Bully for SCT's 100 Dresses

Bully for SCT's 100 Dresses

by Miryam Gordon - SGN A&E Writer 100 DRESSES ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK BY ELEANOR ESTES BY MARY HALL SURFACE DIRECTED BY ALLISON NARVER SEATTLE CHILDREN'S THEATER THROUGH APRIL 6 Bullying is a hot topic around the teachers' breakrooms all over the country. Some schools are beginning to deal with it by using programs prepared for teaching how to avoid being bullied or how not to become a bully. 100 Dresses at Seattle Children's Theater is a great vehicle for talking about bullying with children, even as young as around seven. Families with two same-sex parents might have concerns about how their children will or have handled being bullied about the unconventional families they have. The feeling of being persecuted and helpless is one that I would guess everyone has felt at one moment or another. This simple story is of "regular" American kids doing very kid-like things, like excluding the new kid from playing ball, leaving the new kid out during lunch, walking home in groups that don't include the new kid, etc. Making the story happen in 1938 may or may not make it harder for some kids to identify with these children; that's a puzzle. But 1938 was a time of great turmoil, war and suspicion. Foreigners were suspected and isolated. Anyone who was different, including the old man up the hill who kept to himself, was to be shunned and maybe feared. That's not so different from some fears and actions by people in this century, regarding people of Arabic background or descent, or even "Americanized" Muslims, who are born here and totally American, but suspicious just because of their now-vilified religion. 100 Dresses helps us pay attention to people we're suspicious of and challenges us to make the gesture to find out about them. Maybe, if you get to know them, they aren't so scary or so different from you, after all. The story is about a young Polish girl, Wanda (Sharia Pierce) who has moved to this small town. She wants badly, of course, to be friends with the girls, even allowing herself to be teased in order to be talked to. She wears the same dress every day, since she can't afford any other, and is goaded by the girls to announce that, really, she has 100 dresses at home, "all lined up." The girls gang up on her, every day, and play the "dress" game, where they ask her about the shape, style and color of each dress. One girl, Maddie (Betsy Schwartz), holds back from the teasing, but doesn't really take any action. Maddie realizes this is wrong, but is afraid of ostracism herself, since she is pretty poor herself. Before Maddie has a chance to decide to act differently, suddenly Wanda is gone. Wanda has moved away, and now Maddie feels like she has to find a way to make up to Wanda for all the behavior she never stopped. Allison Narver keeps the action crisp and spunky, moving from quick scene to quick scene, with expert support from Carey Wong's versatile set, which facilitates moving the schoolyard's chain-link fence rapidly up and pulling other sets forward. The rest of the children, played by Sarah Harlett, Troy Fischnaller, Emily Cedergreen and Tim Gouran, play crucial individualized roles in propelling the story forward, and all are very appropriately 10 years old in behavior. Able support is given by Susanna Burney, Marianne Owen and Philip Davidson as the adults giving the children a framework of rules and context they should stay within. The entire play feels excellently professionally presented, and provides that "teachable" moment for your young person about a topic difficult to delve into. The story also surprises. You'll find out exactly why Wanda says that she has 100 dresses, and it's not exactly the exaggeration we're supposing. Mary Hall Surface has done a great job adapting a small book to the stage and making the action theatrical. The sponsors of the play are also gifting each attending family with a copy of the original book. Such a deal! For more information, go to www.sct.org or call 206-441-3322. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com.