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Michael Bobbitt knows that growing up is hard to do. He's a dad, after all, as well as the artistic director of Adventure Theatre (AT) in Glen Echo Park. He understands the risks that come with growth and change, and knows the rewards as well.
Even though AT's three Helen Hayes Award nominations — the first in the children's theater's half-century history — were for the little kid-friendly "Good Night Moon," Bobbitt's latest play is meant for an entirely different audience.
For the big brothers and sisters of the tots who loved "Goodnight Moon" and "Harold and the Purple Crayon," Bobbitt has found an author-scripted adaptation of a book tweens treasure. He has staged it in the newly refurbished, but still quite small, Adventure Theatre, with a diverse cast of actors that includes teenagers, newcomers and AT resident artists. And he's hoping that the rattlesnakes and yellow-spotted lizards won't keep anyone away from "Holes."
"There's always been the desire to have older kids come," says Bobbitt. "We want to bring in students, kids from varying age groups."
And "Holes," Louis Sachar's 1998 children's classic about an unlucky boy named Stanley Yelnats and the lessons he learns while laboring in the desert, fits the bill. A winner of 17 prestigious book awards, "Holes" was popular — in book form and as a Disney movie starring Shia LeBoeuf and Sigourney Weaver — and it deals with the kind of issues Bobbitt wants to see young people and their parents thinking about.
"‘Holes' is a middle school favorite," he says. "It was the best choice, the best show to do.
Touching on poverty and homelessness, injustice and greed, bullying and racism, the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and circumstances, "Holes" is a fable that tucks its moral compass inside an action-packed mystery. It's ultra— contemporary, but nods to the past with flashbacks that allow kids (and parents) a-ha moments of their own. With some mildly scary moments, and violence, and redemption in the end – just like Shakespeare – it is aimed squarely at the middle school set and recommended for ages 8 and older.
"I had the novel thrust into my hands by some 11— and 12-year-old students of mine back in 1999," says director Rachel Grossman. "They said ‘You have to read this, it's the best book ever!'
"And it was, it was wonderful. I adored it. I was happy to report back that, yes, it was ‘the best book ever.'"
For Grossman, 33, education and theater have gone hand in hand. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Ohio's Kenyon College.
"I think in general I'm really interested in how people behave," she says. "The stories we create to bring us together and explain how things work."
These days, she is the director of education and outreach at Round House Theatre, and leapt at the chance to direct "Holes" at AT.
"This is an epic children's theater piece," she notes. "And it's a creative risk. I'm blessed to be working with Michael and Adventure Theatre, to have them trust me."
Grossman says that the name recognition "Holes" has among middle schoolers (and nostalgic high schoolers) is a plus, but it also made staging the play challenging. Set mostly in the rocky barren West Texas desert, "Holes" focuses on what happens when Stanley, falsely accused of stealing a pair of sneakers, serves his time at a remote juvenile detention camp where the endless digging of holes is said to "build character."
"The design team we assembled for the show sat down and we dreamed big," the director says. "We needed to embrace the space, open it up in a way it's never been opened before."
The orangey hue of the set — and the costumes — is immediately familiar to anyone familiar with the book or the movie. But it's exotic to Garret Brennan, 19, who comes from Sterling, Va., to play Stanley.
"My entire life, I've never lived anywhere else," he says, but he will head West next year to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and study acting. "I'm a singer. I do a lot of my own music," he adds. "But I love acting."
Brennan says he read "Holes" in fifth grade, "right when it came out.
"I loved the book; it was great," he says. "It was so inventive, so involved for a kids' book."
Which had him wondering as soon as he took the role: "How are they going to set the stage up?"
It's the magic of theater that a great vast desert ringed by mountains can fit in such a closely defined space. Brennan says the show's fight scenes — there are a few — were tightly choreographed. And he's convinced that the heart of the characters is what makes "Holes" so appealing, even when things move toward the mildly violent side.
"Stanley is kind of sweet and innocent," says Brennan. "Even though he has these terrible situations and bad luck, he always looks on the positive side, always wants to make friends.
"I identify with this character."
As an actor, he notes, "I keep a positive attitude, set goals and look forward.
"You do a hundred auditions and get two [parts]," he says. "Those two yesses are so exciting!"
His enthusiasm makes him perfect for the role of a kid who never ever gives up. Brennan says that "Holes" is a whole bunch of stories put together: part comedy, part adventure, part little guy rises up against his oppressors.
"It's a great story of transformation," he says. "Stanley grows up and learns to take responsibility."
Not just for himself since "Holes" is a buddy story, too. And Sean McCoy — who met director Grossman when he was at Round House in "Lord of the Flies" last year — plays Zero, the kid who takes on the lion's share of injustice in "Holes."
"He's been betrayed by every person he's met," says McCoy. "His mother has left him, he's homeless, on the streets.
"When he meets Stanley, he thinks this guy's just like everybody else … but he's not. By the end of the story, they've got a brotherhood going on."
At 14, McCoy is an acting veteran, with roles in "Richard III" and "Titus Andronicus" at Shakespeare Theatre. His first professional job was at Ford's Theatre in "Grapes of Wrath" and he has played Dill in "To Kill a Mockingbird" twice. He first read "Holes" in fifth grade.
"I was 11," he says. "The second time I read it, more recently, I could really connect and relate."
That sense of connecting to the story is what Grossman hopes will occur as a new audience files into Adventure Theatre.
"This community is so rich in theater for younger audiences," she says. "I think it's great Adventure Theatre is filling the gaps."
"Holes" author Louis Sachar seems to think so, too. Bobbitt is excited to report that Sachar has donated six copies of his book to be raffled to ticket holders – and that the Newbery award-winning writer has agreed to record the pre-show announcements for the "Holes" run.
As for the risks he's taking with "Holes," the artistic director, like Stanley Yelnats, is looking at the plus side.
"I'm glad we did it, and I think we did it really well," he says. "I really want people to know this was our attempt to diversify our audience, to step out there and do something different."
"Holes" runs through March 29 at Adventure Theatre, Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Shows start at 5 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays as well as 7 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 27, March 6, 13 and 20, with an ASL-interpreted show at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29. Tickets are $15, $12 for ages 12 and younger. Call 301-634-2270 or visit www.adventuretheatre.org.
