theater

A funny thing happened to B. Someday Productions' operator/director Michelle Pauls on her way back from a theater symposium in Spoleto, Italy. The now-Fishtown-located Pauls got hired to do a Frog and Toad Are Friends show by the Neighborhood Parenting Project in her new neighborhood with her new neighbors. "After the show, which I did with Hannah "Medusa' Tsapatoris, the Fishtown Neighborhood Association approached me and asked if I could do a Christmas show at a neighborhood school incorporating the kids of the area," says Pauls. Just like Frog and Toad. So she re-adapted B. Someday producing artistic director Stan Heleva's take on Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales into A Child's Christmas in Fishtown, including some recollections about Depression-era life in Fishtown by local Joe Walker. Then she cast two of Wales' principals (Michael Dura, Nancy Edwards) and area thespian/realtor Bob Murphy, and a bunch of neighborhood kids to act out the stories that the adult actors tell, and to help lead a post-show sing-along of holiday songs.

"We're gearing up to do more family and youth-centered theater here in Fishtown," says Pauls, noting Dec. 17's Happy Holidays With Frog and Toad, also starring Fishtown children doing animal characters and making all the appropriate rude sound effects. Until then, it's just a Fishie Christmas of which Thomas would be proud.

A Child's Christmas In Fishtown, Tue., Dec. 13 and Thu., Dec. 15, 7 p.m., $5, Penn Treaty Middle School, Montgomery and Thompson sts., 215-287-3492.