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Hey! Arthur's putting on a play
[Photo: Joan Marcus]
The gang from Arthur, including, from left, the Brain, Muffy, Arthur, Francine, D.W., Sue Ellen and Buster, perform today through Sunday at TBPAC. |
By JANE BOKUN
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 3, 2001
TV's most popular aardvark brings his message of believing in yourself to the Tampa stage.
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The story of Arthur Read and his aardvark family has been a staple of children's books for almost 25 years and became a popular PBS animated series about five years ago.
Now children can see the Emmy Award-winning Arthur up close and personal in the play Arthur -- A Live Adventure at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center tonight through Sunday.
Creator Marc Brown got the idea for Arthur by making up stories for his children.
"When my three sisters and I were growing up near Erie, Penn., our grandmother, Thora, told us the most wonderful stories," said Brown, who lives in Boston. "Back then, I never dreamed I would grow up to tell stories of my own. But when my first son, Tolon, was born, I started telling him stories every night before he went to sleep."
One of those stories, about an aardvark who hated his nose, became Arthur's Nose, the first book in the Arthur Adventure Series. Now there are more than 20 books including Arthur's Computer Disaster, Arthur Writes a Story and Arthur's Chicken Pox.
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PREVIEW
Arthur -- A Live Adventure, 7 p.m. today-Fri.; 11 a.m., 2 and 5 p.m. Sat.; and 2 and 5 p.m. Sun., Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa. Tickets are $16-$26 and are available at the center box office at (813) 229-7827, at http://www.tbpac.org or at Ticketmaster at (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100. |
Arthur has become a media giant. He is the star of PBS' top-rated children's series and subject of a fast-selling line of CD-ROM adventures, videos, books and merchandise sold around the world. There's an Arthur balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And, of course, now he is a stage personality.
But even with all the fame and fortune, the perennial third-grader is sure to remain the same humble, unassuming aardvark, Brown said.
The series -- also featuring Arthur's parents, Grandma Thora, sisters D.W. and Kate, and friends Francine, the Brain, Binky, Muffy and Buster -- talks about topics such as self-confidence, friendship and getting along with parents and siblings.
The play, a 90-minute, two-act production, revolves around what happens when Arthur loses his lucky pencil. (Faithful viewers of the TV show will recognize the plot from an episode in the second season.)
"It emphasizes real accomplishments versus luck and reinforces the overall Arthur theme of believing in yourself," Brown said.
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