Multicultural Summer Concert Series begins Tuesday

Tuesday, July 9, 2002 | 8:20 a.m.

Sea chanteys, sea mythology and folktales from around the world will begin this year's "Children's Summer Concert Series" sponsored by the city of Las Vegas.

Boxtales Theater Company, a storytelling company from Santa Barbara, Calif., will present "Waters of the Earth: Multicultural Tales of the Sea" Wednesday and Friday at Charleston Heights Arts Center and at Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

Wearing custom-made masks, performers will recount stories of Dionysus and the pirate ship, "Sinbad and the Valley of the Diamonds," and "Raven and the Man Who Sits on the Tides," an American Indian story from the Pacific Northwest on how the ocean tide was created.

"Sealskin Soulskin," a story that merges tales from the Inuit, Icelandic, Siberian and Celtic cultures, will also be included.

"It's folklore from all over the world about the sea," Jeff Mills, a performer with Boxtales Theater Company, said.

"Last year we explored some stories from Africa. The year before we did Mexico, the Mayan and the Aztecs. We feel that mythology and folklore are super important."

In a television society, however, children aren't always exposed to such elements, Mills said.

Introducing young children to live theater is the mission behind the "Super Summer Concert Series," now in its 18th year.

"The idea is to expose them to the whole experience including theater etiquette," said Stephanie Fosse, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Leisure Services Cultural Arts Division.

"But the main thing is to introduce them into the wonder and the magic of performers bringing characters to life."

This year's programs are geared to children ages 5 to 12.

Other performances include "The Toad Prince" (an Asian version of "Beauty and the Beast") by Tears of Joy Theatre Company from Vancouver, Wash., and "New Kid," presented by Childsplay, a Tempe, Ariz., theater company, which portrays the struggles of an immigrant child trying to adapt to a new life in a foreign country.

Tears of Joy Theatre Company, which uses life-size puppets in its performances, has been popular here in the past, Fosse said.

This will be Boxtales Theater Company's first performance in Las Vegas. The group, which began performing in 1994 at schools in Santa Barbara, tours throughout the West.

Performers use guitar, steel drum, steel gongs and Indian snake charmers to teach songs from Irish, New England and Afro-Caribbean traditions during the performance.

"It's definitely cross-cultural," Mills said.