A Hobbit Of Another Color
ALT ADAPTS TOLKIEN STORY FOR YOUNGEST FANS
Friday, November 13, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE — I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us,” wrote J.R.R. Tolkien.
“They are (or were) a little people, about half our height ... They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow naturally leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads; have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it) ...”
Hobbits also live a long time, so Max Jardon makes for a very young Bilbo Baggins.
But the 11-year-old New School fifth-grader has the heart of a hero, able to stay in character, remember his lines, traverse the Misty Mountains, find the treasure and outsmart a dragon, all in about an hour.
“It’s all the best parts of ‘The Hobbit,’” Jardon says of the Arts Live Theatre production opening tonight at the UARK Ballroom in Fayetteville. “It’s going to be very exciting.”
Mark Landon Smith, the theater company’s artistic director, set out to adapt Tolkien’s classic himself - and soon found the task “overwhelming.”
“It would have been a fivehour show,” the playwright says. Then he stumbled onto a script by Edward Mast, a fan of Tolkien’s work from the time he was 12. “It’s a very concise, condensed version,” Smith says as youngsters swarm into the ALT offices, ready to take on orcs, trolls and a balrog.
“This is ‘Annie’ for little boys!
What little boy doesn’t want to be Bilbo?”
Jardon did - even though he’d never read the book - and managed to win his first leading role. Zach Stolz, a veteran of four years with the company, returns to center stage as Gandalf the wizard - and he can’t say enough about the magic of Arts Live Theatre.
“I was really shy in eighth grade, and my mom signed me up for a class,” the Fayetteville High School junior recalls.
“I’ve been hooked since the first show.”
Stolz moved around a lot with his family, spending the time from third through seventh grades in Germany, South Korea and China.
“It opened me up to a lot of different cultures, and I learned early on that everybody is really different,” he says. “You know, when you’re little, all adults seem thesame!
“But when I moved back, I wasn’t like any of the other kids. Then I found Arts Live.”
“It just charges me up to see these kids grow and assume their own power,” says costumer Faye Alter as she fits Stolz with a spiritgummed beard, a white wig, a cloak and a belt and chain for “bling.” “Kids now are more sophisticated than we were, and they have a better sense of themselves - particularlythese kids. They have goals very early on.”
Stolz plans to major in drama or journalism - or both - when he gets to college, but right now, he’s enjoying his role, not just on stage but off.
“Theater can open kids’ minds and inspire them,” he says. “I remember watching, thinking ‘I want to do that.’ It’s always fun, and it’s a catharsis for me when I’m having hard times or troubles.”
Entertainment, Pages 12 on 11/13/2009
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