RUHS Musical Sends Toys to Camp

How do toys learn to be toys? They have to go to toy camp.

Kid-friendly Toy Camp—a musical written and directed by former drama teacher Paul Collette—stars an ensemble cast of RUHS students in roles ranging from Jig and Saw (two puzzle pieces who can't get along) to Toy Soldier (a stumbler who can't get the hang of marching) to Prima Donna (a ballerina who can't pirouette without falling on her face).

Youngsters in the audience are encouraged to sit up front on the floor for the hour-long toyfest that at the small Black Box Theatre, adjacent to the high school auditorium on Diamond Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Collette, 65, co-wrote the musical with former Redondo drama student Gary Fritzen in 1994. The play, which is widely produced nationwide and elsewhere, won the Shubert Fendrich memorial Playwriting Award in 1995 and was last performed at the local high school in 1997.

"Gary and I wrote the show together because he's very good at music," Collette said, adding that Fritzen remains a close friend and now teaches in Thousand Oaks.

An effusive man whose penchant for puns marks his creativity, Collette likens Toy Camp to toy school.

"The toys have to earn their price tags to graduate and go on the toy store shelves," Collette said before one of the final rehearsals last week. "Each toy has something it has to figure out. For example, Prima Donna, the ballerina, can't plié, and she does all these funny falls."

Devastated and thinking her feet should be glued to the floor, Prima Donna (Courtney Peck) eventually finds happiness atop a music box.

"So they all solve something," the playwright-director said, peering over his oversized specs. Even Jig (Jonathan Bush) and Saw (Celine Altamura) learn to mesh by working together in the end.

Problems are often solved via songs. "Jig and Saw sing 'I Go To Pieces,' which is the only ballad in the show," Collette said.

Many of the songs evolved from those Collette sang to his son, Tony, now 26.

"When my son was about 2 or 3, I used to put him to bed and sing to him," the director said. "He had a stuffed dog, so I used to sing things like 'Things are rough all over, Rover, woof, woof!'"

The made-up lyric became "Things are Ruff all Over, Rover," which is sung by sophomore Caleb Walker, who plays Rover, a guitar-strumming, floppy-eared dog in the show. "It starts out like a hillbilly song, then turns into an Elvis-type song," Collette said.

The inveterate pun-maker said the song "Ain't Too Bright," was derived from one of his son's glow toys, which lit up when you squeezed it. "I'd say to him, 'It can't be too bright if it doesn't light up all the time.'"

In the play, Glow Toy (Katy Drale), who bemoans her drabness, lights up after a hug from Ted E. Bear, played by freshman John Webb.

There's also Cool Cat (Jane Witzenburg), who sings a rap tune called "Practice Makes Purr-fect." The song is meant to encourage the dissolute Toy Soldier (Amanda Caceres), who doesn't know her right foot from her left.

Prominent in the cast is the camp teacher, Mrs. Grouchstick (Kelsey Simon), who alternates between a mean old witch and a sweetheart teacher. The witch is erased at the end, when one of the toys wipes her picture off the whiteboard.

The cast of 14 also includes a prickly Princess Ann (Taylor Newcomb); a not-so-nimble Jack-in-the-Box (Jordan Curtis); and puzzle pieces Alaina Smith, Evelin Jimenez and Rylee Maillet.

Two student directors, Jenn Duong and Emily Conway, had their say in more ways than one. "They put their own touches on [the production]," Collette said.

As did the tech crew, composed of two stage managers, Chris Millett and Leanna Lincoln, and lighting designer, Emil Shallon. "Truth is, I couldn’t have done this without them," said the playwright-director.

Collette, who taught drama at the high school for 20 years before retiring in 2002 due to a back injury, has published two young-adult novels, Zoey Cummings and the Box of Time and Zoey Cummings and the Relics of Bergen-Belsen. The novels won the Mary Ann Pfenninger National Literary Award in 2003 and 2004.

A graduate of El Segundo High School, El Camino College and California State University Long Beach, he holds a bachelor's in Speech, Communications and Drama and a minor in Creative Writing and has numerous projects in the works, including three children's books illustrated by his son, Tony.

But it was , a school secretary at and a prominent mosaic artist known for her public art donations ("Ocean Steps" on the and the bollards on the Esplanade), who encouraged her husband to get back to directing.

"I was in a major writer's block," said Collette, who returned to RUHS two years ago to substitute teach for the school's current artistic director and teacher, Justin Baldridge.

The two men were simpatico from the start, Collette said. Baldridge invited him to act as assistant director for last year's Anything Goes.

"My wife told me, 'You should offer to direct for Mr. Baldridge, since you guys are getting along so well,'" Collette said.

Collette took the idea to Baldridge and was named guest director for "Toy Camp."

"We're doing How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in March, and I'm assistant director for that," Collette said, noting that auditions would be held next week.

If the pace is a bit grueling for a man with multiple projects underway, Collette seemed nothing if not elated to handle the challenge.

"I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started doing it again," the writer-director said. "I missed directing the shows more than anything. I absolutely love working with the kids, seeing them succeed. That’s my joy."

Tickets for Toy Camp ($3 for kids and $5 for adults) are available on the Theater Arts Drama website and, if still available, at the door. Tickets are also being sold by the students in the play.

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