ECU’s Storybook Theatre returns to Washington

Published 7:45 pm Monday, February 20, 2017

Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale of “Just So Stories” will make its way onto the Turnage stage in another round of Storybook Theatre.

For four years, actors from East Carolina University’s School of Theatre and Dance have made the trek to Washington to perform at the Turnage Theatre. March 19, they will return with entertaining stories adapted for the stage by Joseph Robinette, about a few things that came to be, such as “The Beginning of Armadillos” and “How the Elephant Got His Trunk.”

“It’s been used in many different cultures — using stories to explain why things exist in nature,” said Dylan Ritch, Arts of the Pamlico’s children’s programming director. “Like ‘How the Camel Got His Hump’ — it explains to children why the camel got its hump in a fun way.”

Ritch said there’s also an effort in the works to organize a children’s theater workshop either before or after the Storybook Theatre performance.

“So it’s not just a show,” Ritch said. “It’s an experience.”

Storybook Theatre, led by ECU professor and Washington resident Patch Clark, represents an ongoing Arts of the Pamlico effort to introduce children to the arts.

“Children’s theater is a vital way to culturally enrich a community, and that, in part, starts with your children. If you bring the arts to the youth at a young age, it opens them up through those kinds of experiences,” Ritch said, adding that the arts can create a wider sense of community. “Theater, in its essence, is a community-based act. It allows people to connect as a community.”

With more programming, art workshops, movies, performances and more, Arts of the Pamlico is appealing to people of all ages, while creating a new generation of arts supporters, according to Ritch.

“We want to make sure we’re serving everyone in the community with an arts organization that they can count on as a hub for that,” Ritch said. “I know my goal is to bring more arts to the children of the community.”

“Just So Stories” opens on March 17 at ECU. The Turnage performance will be at 3 p.m. Tickets are $8.