Powers of imagination key to stage performance – Regina Leader

BACKYARDIGANS

Quest for the Extra Ordinary Aliens 6: 30 p.m., Tonight Conexus Arts Centre

By age five, Patti Caplette was already getting her feet wet in choreography and playwriting.

So it’s not surprising that now that she’s an artistic director for a children’s musical production company, she values her six-year-old granddaughter’s professional opinion.

Tea Paquin is the unofficial research and development body behind the live-theatre adaptation of Daytime Emmy-nominated kids’ TV series The Backyardigans.

She was the one who introduced her grandparents to the show as a toddler, and her favourite songs made the cut – including the Princess Song and the yeti Stomp.

«I like their songs a lot and my favourite one is probably the song Break Out,» said Tea. «I like the tune a lot. The tune is kind of like, hmm hum hmm.»

Tea takes off, humming away. Three years after their first onstage success, The Backyardigans: Quest for the Extra Ordinary Aliens is on another cross-Canada tour that includes a stop today in Regina.

Apart from Tea’s obvious enthusiasm, Caplette – who began her career in dance with Les Grands ballets canadiens de Montreal and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet – said she liked the unplugged ethic of the characters.

The Backyardigans gang includes five preschool friends: Pablo the penguin, Tyrone the moose, Uniqua the purple-spotted creature, Tasha the hippo and Austin the kangaroo.

«They’re described as five backyard friends whose imagination can take them anywhere,» said Caplette. «It really demonstrates to children that you don’t need anything fancy. You don’t need computers or electronics to just go out to the backyard and have fun – it’s all in your imagination.»

Adapting an animated series to stage takes careful attention, said Caplette, whose production company Koba Entertainment has also adapted Franklin the Turtle and The Big Comfy Couch.

«I study all the elements that are important and integral to the product.»

Part of that is the music, written by Evan Lurie, which Caplette says anchors the show. Next is acquiring the actual cast members who did the voices and recording the script.

«And then the element of being able to take the Backyardigans anywhere they wanted to go in the flash of a second,» she said.

Three giant screens accomplish that goal, she said, «So we can go from the deserts to the mountains to the great sea, with great speed.

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