theater
BY ANNA GRACE
Keith Kessler (left) and Tony Rust in
Cottage Theatre's production of
A Year with Frog and Toad
Asking the Amphibians
Hopping along with Cottage Theatre’s A Year With Frog and Toad
”I
can read it!” proclaimed the sticker on the Level-2
reader my mother slid into my hands. A cover
illustration of two pond-dwelling vertebrates donned
in 1967 attire caught my imagination, and I cracked open the
book. Arnold Lobel’s classic children’s tale of friendship,
Frog and Toad, has been a part of my heart ever since.
A Year With Frog and Toad, the jazzy little musical
commissioned by Arnold Lobel’s daughter in 2000, opens
Dec. 2 at Cottage Theatre. Perusing the press release, my
expectations ballooned out the door, so to get a grip I sat
down at the computer to e-interview Keith Kessler and
Tony Rust (playing Toad and Frog, respectively) to get
their take on the upcoming production.
First and foremost, my concerns were, “Is this gonna be
like the book” and “Do these actors love the books as much
as they should.”
Kessler, a former grade school teacher, was introduced
to the stories “over 20 years ago as an elementary teacher,”
he says. “Arnold Lobel was a wonderful author/illustrator,
and kids loved his books.”
Kessler says the script does justice to the stories. “I
also am a playwright, so I enjoy seeing how someone else
can take a beloved work and transfer it to the stage," he
says. "There is literary license taken to make the storyline
work, but I think that kids and adults who know the books
will see that the playwright has tried to stay close to the
originals, but with nice enhancements.”
Rust was fi rst wowed by the play when “my wife Janet
(director of Cottage Theatre’s production) and our son
Glenn (who is running the light board) saw the original
production in New York City. (We) fell in love with it and
the soundtrack became a must-have CD. Because of the
show, we collected all the original books and they became
an important part of bedtime reading,” Rust adds.
Kessler and Rust appear unfazed by the iconic status
of their characters. “Barring the fact that I’m not really
an amphibian,” Rust says, “I’m hopeful that Frog would
approve of my interpretation.”
Kessler echoes the sentiment. “I don’t feel pressure
because the play is very well written,” he says.
A major part of the charm of Lobel’s original characters is
that, for amphibians, they’re delightfully human. According
to Rust, “Frog sees things as they are pretty much, but with
a glass-half-full sensibility. He enjoys the simple things in
life, and revels in his friends’ joy. I think everyone wants to
be the friend that Frog is, and have the friend that Toad is.”
Toad, on he other hand, is a bit of a curmudgeon. “He is
grumpy,” Kessler says, “the glass is half empty. Toad needs
his friend Frog to show him that life can be fun and full of
adventures, and that you must take risks to get all of the joy
life has to offer.”
Kessler says Toad has an authenticity that draws people
in. “He doesn’t like morning even if it is after hibernation,”
he explains, “(yet) he is willing to try things even if he
doesn’t think they will work. And he is willing to go out
into the night and save his friend Frog from dangers,
even though he is not very brave and the dangers are all
imaginary. He has a good heart,” Kessler concludes.
I wanted to know if the set and costumes are realistic or
representational. Are guys going to dress up as frogs and
toads that in turn act and dress like people? Sadly, no.
“We are playing the characters (as in the original
Broadway production) as humans with animal
characteristics rather than as people in animal suits,” Rust
says. “I think this allows us to connect directly with the
characters, while still enjoying their animal traits. Frog
and Toad in the books are fairly real looking amphibians
but are in suits, so conversely, we are fairly real looking
humans in amphibian colors.”
Rust doubles as this production’s set designer, and
says he’s having a great time with it. “I chose to design
something that will hopefully evoke childhood pop-up
books,” he says. “The set is big and bright and colorful,
all enfolded in the greenery of the woodland around our
characters. The play bounces along from inside to outside
quickly, so we keep Frog and Toad's house central.”
Frog and Toad remain pretty special to all the kids who fi rst
got the hang of phonics reading Lobel’s enchanting stories, and
it appears Rust and Kessler feel similarly connected to the work.
“I believe that adults will take to (the characters) because
of the truth of the stories — wanting to help someone who
is sad, wanting to do a good deed without the other person
knowing, wanting your friend to break out of his shell and
live a little,” Kessler says. “And I believe that kids will feel
that they are right at home in a storybook world come alive.”
“I really wanted to play Frog before my daughter Darcy
got too old to really appreciate it at the child’s level,” Rust
confi des. “She’s eight now, and hangs out at a lot of our
rehearsals. She knows all the lyrics and lines, and Keith
and I have commissioned her with the duty of making sure
we do our soft-shoe choreography correctly.”
Rust continues, pointing out that “it’s also wonderful that
this is a family affair, with my wife Janet directing, my son
Glenn (age 13) running light board, Darcy at rehearsals and
me designing and building the set. Oh, and playing Frog.”
Kessler agrees that it’s been a “hoot” building the show.
“Fun around every corner,” he says.
ew
A Year With Frog and Toad plays at Dec 2-Dec. 18 at Cottage Theatre, 700
Village Dr., Cottage Grove; for info & tickets, visit cottagetheatre.org or call
541-942-8001.
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28 DECEMBER 1, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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