Photo Flash: First Look at Chance Theater's 'THE STINKY CHEESE MAN'

Anaheim's official resident theater company, Chance Theater is delighted to present the irreverent and uproariously silly The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales as the first production of its 2016 Theater for Young Audiences season. Performances will begin February 25 and continue through March 6 on the Fyda-Mar Stage at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center. Based on the award-winning book of the same title by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, the show has been adapted by John Glore and is directed by Darryl B. Hovis.

If geese had graves, Mother Goose would be rolling in hers. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales retells-and wreaks havoc on-the allegories we all thought we knew by heart. Though the characters may be familiar, each of your favorite storybook fables is uproariously derailed in this adaptation of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's quintessential children's book of fractured fairy tales.

"The Stinky Cheese Man is what it is; it's stinky and it's cheese," says director Darryl B. Hovis, who previously directed last year's Alice in Wonderland and Legend(s) of Sleepy Hollow for a successful first year of the Chance's TYA Series. "I think my main thing is really capturing the essence of the spirit of the book, not just the stories, which are totally silly, absurd and crazy. I brought to the design team that idea of really going to the root of the book and the illustrations to make sure that we are paying tribute to that and bringing it out onstage. The images are so captivating, wacky and zany but a little bit dark. Our challenge is to capture that spirit of both whimsy and darkness on stage."

Local playwright, and associate artistic director of South Coast Repertory, John Glore, is no stranger to theater for young audiences. In addition to The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Glore has also adapted Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and Laura Amy Schlitz's The Night Fairy for the stage, and has been delighting young audiences since his first play, Wind of a Thousand Tales was performed in SCR's Theater Conservatory program in 1988. Glore often returns to the theme of storytelling, not only adapting familiar tales for the stage, but also interweaving stories, turning them upside down and inside out in much the same way that Scieszka and Lane turned familiar fairytales into something enjoyable for kids (and the adults reading them!). "Too often," Glore said, "plays (for children) tend to be condescending. I write for myself, to amuse myself, to be gripped by a story, and I hope and believe even the youngest kids respond to that."

Darryl B. Hovis (Director, Co-Education Director) earned his MA in Theatre Production at Central Washington University and studied acting at the Professional Conservatory at UCSD under Anna Shapiro (Steppenwolf) as well asSouth Coast Repertory under Karen Hensel. He is the co-founder and artistic director of the Culver City Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, where he developed an intensive arts program for high school students in theatre, film, music, and art, and has gone on to develop theatre programs at other Southern California high schools, as well as Theatre International at Leysin American School in Leysin, Switzerland. He has directed a multitude of productions, some of his favorites being Therese Raquin (Chance Theater), Rent and The Threepenny Opera (Samohi Theatre), Machinal and Resurrecting Antigone (UniTheatre), and The Miracle Worker and Treehouses (AVPA).

The production team for The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales includes scenic designer Megan Hill(Fancy Nancy, Loch Ness), lighting designer McLeod Benson (Alice in Wonderland), sound designer Iris Zacarias (The Legend(s) of Sleepy Hollow), costume designer Alexandra Giron (Alice in Wonderland), and stage managerNicole Schlitt.

The cast for The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales stars returning artists Angela Griswold (Anne of Green Gables) as Cinderella, Logan Allison (Hairspray) as Jack the Narrator, Garret Replogle (Up) as the Ugly Duck, Holly Jeanne (Alice in Wonderland) as the Red Hen, Kelly Ehlert (Maple and Vine) as Little Red Running Shorts, as well as Wade Williamson as the Surgeon General and Dimithri Perera as the Stinky Cheese Man, who are both making their Chance debuts with this production.

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