Stories Come to Life for Students

The Fremont Elementary auditorium filled with giggles and cheers as the acting company of "We Tell Stories" jumped from the stage into the audience during their performance Nov. 12.

The students of Fremont got to see, hear and even participate in two stories, "One Chanukah in Chelm," by Shalom Aleichem, and "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," by Eta Hoffman. The extremely energetic actors, Stacy Turner, Armando Ortega and Ova Saopeng, did not let the show slow down once as they had the kids roaring with laughter with their version of these books.

Each performance began with an antique trunk in the middle of the stage.

"These are what we call our trunk stories," said Turner.

Throughout the performance the actors pulled props out of the trunk, including crowns and pots and pans, as well as costumes for royalty and mice.

Their performance of "One Chanukah in Chelm" was a version of the popular "stone soup" story in which each villager added something to the community soup pot to make a great meal.

"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was a story many children thought they knew but were surprised to learn it wasn't like the ballet. The actors explained that although many know the ballet, "The Nutcracker," few have read the book it was based on. The performance began at the beginning of the book, the ballet actually begins in the middle of the story. "We Tell Stories" company told the story up to where the ballet begins.

Children were taken out of the audience to become villagers in the small hamlet of Chelm, or a transformed a mouse princess and a guard who happens to be a cat in "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King."

For 22 years "We Tell Stories" has been entertaining children, said Saopeng. Their purpose is to get children interested in reading books. Throughout the performance the actors reminded the students that these stories come from books.

As they end "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," the children want more.

"If you want to know more, you will have to read the book 'The Nutcracker'," said Turner, Orterga and Saopeng.