Send in the Clowns: Five Questions with Dave Honigman

The cast of Pinocchio in a light-hearted moment: (L to R) Joe DeSoto, Jennifer Carroll, Dave Honigman, Kevin Klein and Tyler Bremer.

The Theatre for Young Audiences production of Pinocchio follows the naughty puppet as he learns what it takes to be a real boy. Like most coming-of-age stories, Pinocchio goes on a journey, learns lessons and reaches his full potential.

Cast member Dave Honigman brings his own acting journey full circle by returning to South Coast Repertory for this production. Honigman started down the road to acting at SCR's Young Conservatory and later went to Los Angeles, where he became a member of the clown troupe, Four Clowns, and continued his studies at iO West. Later this year, he will join Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a traveling clown.

As he headed into Pinocchio performances, Honigman took some time to look back at his early years with SCR.

What drew you into acting?
I started acting because I wanted to become a spy! The films Ace Ventura and Mission: Impossible inspired me to take on fun, active characters. But, it turns out that theatre and film are much safer for playing pretend than in the actual fields of espionage.

Honigman in the 2004 Junior Players production of 1212

What brought you to SCR's Theatre Conservatory?
Though I enjoyed gymnastics and music as a child, I found those skills were best used in performance. So, my mom enrolled me in SCR's Young Conservatory, which lead to being a part of both the Junior and Teen Players productions.

What were some of your take-aways from the Conservatory?
SCR taught me how to use my body, voice and mind as tools so that I could be larger-than-life on stage. I came to learn that art imitates life and vice versa, so theatre can be used for any aspect of life. Any time I get nervous or have a task at hand, I remember lessons I learned here: listen, react on impulse, focus on your breath, be here now, you and the group are equally essential and everyone wants you to succeed!

What's a highlight from your early years at SCR?
I was honored to play Ebenezer as a boy in SCR's annual production of A Christmas Carol. I hope someday to play Ebenezer as a Young Man—and maybe even Scrooge himself one day!

What has been the best part about working on Pinocchio?Pinocchio has been so fun! SCR chose such an adventurous show to produce! We've had plenty of fun under the direction of Jeremy Aluma. As clowns, we love to incorporate the audience as much as possible into our shows. In a way, it has been a challenge not to goof off and make each other laugh too much! I think that kids—and everyone—will love this because they'll be able to see what a little imagination can do.

Learn more about Pinocchio

The Story of the Sassy (Stinky) Cheese Man, Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Everyone knows fairy tales. They’re the stories full of wonder, magic and enchantment that usually have a happy ending: the good guys live happily ever after, and the bad guys get what they deserve (hence the phrase “a fairy tale ending”). But The Stinky Cheese Man doesn’t have any of those. Instead, it’s full of fairly stupid tales.

Based on the 1992 award-winning book of the same name, the play stars Jack (of beanstalk fame) as the trusty narrator. But despite his resolve, he just can’t get all the characters on the same page. In fact, before he can even tell the first story, a little red hen interrupts him on a mission to find a friend to help her bake some bread. Another chicken, Chicken Licken, isn’t quite sure when she’s supposed to enter either. When Jack does manage to get things on track, the tales he tells are pretty ridiculous. Stories like “The Princess and the Bowling Ball,” “Little Red Running Shorts” and “The Tortoise and the Hair” come to life on stage and poke fun at the age-old fairy tales on which they’re based.

In “Cinderumpelstiltskin,” for example, a beautiful maiden, forced to wear rags and clean her wicked stepsisters’ house, wants nothing more than a fancy dress and glass slippers so she can go to the ball and meet a prince. But it’s not a fairy godmother who visits her—instead it’s a little man with a mysterious name and the ability to spin straw into gold. It’s not an ideal situation for either of them.

Of course there’s also “The Stinky Cheese Man,” the story from which the play gets its title. This little man (made out of only cheese, a couple of olives for eyes and a piece of bacon for a mouth) is just as sassy as the gingerbread man from the known fairy tale—except that no one really wants to eat him.

As Jack navigates these silly stories, he suddenly finds himself face to face with his biggest problem yet—his own story. After all, there’s a giant roaming around who wants nothing more than to get his revenge on the young lad. And in The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales all bets are off…and anything can happen.

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Beth Peterson Puppet designer for "The Night Fairy"

Flory (Emily Yetter) admires Hummingbird (Catherine Adell) and her babies in The Night Fairy.

Whether it’s a four-person operated raccoon, the brightest-of-blue hummingbird, or even a giant spider, Beth Peterson, puppet designer, has taken on the challenge of making these characters and others come to life in The Night Fairy, South Coast Repertory’s Theatre for Young Audiences show.

Peterson has been creating puppets, masks, pageants, and parades for almost 25 years. She takes great care for the specific functions and appearance for each puppet she creates. We sat down with her during a rehearsal break and asked her more about this amazing art form.

How did you first become involved with puppets and why do they appeal to you?
I made puppets as a child, but as an adult what brought me into puppetry is the ability of puppets to share stories—very challenging and very wonderful stories—in a way that people can connect with them. And maybe help people hear stories in a way that they wouldn’t normally through a conversation and or through just actors alone. I also love the colors and the forms and the personalities and the life that emerge from the process.

Flory (Emily Yetter) and Bat (Jonathan C.K. Williams).

What’s the process like to make puppets?
Really grasping whatever its role is in the story helps determine how a puppet needs to move, its size and scale, its personality and purpose. Those are all can that be reflected in the form that it takes. Part of what I do is listen and read the story and talk with the people involved with the play so that I understand the movement that’s required. Then I work to find a good form to fit that vision. For example, in The Night Fairy, the spider is in its web, and there are lots of strings, so it seemed to be a good match to make that role a marionette because of all the strings, webs and legs.

Working at SCR has been amazing! We had two workshops with actors and puppeteers and that really helped the design process because let me see what would work and what could even be a stronger way of sharing the characters’ stories.

What is the most challenging part of puppetry?
For this production the most challenging was that everything character to be really BIG, which is an unusual size for these animals. So I needed to keep in mind how to adjust the size and still give the puppeteers ability to operate the puppets.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Well, on days like today, I love being able to see these things that are objects and ideas start coming alive and emerging with the personalities of all of our puppeteers. The work of the director and sound and lights and all these people has come together to create something beyond what just one person could ever imagine.

Skuggle (Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper) and Flory (Emily Yetter).

What excited you the most about bringing these characters from The Night Fairy come to life?
I really like this story for many reasons. When Flory first meets every creature, they’re very odd and strange to her. But whether they’re scary or cute or beautiful, she grows from seeing a stranger to building a relationship. I feel like that’s a journey that every kid and every adult goes through; we all move through situations that feel strange and then find our way and find friends. This play is a wonderful way to share this journey through these incredible animals.

If you could be any puppet, describe what you would be and why!
I love all the puppets and really don’t think I can choose one! The puppets all have their own personalities and I end up spending so much time with them because it takes hundred of hours to build them with many people involved. I really appreciate everyone who has helped to bring the puppets to the stage.


I hope people come to see The Night Fairy and enjoy the story and the characters. ”Hopefully, a few people will say, “WOW! I can go home and make my own puppets!” That would make me very happy. All of the puppets you see are made out of very simple ingredients, everyday things that anyone can find. It just takes some imagination, engineering and creativity. Anyone can make a puppet!

Flory, the Fearless Night Fairy

by Kelly L. Miller

About the Author

Laura Amy Schlitz (book author, The Night Fairy) has spent most of her life as a librarian and professional storyteller. She has written several books and won the 2008 Newbery Medal for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village.  She lives in Baltimore, where she is currently a librarian at the Park School.

Author Laura Amy Schlitz

Schlitz has also worked as a playwright, a costumer, and an actress. She has written several plays for young people that have been performed at professional theaters all over the country including Stage One (Louisville, Ky.), Pumpkin Theatre (Baltimore, Md.) and Children's Theatre Association (Baltimore, Md.).

Author Laura Amy Schlitz, on her interest in fairies:
“I have always had a soft spot in my heart for fairy stories. When I was a child, I stared at pictures of fairies with rapture and fascination. I could imagine my way into these pictures, making myself small. I know that there are children who can still do this, because I work in a school library and little girls come to me every week, asking, ‘Do you have a book about a fairy?’ They don’t want a fairy tale; they want a story with a fairy as the main character. They want to gaze at fairy pictures and think themselves small, alive in a dewy jungle of flowers.”


Learn more about the book, The Night Fairy and its author.

Have you ever met a fairy without wings? Or one who could not fly?  Flory is a young night fairy, who loses her beautiful, gossamer wings one night after an encounter with a ferocious bat.  Dropped into a strange land—a garden, tended by a mysterious human “giant”—Flory must learn quickly how to survive and fend for herself. 

Flory is tiny, but she’s fierce.  And she sets out to collect food and enlist animals in the garden to help her. Determined to live as a day fairy, Flory makes a wren’s house her home—then strikes a deal with Skuggle, an irascible squirrel who’s always hungry.  She promises him food in return for rides across the garden—to help her befriend a beautiful, mysterious hummingbird.

All the while, Flory practices her magic.  Night fairies are born with the seeds of magic spells in their minds.  Spells that come to them when they need them most—“stinging” spells to fight off danger and “seeing” spells to find things.

But Flory will need more than magic to defeat the vicious predators who threaten to harm her.  She’ll need compassion, kindness and the help of her newfound friends if she ever hopes to fly again.

Playwright John Glore adapted The Night Fairy for the stage from Newbery Medal-winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s beloved book of the same title.  Director Oanh Nguyen is employing an exciting mix of puppetry, projections and sound design to create the giant world of Flory’s garden and animal friends on stage.

Nguyen has assembled a wonderful cast of actors/puppeteers for The Night Fairy including Catherine Adell, Sol Castillo, Moira MacDonald, Nicholas Mangiardo-Cooper, Jonathan C. K. Williams and Emily Yetter.  His stellar design team includes Sara Ryung Clement, sets and costumes; Matt Schleicher, lights and projection design; Dave Mickey, sound and projection design; Beth Peterson, puppet design.

We hope you’ll join us at South Coast Repertory to meet Flory—a fierce and fearless fairy, unlike any you’ve seen before.  Who knows?  You might learn a magic spell or two.

Set design for "The Garden" by Sara Ryung Clement

The Magic of The Night Fairy

An Interview with the Playwright

Playwright John Glore’s adaptation of The Night Fairy is a fun, magical, theatrical story for kids and adults, alike. With rehearsals underway, we asked him a few questions about Flory, the fairy, and his favorite magic—both onstage and off.

What was it about The Night Fairy—and Flory—that inspired you to adapt it for the stage?  What grabbed you and wouldn’t let go?

Two things about this story made me want to adapt it for the stage.  My imagination went wild thinking about what the world would look like to a tiny fairy.  Everything would be huge—the plants, the animals, the lady in the house.  I started thinking about how we might create those giant animals using various kinds of puppets, and that was an exciting idea.  But also, I love that the story centers on a small, lonely, vulnerable girl (Flory, the fairy) who finds the courage and the intelligence to survive against terrible odds.  And she learns some things about friendship along the way.

Magic spells come to Flory as she grows older—a stinging spell, a seeing spell.  If you could have one magic spell, what would it be?

I think I’d like to have a magic spell that would make time slow down, or even stop.  I never seem to have enough time to do everything I want to do and to spend with the people I want to be with.

Raccoon puppet

There are so many exciting bits of theatrical stage magic we’re using to create the world of The Night Fairy—puppets, projection, and sound.  What’s your favorite, so far?

I’m excited about all of it, but especially the spider and the raccoon puppets.  The spider is big and a little scary-looking, but it’s also beautiful.  And the raccoon’s head is as big as the front end of a Volkswagen.  It takes four people to work the raccoon puppet, because he’s so big.

What is it about writing plays for children that brings you the most joy?

I love writing plays for kids because I like remembering what used to entertain me when I was a child.  The secret about adults is that most of us are still kids inside, and we still like a lot of the things we liked when we were children.  So when I’m writing a play for young audiences, as long as I entertain and amuse and thrill the kid inside me, I can be confident I’ll do a good job entertaining the kids in the audience (and the grown-ups who remember what it’s like to be a kid).  Also, kids make for a very honest audience—they let you know right away if they’re bored, by getting restless, fidgeting in their seats, even making little noises, and you know they’re NOT bored if they’re sitting still, on the edge of their seats, listening to every word and eagerly waiting to see what will happen next.  And there’s nothing better than hearing kids laugh at something funny.

John Glore has also adapted The Stinky Cheese Man and A Wrinkle in Time for SCR’s Theatre for Young Audience series. When he’s not writing plays, Glore is working as SCR’s associate artistic director.

Actor Drawn to Theatre’s Magic

Emily Eiden and Jennifer Parsons in Anastasia Krupnik.

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Jennifer Parsons

The magic of make-believe drew Jennifer Parsons into acting. She is featured as the Grandmother and Mrs. Westvessel, a teacher, in South Coast Repertory’s production of Anastasia Krupnik.

“The thing that got me into acting in the first place was pretending to be these larger than life characters,” she says. “And the Theatre for Young Audiences roles really ask all of us to use our entire skill arsenal: singing, dancing, tumbling and dialects. They require lots of energy and stamina. You have to give your all and I like that!”

The character of the Grandmother in Anastasia has an additional poignancy because she suffers from Alzheimer’s. For Parsons, real life provides some insights. “For a role like this, you probably know people who have gone through it, and then the key is bringing that in and pretending it’s happening to you.”

She likes how Meryl Friedman has adapted the story of Anastasia from Lois Lowry’s beloved book series. Parsons says that the three generations in the family—Anastasia, her parents and her grandmother—have something that everyone can relate to.

“Once my mom sent me an old fashioned black and white photo of a little kid who looked very serious and a little bit consternated at the proceedings at the time of the photo,” she recalls. “The kid looked like me, but I couldn’t recall the time or place. It turned out it was actually a photograph of my mom when she was little. I saw myself in her It made me realize how all older people were younger people once. And that’s why my mom and dad and grandparents were so good at making me feel better about stuff.”

Parsons hopes that audiences will enjoy Anastasia Krupnik.

“They’re the real reason I do plays! I hope that the kids hear the story and are somehow moved to think in a new way.  At least that's what I hope: to open their minds.”

Parsons’ acting ranges from television to movies to stage. Her television credits include “Bones,” “Without a Trace,” “JAG,” “The X Files” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Her film credits include Never Been Kissed and Dragonfly.

At SCR, she’s been Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol and has been in several Theatre for Young Audiences productions, including The Borrowers, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Bunnicula, James and the Giant Peach, The Only Child, Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!, The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and The Brand New Kid.




Playwright Allison Gregory on Junie B.

JUNIE B. is BACK… with Jingle Bells On!

The holidays are just around the corner—and Santa is watching first-grader Junie B. Jones like a hawk. It doesn’t help that her classroom nemesis May can’t stop tattling and is threatening to ruin her holiday glee.

Junie B. is thrilled when her class is chosen to lead the first grade holiday sing-along by singing “Jingle Bells,” wearing green elf costumes and jingle hats. But Junie B. and May just can’t get along—and their teacher Mr. Scary threatens to cancel the sing-along for everyone if they get into one more fight.

To make matters worse, Junie B. draws May’s name for their Secret Santa gift exchange—and struggles to decide (with the help of her trusty stuffed elephant Philip Johnny Bob) if May deserves more than a lump of coal. You see, Junie B. really, really wants to buy a Squeeze-a-Burp—the most awesome toy in their holiday gift shop—for herself. But if she does, she’ll have no money left to buy a gift for May.

When Junie B. makes her last-minute gift decision, will she find it in her heart to be a “giver?”  Or will she prove to be a “shellfish” (as May says)? Will Junie B. find a way to share peace and goodwill? Or will May get exactly what she deserves?

Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! is a funny, fast-paced holiday comedy inspired by Barbara Park’s popular Junie B. Jones children’s book series. Park has written more than 25 titles since 1992 featuring the antics of Junie B. and her pint-sized entourage.  The books have become favorites of girls and boys, moms and dads, teachers and librarians alike.

Playwright Allison Gregory was commissioned to adapt Park’s book Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. So Does May.) for the stage by Arizona theatre company Childsplay, Inc., which premiered the play in 2009. Allison worked closely with author Barbara Park on the adaptation, and drew from two other books in the Junie B., First Grader series: Shipwrecked and Dumb Bunny.

Award-winning director Casey Stangl returns to SCR to direct her second Junie B. production for our Theatre for Young Audiences series. Casey directed the popular musical adaptation of Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business during our 2009-10 season. Stangl has worked in renowned theaters throughout Southern California and the country, including the Pasadena Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth. Her production of Noel Coward’s Peace in Our Time—a collaboration with The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles—runs through December 13.

South Coast Repertory is thrilled to welcome Junie B. Jones back to our stage—alongside playwright Allison Gregory and director Casey Stangl. We hope you’ll join us for this fun, frolicking story of holiday cheer, goodwill and the power of giving—Junie B.-style.

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WELCOME HOME

A Writer Returns to Where It All Began

Playwright Allison Gregory’s adaptation of Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! has been seen all over the country, but South Coast Repertory’s production is extra special for her: The Orange County native took her first playwriting class right here at SCR. We asked Allison a few questions about her art and adventures, growing up as an actor and playwright in the OC.

Q:  I know you were born and raised in Orange County. Where did you grow up, and how often do you come home?
A: I was born in Anaheim, and moved to Orange Park Acres when I was 8. Back then it was "country," and everyone had horses and chickens and goats and—well, you can imagine the smell. My sisters and I were in 4-H; in sixth grade my pig won grand champion of the Orange County Fair! His name was Pink Floyd.

Most of my family still lives in OC (there was no "the" when I lived there), and I try to come home at least once a year.

Q: Do you remember the first play you ever saw at South Coast Repertory?
A: The first play I saw at SCR was Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge, because a friend of mine was playing Christy. This would have been in the early ́80s when I was...an infant. It was a lovely, exciting production, and it put SCR on my map.

Q: Do you think growing up here influenced your work or artistic sensibility?
A: I think you bring your past to everything you do, intentionally or not. My first play was blatantly based on my own family. They have since forgiven me and have been very supportive. I find myself now, 10 or 12 plays later, writing a new play with the lead character a thinly veiled version of another family member. (I won't say who; they'll just have to come see the play to find out.) My sense of humor, my fears, my interests, my voice—certainly all of it was shaped by growing up here. You don't escape it, for better or for worse, no matter how much you forget. You pull from it and, ideally, put it to work. That, to me, is a useful life.

Q:  When did you first fall in love with the theatre? And start acting?
A: I saw my first full-blown musical, Brigadoon, when I was in 5th or 6th grade. It was a college production at Stanford. I don't know that I fell in love with theatre so much as with the actor playing Charlie Dalrymple, but it left a lasting impression. Flash forward many years: I'm a ballet dancer just out of school and looking for work, and I get cast at a summer theatre in central California (Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts/PCPA) in, you got it, Brigadoon. I play Jeanie, who's getting married to...Charlie Dalrymple! After that I stayed on to do parts in straight plays, and got onstage training from some of the best actors in the country: Mark Harelik, Dakin Matthews, Byron Jennings, Deborah May. It was a thrilling place to be.

Q:  When did you discover that you wanted to write plays?
A: I thought most playwrights were dead until I started performing new plays at the Denver Center Theatre. This was my first clue that people were still writing these things.

At some point I signed up for an acting class at SCR with the delightful Karen Hensel, but it was full, so, since I was here anyway, I joined the playwriting class taught by the wonderful John Glore, SCR's Associate Artistic Director. I had no intention of writing a play; I was just waiting for someone in the acting class to bail. Several hard-fought months later I found myself with my first play—which went on to win an honorable mention in SCR's Pacific Playwrights competition, and which earned me my first commission, from SCR. So, there were many firsts here, all of which makes this current production so meaningful to me. As John Glore recently said, the circle is complete.

Q:  You've written so many great plays for young audiences, including adaptations of Go, Dog. Go!, Peter and the Wolf and Junie B.  What inspired you to start writing for kids?
A: My husband (playwright Steven Dietz) dared me. I love the different writing muscle it takes. Kids are so quick and smart—they get what you're saying right off. You can't belabor things with that meaningful monologue or clever but repetitive scene; kids are story taskmasters; they will let you know (painfully) when you've gone off task. Good children's theatre is honest writing.

Q: What inspired you to adapt this particular Junie B. story?
A: I used to read the Junie B. series over and over to my daughter Ruby. No other books could make her laugh as hard. We all walked around the house reciting quotes, like Junie B. clones, cracking each other up. She really got that the language was incorrect, but it had a kind of accuracy when it came to describing Junie B.'s thoughts and feelings. I got to work really closely with the series author, Barbara Park, on this play, which was a big thrill. It was like meeting Junie B. herself!

Q: Junie B. is such a great character—a quirky, funny troublemaker. Did you get into trouble when you were a kid?
A:  Talk to my mom. On second thought, don't talk to my mom. I was a perfect a child, I never did anything wrong. Really.