{"id":70990,"date":"2025-12-26T16:35:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70990\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T16:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:35:06","slug":"stranger-things-philadelphias-arden-theatre-share-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70990\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Stranger Things,’ Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre share inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building a sci-fi universe on stage<\/p>\n

\u201cWrinkle\u201d has been on the radar at the Arden for years, but it was never pursued because, in part, the story is so complex. \u201cWrinkle\u201d is an adventure story taking place on different planets that are accessible through concepts of theoretical physics.\n<\/p>\n

Nolen did not see a way to make \u201cWrinkle\u201d work on stage until he saw how his creative team pulled off J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d last spring.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey found a great way to do \u2018The Hobbit\u2019 that was unique and that wasn\u2019t in response to the movie,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir ability to find ways to tell the story that are theatrical and really fun, that don\u2019t rely on special effects, that use the imagination \u2014 stuff that theater was born to do.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When audiences enter the theater they are encouraged to look up. Dangling over their heads from wires fixed to the ceiling are dozens of random objects painted bright colors, not just above the stage, but over the seating. The array does double duty of enveloping the audience in the theatrical world of \u201cWrinkle\u201d and evoking the randomness of the universe.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about how the universe is full of stuff, and it all is made of the same stuff,\u201d director Becky Wright said of the production\u2019s designers Sasha Jin Schwartz and Maria Shaplin.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the atoms, all of the stardust, everything you see out there, everything that you see around you, all of that is the universe,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

When the characters on stage jump into a wormhole that transports them to a different planet at a different time, the ceiling lights up and a disco ball spins. The audience is briefly showered in speckles of light.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids go crazy looking at the lights on their body,\u201d Nolen said. \u201cFeeling that they\u2019re traveling in time and space as well.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Nolen spends his time studying his audience\u2019s body language. He said what is driving the thrilling adventure through an imagined fifth dimension is fundamentally a story about a family.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of this young teenager trying to save her dad,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever that notion comes up of dad being gone, dad being missing, in every performance the kids shift. The kids lean in because they understand, then, what the story is about.\u201d
\n\"DirectorDirector Becky Wright on the set of the Arden Theatre\u2019s production of \u201dA Wrinkle in Time.\u201d (Peter Crimmins\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

\u2018A Wrinkle in Time\u2019 as a teaching tool<\/p>\n

\u201cA Wrinkle in Time\u201d was a tough sell when author Madeleine L\u2019Engle started showing it to publishers in the early 1960s. Many scratched their heads: A science fiction story with a girl protagonist? Theoretical physics? Foreign languages sprinkled here and there?\u00a0 One reader for a publisher noted it was \u201cThe worst book I ever read.\u201d<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

But once published, the book was an immediate hit. It won the Newbery Award in 1963 and has stayed in print ever since.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up there was little that resembled a distinct young adult literature genre,\u201d said Jen McLaughlin Cahill, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Graduate School of Education and the director of the Philadelphia Writer\u2019s Project.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018A Wrinkle in Time\u2019 was one of my favorite novels,\u201d she said. \u201cOne I read repeatedly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Cahill points to an educational theory put forth by Rudine Sims Bishop in 1990<\/a> that says children\u2019s literature can simultaneously be a mirror, a window and a sliding glass door, meaning books should offer readers the ability to see themselves, see something unfamiliar and to enter into an imaginative world through empathy.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBishop and many others theorize that such experiences are central to developing meaningful literate lives,\u201d Cahill wrote in an email. \u201cAs a child, \u2018A Wrinkle in Time\u2019 served that role for me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Wright says the mirror, window and glass door triad also apply to the ideals of children\u2019s theater.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a theater artist, I\u2019m always thinking about invitation as one of the modes of the places that I make,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t just want to show people a world. I want to invite them into it. How can I make a piece of theater that very clearly says, \u2018Welcome. We want you to be here. You\u2019re a part of this\u2019?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA Wrinkle in Time\u201d<\/a> runs at the Arden Theatre until Jan. 25. It is recommended for ages 4 and up.
\n\"TheThe cast of Arden Theatre Company\u2019s production of \u201dA Wrinkle in Time\u201d in Philadelphia. (Ashley Smith\/Wide Eyed Studios)\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Building a sci-fi universe on stage \u201cWrinkle\u201d has been on the radar at the Arden for years, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22591,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-70990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arden-theatre","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}