February 22, 2018

Those who grew up reading the works of Roald Dahl are familiar with books like “James and the Giant Peach,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

And if you haven’t read Dahl on the page, you certainly know his stories and characters from their many and various stage and screen adaptations.

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Published in 1961, “James and the Giant Peach” became a film in 1996, featuring music by Randy Newman. A lot more recently (2010), it was adapted to the stage by Timothy Allen McDonald (book) and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (music and lyrics).

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Chance Theater delivers the musical’s Orange County premiere now through March 11. The show is part of the company’s TYA (Theater for Young Audiences) series.

February 27, 2018

There’s “James and the Giant Peach,” the bizarre and often dark Tim Burton take on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, and then there’s “Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach,” the musical stage version.

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Those visiting Chance Theater for the 2010 show’s Orange County premiere are in for a pleasant surprise: No traces of Burton’s idiosyncratic style, a handful of wonderful songs and an enjoyable visual look. Ripe with creativity, the compact, fast-moving show will entertain not just the audience’s kids, but its adults too.

July 06, 2014

For almost a decade, the Chance Theater’s summer program Speak Up – Take a “Chance” has given students the opportunity to write, produce and perform their own original show.

Under the instruction of Chance Theater education director Darryl Hovis, these young actors spend five weeks putting their production together.

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The theater conducts two sessions: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each produces an original play.

July 08, 2016

Darryl Hovis, producing associate for Chance’s Theater for Young Audiences series, said Speak Up is about empowering students to embrace what makes them unique. “By sharing their own stories, they can begin to take control of their own lives and realize that there is a community out there that identifies (with them) and they aren’t alone,” he said.

“A lot of (other) programs teach students acting skills, or give them a chance to perform.” Hovis said. “But Speak Up allows them to dive into the creation process from concept to creation, and speak, no pun intended, to the things that are important to them.”

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Alexia Rosa is in her third year with Speak Up. After Hovis spoke to performing arts students at Anaheim High, the junior said, “I knew I had to join.”

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Hovis explained “how we get to write our own show and how we make our own monologues and scenes – how we are the creators, that we don’t just get a script and read from there,” Rosa said.

The Anaheim Hills company, Rosa said, is a safe place for anyone who chooses to join. “As the director, Darryl, always says, ‘You are enough.’ This simple statement has gotten me through so much and so many different obstacles in my life, and without the Chance family, I’m not sure where I would be,” she said.

March 01, 2015

Ever since Chance Theater first opened its doors, tailoring shows toward young audiences has been a goal.

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It’s just that until recently, Chance hasn’t had the means or the resources to do so.

Now, with the success of a two-part capital campaign, the Anaheim Hills company that started in 1999 has moved into a larger space, built a new main stage venue and is on the verge of opening a new second stage whose programming includes kid-oriented plays.

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May 30, 2015

Theater operators are beginning to understand the special needs of people with autism and other disorders. Leading the pack is Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills.

Stephanie Schulze had a challenge one night this year when she took to the stage as the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland" — playing a villain while lowering the volume.

Schulze, part of the cast at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, had plenty of histrionics in her role, and she was used to giving her larynx a workout during the show. 

April 21, 2014

I often wonder why I do theater. It’s certainly not for fame or fortune, and the hours can be long and stressful. But when I witness just one person’s life changed by the power of storytelling, I remember that I do theater because theater is an extension of life, and we discover ourselves in the process. “That was huge for her,” was the first thing I said to Darryl Hovis when we concluded rehearsal for the night. Hovis is Chance Theater’s education director, and he is leading a group of brave community members who acted for the first time during the Chance-a-thon as part of the “Community Speak Up” act.

September 20, 2017

If you think you’ve already seen every possible theatrical variation on the theme of a young couple losing a child, whether to death, abduction or any other sort of unbearable loss, think again.

In its Southern California premiere at Chance Theater, Lauren Yee’s “In a word” will indeed make you think again about every angle of this topic: What it means to be a parent, what it means to love a child you’ve adopted vs. given birth to, how the child’s presence affects the marriage and how the loss of that child can affect it even more...

Darryl B. Hovis’ sound design incorporates powerful sounds, such as audio news reports of amber alerts from radio and television. Hovis’ sound and Lily Bartenstein’s lighting help make “In a word” a highly subjective experience in terms of theater, putting us in the unbearable place Fiona and Guy find themselves.

May 25, 2017

he Speak Up Summer Program uses story circles, improvisation games and writing exercises to teach the fundamentals of storytelling. Over five weeks, students will work collaboratively with their peers from around the county to write, design, and perform a new play. By participating in all elements of constructing and producing a new work (writing, acting, design, marketing, etc.) under the guidance of Chance staff, professional designers and professional actors and the program director, the students take ownership of every aspect of creating an original theatrical work.

March 08, 2011

The controversial Bertold Brecht-Kurt Weill musical “The Threepenny Opera” is not the usual fare for a high school production. Originally produced in Berlin in 1929 and banned by the Nazis, this adaptation of the earlier “Beggar’s Opera” deals with gangsters, prostitutes, deception, betrayal, and exploitation of the poor, infused with Brecht’s socialist perspective and Weill’s off-beat music. But Santa Monica High School Theatre’s mounting of this audacious work was something to see.

September 01, 2001

We more or less take if for granted that female characters in fiction - whether in literature, film, television or the stage - will be as complex psychologically as males. But there was a point in literature before which this was largely untrue. The French 19th-century novelist Emile Zola essentially demarcated the dividing line with his first major novel, "Thérése Raquin."

May 03, 2002

It's only the second day of rehearsal for Oliver!, but the Robert Frost Lee Auditiorium in Culver City, CA - a bustling entertainment enclave south and west of Hollywood - is already beginning to resemble 19th-century London.  Director Will Pellegrini flips through a book of cobblestone street designs, fielding questions from the technical staff, while several painters downstage begin bringing renderings to life.

August 01, 2006

Comprehensible', 'visual' and 'polished'; are the three words I would used to describe this production by the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, based at Culver High School in Culver City, California. Much of this is down to D.B Hovis, who adapted the classical text, created original scores, designed the lights, co-produced and directed this surreal interpretation of the Greek tragedy.

January 01, 2020

SAMOHI — It moved clockwise, then counterclockwise and then back right again, a blur of neon 1980s-era oversized shirts, leggings, baggy jeans and tank tops swirling around in circles, laughter and stomping feet filling the muggy room.

At the center of it all is Darryl Hovis, running after students who screech and laugh as they try to avert their new drama teacher, moving clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on the direction in which they’re chased.