'Neverending' Creativity

Centaurs, rock chewers, werewolves, a Luck Dragon and a troll missing its bottom half are among the creatures now inhabiting Imagination Stage in Bethesda. The family-focused theater company's production of "The Neverending Story," adapted by David S. Craig from the cheerier first part of Michael Ende's 1979 novel (also made into a 1984 film), runs through Aug. 10.

In the tale, sad, book-loving Bastian hides from teachers and bullies in the attic of his school, reading a book titled "The Neverending Story" that he impulsively stole from a bookseller. The magically diverse world of Fantastica in the book-within-a-book will be realized onstage with actors, puppets and masks.

That's as it should be, says Artistic Director Janet Stanford, who commissioned the piece with the Seattle Children's Theatre, where it premiered in December. "On every page of that book, there is an out-of-the-box, incredibly creative idea," says Stanford, who is directing. "What I hope is that we get at a much deeper and more magical level of storytelling, and the puppets and the masks take you there."

Puppet designer Eric Van Wyk created the huge heads of the wind giants by shaping mounds of dirt in his mother-in-law's garden, then sculpting papier-mache over the forms. For the elfish Vooshvazool, a "night-hob" who flies around Fantastica on a bat, Van Wyk created a hand puppet; for its air transport, he used an umbrella (inspired by a description in the book) to indicate wings, topped with a papier-mache bat head.

The nub of the story's message, Stanford says, is to "make sure the imagination is being used as a positive force, a creative force." She views both the book and the play as a call to free people's creativity from cookie-cutter consumerism and the corrupting influences of money and politics. To her that means never copping out and doing "the Disney version."

Playwright Craig agrees "the whole book is about the glory and the essential nature of the imagination." Fantastica's oddly named Childlike Empress sends the young hunter Atreyu, who is Bastian's age, on a heroic quest to find a wise one who will save the kingdom from an encroaching darkness called the Nothing. The story "has an edge," Craig notes. The Nothing that threatens Fantastica "makes people fearful, and fear means you're scared to think imaginatively."

Bastian becomes so involved in the story that he calls out at one point and finds Atreyu can hear him. The literary theme of the piece is "that any story can exist in anyone's imagination, but it doesn't mean anything until you share it," Stanford says. Craig observes "it's a great story of a young man -- two young men -- plucked from obscurity to solve a huge problem. The twist is that the person they're looking for is the reader."

A co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto-based Roseneath Theatre, which produces and tours plays for young audiences, Craig seconds Stanford's view of Hollywood and Madison Avenue and how even theater audiences expect to see stuff they already know. "Familiar is huge in the territory of theater for young audiences," says the playwright.

Craig's play for adult audiences, "Having Hope at Home," has had multiple productions in Canada, and he has won awards for his solo show, "Napalm the Magnificent," and his young people's play "Danny, King of the Basement."

Follow Spots

· Washington Stage Guild summer reading series continues through Aug. 17 at Flashpoint's Mead Theatre Lab, 916 G St. NW. Plays of yore to get the plummy Stage Guild treatment include "The Voysey Inheritance," by Harley Granville-Barker, this Sunday ; "Hobson's Choice," by Harold Brighouse, July 13; "The Amorous Servant" by Carlo Goldoni, Aug. 3; "Magic" by G.K. Chesterton, Aug. 10; and George Bernard Shaw's satiric one-acts "Press Cuttings" and "Farfetched Fables" Aug. 17. Shows are at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Call 240-582-0050 for reservations.

· The Inkwell theater group, which coaxes new works into the world, is sponsoring panels during the Source Festival, which runs through July 13 ( http://sourcedc.org). On Sunday at 5 p.m., Synetic Theater's Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili will lead the panel "Collaboration in New Works." On July 6, Arena Stage's David Dower and Washington City Paper critic Trey Graham will discuss new works in Washington. Both events will be at Source, 1835 14th St. NW. Visit http://inkwelltheatre.org and click on "calendar."