By Linda Song & Sarah Pfander
Gargoyle staff reporters
Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006, The OG, arts

Once upon a time, way up on the highest floor of Uni High, there was a magical place called the North Attic Playhouse, where the young at heart went each spring and fall to lose themselves in the dream world of the theater.

If that opening sentence sounds like it belongs at the start of a children's story — perhaps a tale by the Grimm Brothers — you've got the right idea.

This year director Barbara Ridenour and her student cast will present Paul Sills' “Story Theatre” as Uni High's spring play.

The production, which made its first run on Broadway in 1970-71, is a series of acts based mainly on the tales of the Brothers Grimm and the fables of Aesop.

“Story Theatre” will be performed 7 p.m. tonight and 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $5 for students, faculty, and senior citizens, and $6 for adults.

What sets “Story Theatre” apart from most other spring plays Uni has done is the improvisational freedom built into the production. Sills, who co-founded The Second City in Chicago and the New Actors Workshop in New York, is one of America's leading teachers of improv; his mother, Viola Spolin, was one of the pioneers of improvisational theater. Indeed, the genealogy of American improv can be mapped out just by following the careers of Spolin, Sills, and their students.

The free-form nature of “Story Theatre” was a key selling point for director Ridenour.

“This play allows for a flexible cast,” she said about why she chose Sills' adaptation. “I can have as many or as few cast members as I want, and I can do what I want with what I'm given. The structure is also different from most. There are a lot of little stories and acts with all the different fables and stories. … [I]t seemed like an interesting and new choice.”

Audience members will recognize a number of familiar tales: for example, the Grimm Brothers'
“The Bremen Town-Musicians,” “The Fisherman and His Wife,” and “The Golden Goose,” and Aesop's “The Cat and Venus.”

The idea of an improv production appealed to the actors as well.

“It's kind of daunting but also kind of liberating,” said junior Jackie Hedeman.

Added sophomore Anna Cangellaris: “This is a play with a lot of dimension; the cast will be stretched to perform on a higher level than in a more standard play. We have a good group of creative people, so it should be tight.”

Said freshman crew member Lor Sligar: “[The play] is going to be really amazing. It's so much more about the actors and not the play or costumes.”

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2006 Spring Play at a Glance
• Paul Sills' “Story Theatre”
• Showtimes: 7 p.m. tonight, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday
• Location: North Attic Playhouse
• Tickets: $5 for students, faculty, and senior citizens; $6 for adults
• Director: Barbara Ridenour
• Cast: Emma Anselin, Ethan Berl, Alex Cahill, Anna Cangellaris, Nuole Chen, Brett Clark, Robert Croisant, Alyssa Digges, Matthew Freeman, Martin Geiger, Max Goldberg, Julian Hartman, Jackie Hedeman, Nate Kim, Rose Kory, Hannah Lake-Rayburn, Sarah Lake-Rayburn, Cordelia Loots-Gollin, Shruti Purkayastha, Sara Sligar, Batia Snir, Jamie Weiser