Animated Actress: Christina Bianco brings tyke to life in ‘Dora the Explorer Live!’

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003 | 9 a.m.

But her smaller stature, cartoonlike vocal inflections and enthusiasm for Dora Nickelodeon's bilingual and animated Latina star made the New Yorker feel at ease with the role.

"It just came naturally to me," Bianco said recently from El Paso, Texas, where "Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys," was being performed at the Abraham Chavez Theatre.

Measuring 4 feet 11 inches tall in college, "I'd get cast in sidekick, younger or quirky character roles. So it wasn't that difficult."

Bianco stars as the fearlessly adventurous Dora in the national touring stage production that stops at Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts on Friday for a three-day run.

Bianco will be accompanied by a costumed cast portraying Dora's usual sidekicks Backpack, Boots, Map, Tico, Benny and the sneaky Swiper the Fox.

"Boots does all his back flips, we swing on vines, go through trapdoors," Bianco said. "The show is so much more interactive because here Dora can look at every kid in the audience."

The popularity of "Dora the Explorer Live!" which includes sold-out shows at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, proves that "Dora-mania" has spread beyond the television show and merchandise. The latter brought in $500 million in retail sales last year. More than 20 million viewers watch the half-hour television show each month, which airs at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Nickelodeon (Cox cable channel 23).

"When you get into this, you don't know how it's going to end up," Chris Gifford, co-creator of "Dora the Explorer," said via telephone from Long Island about the live production.

But Gifford, who wrote the script for the stage production, added, "The energy is really fantastic. We added songs, added a number of characters and increased the role of Swiper. The end of the show is almost like a rock concert."

Similar to the television show, the stage production celebrates the adventures of a 7-year-old who lives in an unspecified tropical area. Dora interacts with audience members as they attempt to solve problems together. Spanish words and phrases are taught along the way.

The stage show ends with the cast singing Gloria Estefan's "Get On Your Feet," another celebration of the Latina character that network representatives refer to as "proudly bilingual."

Creating a lead bilingual and Latina character came when the show was well into the creative process, Gifford said. The change happened after Nickelodeon executive Brown Johnson returned from a seminar on multiculturalism, where she learned minority children were wanting to see themselves represented in television shows.

"In every episode we are trying to represent Dora in an authentic Latin way," Gifford said. "It's without a doubt the biggest (reaction) we get.

"It plays into the success in terms of publicity. In terms of appeal, it's part of who she is and part of her character. The show wouldn't be as successful without it."

Since its inception, Gifford said, the show's ongoing theme has been to encourage problem-solving among preschoolers.

"At the heart of every Dora episode is a challenge that the kids help Dora overcome," Gifford said. "There's a journey and (an emotional involvement by the audience) to get Dora through. Kids really feel like they are helping Dora in solving these problems in an adventurous way. The kids really respond to Dora as a character."

And the preschool-age theater audiences seem to have little problem adapting to Bianco as the stage Dora.

"A lot of those kids think I'm Dora when I exit that door in my jeans and T-shirt," Bianco said. "A lot of people weren't sure about how the kids would take it. But the kids just go with it."

Bianco, a recent graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, said she was familiar with Dora from watching the television show with two children whom she regularly baby-sat.

"I saw the impact that Dora had," Bianco said. "The show was so interactive. And Dora teaches lessons about adventure, discovery and friendship."

Bianco also agrees Dora's bilingualism appeals to young viewers.

"It may just be two or three words they throw in there," Bianco said. "But those are two or three words the kids have never learned."

Though the children's production differs from the adult musicals on her resume, playing the part of Dora is a "big deal" to Bianco because, she said, " 'Dora the Explorer' is so huge."

Some audience members come dressed as Dora or wearing Dora gear. Many come prepared to learn. Singing and dancing aside, the audiences respond most to the interaction with the cast, Bianco said.

"They usually answer the question before I ask it. They love knowing something you don't ... The hardest critics are the parents, but they seem to be enjoying it."

At a local Children's World Learning Center in Summerlin, center director Christina Herrera said there is plenty of buzz about Dora among toddlers and preschool children.

"The kids here love it," Herrera said. "They have backpacks because the backpack's name is Backpack. Our 4-year-olds are very interested."

Herrera's own 3- and 6-year-old children are also big fans of the show.

"They like Backpack," Herrera said. Of the bilingual element of the show, she added, "I think it's just an extra for them."