Tom McCabe, Artistic Director

New Century Theatre is proud to welcome PaintBox Theatre back for a seventh spectacular season. Most shows sold-out last year so get your season tickets or single tickets early this time. Founder and Artistic Director Tom McCabe has adapted and directed three more classic tales—presenting them in a way that’s unique to PaintBox Theatre. High energy and lots of audience participation are hallmarks each PaintBox show. Audiences of all ages will have a great time. For information and reservations call (413) 585-3220.

Showtimes:    10:30 a.m.
Ticket Prices:    $7.00
Season Pass:    $18.00
Groups of 14 or more: $5.00 each

All shows are presented in Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center
for the Performing Arts, Green Street, on the Smith College
Campus in Northampton.

Paintbox Theatre have taken up the challenge of bringing six of Beatrix Potter's beloved children's stories to life. We asked Artistic Director Tom McCabe to share a little bit about the project.

First, we use Mr. McGregor's chase of Peter Rabbit to hold the whole show together. We have broken up Peter's adventure (a combination of stories: Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny) into a number of episodes and have scattered them throughout the production like old time movie serials. You know.... The stories that always end with.... What happens next? OR Tune in next time for the further adventures of Peter Rabbit. Between the episodes we present five additional stories: The Tailor of Gloucester, Miss Moppet, Mr. Jeremy Fisher and Tiggy Winkle.

As you may have guessed, this requires us to bring to life more than 30 characters and move through dozens of locations. How do we do it? With just 3 great actors, a very clever costumer, a local high school acting intern, local child artists and, of course, the audience.

We begin with the audience. Our productions are known for audience participation. In this production we ask the entire audience to actually play four characters. Additionally, audience members are called up on stage to fill in here and there. We also ask the audience to become seeds and grow into a garden, sew a jacket as mice and be rabbits.

A key feature of every production is artwork created by local children. We have a large screen suspended above the stage and during the show we project pictures and messages. As we prepared to do each production, we create a list of 30 or so images including all of the characters and locales and we ask local children to create pictures for us. These pictures allow us to see each character through a child's perspective. This is why we call ourselves PaintBox Theatre.

We also use the screen to project written messages and instructions. If the message is in yellow, the audience has to say the yellow words out loud. For example, in "Peter," we ask the audience to play the role of Benjamin Bunny and offer Peter advice. If the message on the screen is in red, you have to do what you are told. Audience members are asked to hiss like cats and make scary sounds.

We rely on a company of just three actors. This is key as our audience gets to see three people "playing." Our goal is to model "unstructured play." During each of our productions, the audience witnesses three people working together, sharing roles, taking various parts and helping put on the show. Cooperation is a hallmark or every PaintBox presentation.

To augment our company of three actors (Andrew Ferlo, Emmy Bean, and Jenna Lee Carreiro), we have drafted a local high school student—Amelia Cain to play several roles including a cat, a fish, a servant, a bunny and a river. We are keeping her quite busy.

Our costume designer, Joanne Ela creates "looks" for each character. Smaller characters are depicted with a hat or a head piece. More important characters get a more complete treatment. But, no matter, every costume must be able to be quick changed.

We design the shows so that all ages have a good time. We encourage people to arrive early to get a seat up front but have no fear, we play whole scenes right out in the audience. In this production we even have parts just for the adults.

Following the show you can get an autograph and tour our art lobby art gallery and see the original art work that we used in this show.

Check us out on FaceBook and Twitter. Visit TomMcCabe.com to hear stories and learn more.

Click a link below. To get a season pass, simply buy tickets to all three shows in the same purchase and the season pass discount will automatically be applied at checkout.

• Wednesday, July 7
• Thursday, July 8
• Friday, July 9
• Saturday, July 10

Tom is going to place a very special spin on this classic. His take - a tale about bullying. The twist? The troll is the one who is bullied, teased and, at the beginning of the story, alone. With the help of the audience and lots of suggestions from fairy tale characters crossing the bridge overhead, the troll will make friends and work things out.

Click a link below. To get a season pass, simply buy tickets to all three shows in the same purchase and the season pass discount will automatically be applied at checkout.

• Wednesday, July 21
• Thursday, July 22
• Friday, July 23
• Saturday, July 24

The title tells it all. There's enough adventure for even the heartiest swashbuckler. You don't have to bring your sword; our imaginations will provide all that we need. Our capes will be flying as we deal with the bad guys and save the day.

Click a link below. To get a season pass, simply buy tickets to all three shows in the same purchase and the season pass discount will automatically be applied at checkout.

• Wednesday, August 4
• Thursday, August 5
• Friday, August 6
• Saturday, August 7

On the screen on stage, we project pictures children have created for every character and locale. For each production more than 20 children create works.