Tico Tales Review

Tico Tales review Literally Alive's first free summer production for children celebrates Central American traditions. By Lindsey Garland

Brenda Bell and Michael Sgouros, the creative team behind children’s theater company Literally Alive, now in its twelfth season, have always looked to classic children’s stories like The Velveteen Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast and Stone Soup as the inspiration for their original musicals. But for their most recent production, Tico Tales, the pair turned their eyes southward—more specifically, to the Central American nation of Costa Rica. Named after a term for Costa Rican natives, the musical, Literally Alive's first free summer production, uses music, dance and storytelling to present a series of traditional folktales and rituals from the so-called “Coast of Riches.” The show comprises eight separate scenes from Costa Rican legend, each introduced by Mother Earth (Bell) and Daughter Earth (precocious twelve-year-old Myla Marino). The content runs the gamut from the creation myth “When woman became the sea” to the legend of the sneaky goblins los duendes and a performance of the cumbia courtship dance. Connecting them all is a common thread—each scene is highly relevant to the traditions and folklore of Costa Rica. Historical narration about the country, from its discovery by Christopher Columbus to the arrival of the Spanish consquistadors and the African slaves, enhances the storytelling. Caribbean-tinged, percussion-heavy musical numbers—played by musical director Sgouros and percussionist Sean Statser on more than 30 different instruments including the murumba, dundun and djembe drums, and castinets—are worked in throughout the show, setting a distinct mood for each scene and serving as the accompaniment for original songs like “Coast of Riches” and “A Walk in the Woods." The dancing, inspired by traditional Costa Rican dances, is quite good—Brianna Hurley’s fluid depiction of the sea, gracefully flourishing her long and multilayered skirt to mirror the movement of the water, is a particular standout. The confined space onstage, though, causes some clumsiness as performers occasionally collide with the seaweed-like stage hangings. The purpose of the production, of course, is to expose children to Costa Rican culture, and in this it succeeds admirably. Although the show is described as bilingual, it’s performed primarily in English, with brief Spanish translations here and there. For instance, as Mother Earth recites stories in English, Daughter Earth often repeats key words in Spanish—la lluvia, el mar—making this a useful tool for children learning Spanish, but perhaps not ideal for those who speak only Spanish, as the translations aren’t quite enough to follow the stories. But linguistics aside, the narration is educational, the performances are energetic, and the music is truly fantastic, making this as good a way as any to take in a social studies lesson with the whole familia.