theatre,” she said.
“ I hope people will enjoy a non typical night at the theatre and gives them a sense of belonging,” she said.
The Legend of the Lost Tooth is at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre at 1 p.m., Dec. 21-Jan. 4. There is also a 10:30 a.m. performance on Friday, Dec. 27.
