Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as … as … as a fiddler on the roof!
–Tevye, from Fiddler on the Roof
It’s an ARIEL Tradition not to be missed! Come join us and the people of Anatevka at The Karen Wilson Theatre for our Annual Benefit! It will be a great time! Purchase tickets in person, by phone, or here.
For information on the rest of the run of Fiddler on the Roof, click here.
Schoolhouse Rock Live! to Play at Sherwood Hall, Salinas
One Public Performance – March 27 at 7 pm
SALINAS, CA – March 6, 2015 – Learn history, grammar and math with the cast of ARIEL Theatrical as they sing and dance their way across the stage at Sherwood Hall in Salinas in Schoolhouse Rock Live!. This musical adaptation of the Emmy Award winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon celebrates the process of learning through a series of vignettes with upbeat music and catchy lyrics.
This production, ARIEL’s Spring Conservatory Accelerated program, has a cast of 38 who will also perform 10 shows in five days for more than 8,000 Monterey County schoolchildren the week prior to the public show.
The only public performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! will be at Sherwood Hall, Salinas on March 27. Tickets are: $16 for adults; $13 for students, seniors and military; $11 for children 3 to 12. This performance is NOT at ARIEL’s home, The Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre.
Schoolhouse Rock Live! is sponsored by Taylor Farms and is funded in part by the Ruth L. and Wilbur K. Amonette Fund, the Farrell/Allen Rotary Fund and the Ausonio Family Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, as well as The Arts Council for Monterey County.
ARIEL is celebrating 29 years of serving children in the Monterey County community and 15 years in Oldtown Salinas at the Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre. During this time, more than 4,000 young people enrolled in 200 programs, participating in more than 1,000 performances were seen by more than 300,000 people!
“ARIEL inspires young people to understand that integrity, respect for others and personal responsibility for choices made are the keys to building a principled and productive life,” said Gail Higginbotham, ARIEL Theatrical’s Artistic Director.
The playful re-telling of the Chinese folk tale, Tikki Tikki Tembo, comes to life this weekend at ARIEL for two days only. The cast invites you to join them today (Saturday), February 21 at 2pm or 7pm.
Tickets are: $7 for adults: $6 for students, seniors and military; $5 for children 3 to 12; children under age 3 are free. Performances will be held at ARIEL’s home, The Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre, 320 Main Street, Salinas. Tickets are available online at www.arieltheatrical.org, by calling 831-775-0976 or at the Box Office in Oldtown Salinas, Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 6 pm.
ARIEL Theatrical Kicks Off Its 2015 Season with Tikki Tikki Tembo
Show times are February 20 at 7 pm and February 21 at 2 pm and 7 pm
SALINAS, CA – JANUARY 23, 2015 – ARIEL Theatrical kicks off its 2015 season with Tikki Tikki Tembo, a playful retelling of the tale of “a short little boy with a long name.” This is ARIEL’s Spring Conservatory Beginning Program cast with children ages 5 to 12 who help tell the story of Tikki Tikki Tembo No So Rembo Icka Na Noona Konna Ron Tombo, his brother Wing and a well that the two of them can’t seem to stay out of.
Show times are February 20 at 7 pm and February 21 at 2 pm and 7 pm. Tickets are: $7 for adults: $6 for students, seniors and military; $5 for children 3 to 12; children under age 3 are free. Performances will be held at ARIEL’s home, The Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre, 320 Main Street, Salinas. Tickets are available online at www.arieltheatrical.org, by calling 831-775-0976 or at the Box Office in Oldtown Salinas, Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 6 pm.
Tikki Tikki Tembo is sponsored by Central Coast Cleaning. ARIEL is funded in part by the Ruth L. and Wilbur K. Amonette Fund of the Community Foundation of Monterey County and The Arts Council for Monterey County.
ARIEL is celebrating 29 years of serving children in the Monterey County community and 15 years in Oldtown Salinas at The Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre! During this time, more than 4,000 young people enrolled in 200 programs, participating in more than 1,000 performances were seen by more than 300,000 people!
“ARIEL inspires young people to understand that integrity, respect for others and personal responsibility for choices made are the keys to building a principled and productive life,” said Gail Higginbotham, ARIEL Theatrical’s Artistic Director.
ARIEL Theatrical’s ‘Tom Sawyer’ a fun, inspiring production
By JUDY HIGGERSON
Critics Circlemontereyherald.com
Posted: 08/15/2012 04:02:02 PM PDT
August 16, 2012 3:42 PM
GMTUpdated: 08/16/2012 08:42:11 AM PDT
Tom Sawyer (Andrew Liddle),
left, and Huck Finn (Alex Gomez) make big plans while fishing on the Mississippi
River in ARIEL Theatrical’s production of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,”
playing through Aug. 25 in Salinas.
I read once where Mark Twain wrote that travelwas “fatal to prejudice,
bigotry and narrow-mindness.” After seeing my first Ariel production, “The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” directed by Gail Higginbotham, I believe that the
word “theater” should be substituted in that Twainism.
Higginbotham has shown the community with this production how the entire cast and community comes together to join forces in a production that reflects the mission statement of the ARIEL Theatrical — seeking to use the art and
discipline of the theater to inspire young people.
The production helps young audience members to understand that personal
integrity, respect for others and an acceptance of responsibility for choices
made are the keys to building a principled and productive life.
The examples are displayed by the adventures of Tom (Andrew Liddle): playing
hooky from school, the consequences set forth by Aunt Polly, his punishment by
whitewashing the fence.
Or the extreme example of standing up in court to testify in front of the
town stating that he had indeed observed a murder in the graveyard, knowing that he had no business being in the graveyard at night, and accepting the unknown consequences that might arise from his testimony.
Like all young people, the temptation to “go off track, not follow the rules”
was displayed when Tom and Becky (played by Naomi Oppenheim) deviated from the outing to visit the caves and become lost from the group for several days, leaving the town to search and worry about their survival.
What a wonderful choice of theater to reflect all of the ARIEL mission
statement: integrity, respect, acceptance of responsibility for choices.
The use of the stage and the props were creative and fun. Having the cast run
offstage toward the audience gave it the opportunity to see all the smiling
faces of the cast.
This reinforced the commitment of not just the young people, but the adults
who have committed themselves to such a positive experience working with these dedicated young people, both on stage or those behind the scenes.
The song “Ain’t Life Good” wasn’t justa song in which the audience joined the
actors on stage, but a resonating theme throughout the production.
It was a beautiful day for all 44 cast members (14 of whom had never been on
stage before, captivating the audience with their insightful interpretation of
the adventures of a hooky-playing, easy-going Tom Sawyer and his sidekick Huck Finn (Alex Gomez).
This production earns a thumbs- up from this reviewer. GO!
Kayti Ramirez, an 18-year-old
freshman at Santa Clara University, started attending Ariel Theatrical’s camps
the summer after her sophomore year at Santa Catalina High School. She was cast
as the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and then went on to become a camp counselor
to the younger kids.
“At the beginning of each day we’d
get together and Miss Gail would say, ‘Remember, whether you’re cleaning
toilets or wiping a 4-year-old’s nose or helping on stage, it’s about something
much bigger. It’s about character and building community, having
self-discipline and integrity.’ That translated to my life, schoolwork,
relationships with my friends and family.”
Miss Gail is Gail Higginbotham,
Ariel’s founder and artistic director who started the nonprofit more than 25
years ago when she moved her young family to Salinas. “What really lurks in the
bottom of most children’s hearts is the desire to stand on a stage with a
costume and lights on them and have people clap for them,” she says.
Ariel offers three, one-week summer
theater camps where kids and teens take classes every day, separated into age
and skill groups, focusing on singing, acting, movement and other performance
skills. Each camper signs a code of conduct, in which she pledges to be
courteous and respectful, own her mistakes and not make excuses. Toward the end
of the week they start putting together a recital, which they perform for
family and friends.
“The theater part of Ariel is the
modality by which we have them here, but the reason for Ariel is to help give
them their best shot at creating a principled and productive life, the skills
they need to make choices that are positive [in order] to succeed,”
Higginbotham says.
If you drive along Highway 68 on a regular
basis, you’ve probably noticed there’s seldom, if ever, a roadside trash
problem. That’s because a dedicated group of individuals has volunteered to
keep the well-traveled corridor clean.
Decked out in their protective helmets and
yellow vests, these people regularly scour their assigned stretch of the
roadway, filling bright orange plastic bags with roadside rubbish.
Diane Chatwin is one of these unsung heroes. Along with friends and family,
Chatwin has been cleaning a two-mile stretch of Highway 68 from the Toro Creek
Bridge east to the Toro Regional Park turnoff. As part of the Adopt-A-Highway
Program, Chatwin and her late husband, Marshall, volunteered to collect trash
18 years ago on behalf of ARIEL Theatrical.
For her unrelenting efforts over nearly two decades, Chatwin, who lives in the Robley
Road area, recently was honored as the Adopt-A-Highway Volunteer of the Decade.
When she heard that she was receiving the award, Chatwin said she wondered,
“Why me? There are so many people who have been doing this a long time.”
A choreographer with ARIEL Theatrical since the children’s theater was
launched, Chatwin decided to volunteer for Adopt-A-Highway in the group’s name.
“I felt it would be good publicity for the group, since a lot of the children
in the program lived along Highway 68,” she explained. A sign along the highway
names ARIEL Theatrical as the clean-up agent for Chatwin’s stretch.
When she started, Chatwin did one side of the road and her husband did the
other. They both enjoyed the drivers who often would show their appreciation by
either honking or waving as they drove past.
“It also was nice when bike riders and joggers passing by would acknowledge
what we were doing with a thank you,” she said.
After her husband’s death three years ago, Chatwin’s adult son, Michael, and
some friends, Lee and Alison Hinkle, stepped up to assist her in the monthly
cleanup. Even after a bout with cancer sidelined her for three months last
year, the 78-year-old woman still refuses to give up her Saturday morning
trash-collecting chores.
Over the years she’s collected litter along the roadside, Chatwin and her
helpers have found some interesting things. By far the most bizarre discovery
was a large plastic bag containing a cow’s head and hooves. Marshall discovered
the macabre remains and Chatwin thought this might be tied into some cattle
rustling.
Another time the couple found a bag with old credit-card receipts. “We knew the
person whose name was on the receipts so we contacted her,” Chatwin said. “She
told us her son was taking a load to the dump and didn’t realize the bag had
fallen off his truck.”
In 18 years one would think that Chatwin would have found some money along the
roadside. With a laugh, she said that years ago one of her helpers found a $20
bill and once she did stumble upon a pile of pennies, but that was it.
By far the funniest thing that ever happened while on trash duty involved
Chatwin’s husband.
“A lady came up to him and asked what his offense was,” she said, explaining
the event. “Marshall told her he wasn’t part of a prison detail but the woman’s
response was, ‘Oh, that’s OK, you don’t have to be embarrassed or ashamed.’ ”
Over the years she has been an Adopt-A-Highway volunteer, Chatwin has noticed
that the amount of roadside refuse has diminished. Where she usually collected
six to eight bags of junk on her side, today she averages about three to four.
Although she does a formal cleanup usually about every four weeks, Chatwin said
she can’t stand to see a lot of junk along the roadway. Because she travels the
road so often, she’ll pull over and collect a tire, piece of wood or box that’s
fallen off a vehicle and toss it in her trunk.
With a smile, Chatwin also noted that, thanks to her Highway 68 duty, she can’t
go anywhere now without picking up trash. “I think it is a disease,” she said
with a laugh. “I can’t stand to see trash anywhere now, so I’m always reaching
down to pick it up and dispose of it.”
Jeanette Green, the Adopt-A-Highway Coordinator for the North Region, said that
the
Volunteer of the Decade award was started last year and given to a Santa Cruz
County resident.
“We will only give this special award when we feel there is someone who really
deserves it,” she said. “Diane is certainly one of those individuals. She does
everything right!”
Green noted there are numerous highway sections available on Highway 101 from
Salinas to King City if anyone is interested in volunteering for the
Adopt-A-Highway program.
The run for our live production of the musical Wonderland! was Monday, February 28th through Saturday, March 5th, 2011, and has now concluded. However, the show was filmed and will air in its entirety on MCAET, Comcast 26, four times in April. So, tune in or set the VCR for ARIEL Theatrical’s Wonderland on MCAET, Comcast 26, for any of the four showings (Saturday April 2nd at 1 PM and 7 PM and Saturday, April 16th at 1 PM and 7 PM). Note: The show runs approximately 80 minutes.
