There are so many moments that define growing up, such as pretending to have magical powers, worrying about school, believing in superstitions, having a crush or feeling like the odd person out. Tucson playwright Alejandro Canelos explores the funny and memorable moments of growing up through his series of vignettes “Hopscotch to Infinity.” The play revolves around students at Plinkett Elementary, who are played by adult actors.
The show will be onstage at the Invisible Theatre from Wednesday, May 28, to Saturday, June 7.
Canelos was born in Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora, and raised in Tucson. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University in 1992. But he has built a career as a writer, publishing two short story collections, “The Neotenic Queen: Tales of Sex and Survival in the Sonoran Desert” and “Hunters and Thieves.” He also has two books of short plays called “Ten-Minute Dramas” and “Hopscotch to Infinity: Short Plays for Kids to Read and Perform.” His “Ten-Minute Dramas” were produced as a series of live radio plays for the “Arizona Spotlight” program on Arizona Public Media.
Betsy Kruse Craig, managing artistic director for the Invisible Theatre, directed the radio plays, and she is directing the company’s production of “Hopscotch to Infinity” as well. She said the show has a similar format to “Ten-Minute Dramas,” and she and Canelos have worked together to develop them into one show.
“It’s 10-minute scenes that follow the same group of kids from second through fifth/sixth grade,” Kruse Craig said.
She said the title fits with the content in the show.
“The idea is great, the idea of hopscotching through life, which is what we all do…This is so charming and engaging because it doesn’t in any way talk down to a child. There’s no ingratiating. It’s absolutely representative of what being a kid is like,” Kruse Craig said.
Nevertheless the show is meant for people of different age groups.
“It’s geared not just to children. It’s absolutely approachable, engaging and entertaining for all of us because we can absolutely recognize ourselves in every scenario,” Kruse Craig said.
The show isn’t set in a specific time period, although the kids don’t use cell phones or tablets. Kruse Craig said that audiences from different ages can see themselves in the characters and stories.
“That’s what attracted me to it is I saw myself in it. It made me remember a lot of things about my own childhood,” she said. “What I love about it is it points out that childhood is rich, complex, creative, cool, challenging, dramatic and sad. All of those things you get to see in ‘Hopscotch to Infinity.’ It reminds us to revisit the child in all of us. We could all learn from our childhood selves, looking back and thinking about what we were like.”
The characters in “Hopscotch to Infinity” all wear the same colorful T-shirts, tennis shoes and jeans throughout the show. With its minimalistic set design and costuming, she found the play to be similar to the productions she used to do on the East Coast, when she worked for Paper Bag Players in New York.
“The idea behind that was that theater should be something that you don’t necessarily need a stage or a bunch of fancy costumes. If you’ve got a paper bag and a cardboard box, you can make a play,” Kruse Craig explained. “That’s the theme that we’ve taken here, because we don't have a set. We have blocks. We have the people, and it focuses on the imagination.
“For me, in a culture where so many kids who are 8 or even younger have tablets and cell phones, to see live theater is so important and so incredibly engaging because it accesses their imagination and creativity in such a different way.”
Kruse Craig hopes the show gets young people interested in theater. During the run, The Invisible Theatre will offer two special performances for Casa de Los Niños, an organization that supports families with educational, mental and behavioral health and fostering and adoption services.
“I think that as theater makers, it’s one of our responsibilities to cultivate and nurture the next generation of theatergoers,” Kruse Craig said.
“Hopscotch to Infinity” stars Gretchen Wirges as Joelle, Emily Fuchs as Darla, Owen Sanders as Lawrence, Sean Hazen as Steve, Dante Crossroad as Tobias, Ben Collinsworth as Winston, Haley Jaeger as Millicent and Edith Craig (Kruse Craig’s daughter) as Glenda. The characters’ stories are linked because they have gone to school together for so long, and the director was very reliant on the cast to bring those stories to life.
“I taught middle school for a while. It so resonates with me because these relationships that they have, they’ve developed since first grade…That’s a special kind of a relationship,” Kruse Craig explained. “In this group, you see the different personality types that really start to develop and shine through. You’ve got the know-it-all. You’ve got the girly girl. You’ve got the jock. You’ve got the leader/the hero. That definitely comes through in this production…You’ve got the smart one. You’ve got one character that literally doesn’t really speak until the last two scenes in the show.”
She previously worked with most of the same cast members for another show called “The Bookstore.” She said that the actors naturally fit into the roles in the upcoming show. “They’re a really great, imaginative, creative group of actors. We added two people, but the rest of them, I’ve worked with before, and they’ve worked together.”
Playwright Canelos also has a background as a professional drummer and sings in two choirs. He wrote original music for “Hopscotch to Infinity,” which is used in some scenes as well as the transitions. The music acts as an underscore.
“How often do you have a playwright who’s also a composer and a musician?” Kruse Craig said. “I feel like the language of the play and the musicality of the accompaniment, it’s a perfect marriage because the same person wrote both. It’s got the same kind of magical, creative, quirky quality…The music just really adds so much to it. It’s another character in the play.”
Along with “Hopscotch to Infinity,” The Invisible Theatre is also presenting “Going It Alone,” which is geared toward an adult audience. The show will run from Thursday, May 29, to Saturday, May 31, and feature 13 original monologues by writers from different parts of the world. The actors from “Hopscotch to Infinity” will also appear in “Going It Alone.”
Kruse Craig said the monologues were chosen from around 200 submissions. This year, they have one monologue from a playwright from Australia, as well as some from local playwrights. Kruse Craig said the pieces vary in subject matter.
“What’s so cool about that is you see one, and then six minutes later, it’s a completely different story. They’re all little microcosms of worlds,” she said.
“Hopscotch to Infinity”
WHEN: Wednesday, May 28-Saturday, June 7
WHERE: The Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Avenue, Tucson
COST: $30 for adults, $15 for children under 18
INFO: invisibletheatre.com
“Going It Alone”
WHEN: Thursday, May 29, to Saturday, May 31
WHERE: The Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Avenue, Tucson
COST: $30 general admission
INFO: invisibletheatre.com
