‘Tin’ has comforting message for elementary school students

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison

 

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–  Theatre Arts Prof. Jerry Hager wrote and directed Tin, an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” that will be taken on tour at local elementary schools from now through Dec. 9.   Like many fairy tales, it has an important lesson.

Previewed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at Grossmont College’s Stagehouse Theatre before an appreciative matinee audience, the dramatic fairy tale imagines that an evil Jack-in-the-Box (Ryan Payne) has stolen the laughter from a little boy (Franceso Valenti), causing great worry for the boy’s father (Adrian Brown), and aunt (Angela Luevano). 

The plight of the family prompts the toys of the household to devise a plot for getting the laughter back.  The ballerina (Shay Tyler), with the help of a teddy bear (Kelly-Noelle Henry) and a music monkey (Andrea Gardner) decide to lure Jack out of his box to dance while the soldier Tin (Alonzo Jackson) breaks into the box to find the laughter.  The toymaker (Jade Wise), who serves as the narrator of the story, heightens the excitement by drafting the audience to provide the sound effects of a tenth character in the play: the trapped laughter.

The one-act play includes a brief recitation by the toymaker of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, familiar to anyone who watched the Disney animated movie Fantasia 2000, in which a tin soldier with only one leg falls in love with a ballerina standing on one foot, mistakenly thinking that she is like him.  Clearly this story is different than that one, as is demonstrated when our tin soldier comes onto the stage with both legs very much intact.  But as the play progresses, the issue of a one-legged soldier is revisited.

‘The Miser’ offered generous helpings of campus talent

By Masada Ellis

 

 

Masada Ellis

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — Are you a lover of theatre, acting, looking to become a director?

If you answered yes to these questions then you should check out Grossmont’s Theatre Arts Department where plays are being presented in great fashion by well-trained casts of students and with great directing. So who is the director? What plays are they choosing and why?

Prof. Henry J. Jordan, head of the Theatre Arts Department, has been directing and teaching theatre for 22 years.  He started his career acting in junior high and naturally progressed to director in 1974 working with the Old Globe Theatre.  His career continued with  movies for the USA network, T.V. commercials and soap operas in Europe.

After turning 30,  Jordan turned his attention to teaching, another of his passions. Why the wait? “I didn’t feel I had enough knowledge until then and decided I wanted to give something back,” Jordan responded. 

His advice to future directors? “Just get in the door and stay in it, you will not get rich but you will have fun, and get an education.” Also, he noted, actors usually make for the best directors, because they know what it entails to act.